Heads Up for ESPN’s Peter Keating on ImPACT

ESPN today opens a “multi-platform” examination of traumatic brain injuries in football. The worldwide leader in excess doesn’t need the promotion of my sorry ass. I could warn viewers and readers to watch out for concussions with a pitchfork, and remind everyone that ESPN has as much economic interest in telling the full truth about the football system as the Marlboro Man has in expounding on the down side of the social custom of smoking. And I just did.

But I also know that many ESPNers, if not ESPN, are serious and passionate about their work, and some of them have sunk some big-time journalistic resources into this project. So I advise picking and choosing, watching and reading and reflecting.

If there’s one item on the ESPN calendar worth circling, it’s the Sunday article on ESPN.com by Peter Keating, “Neuropsychological testing isn’t a panacea and may be a disaster.” Keating was probably the first writer to take on the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center quacks (the characterization is mine, not his) who developed and marketed the ImPACT “concussion management system,” which now may be the biggest and most expensive barrier to parents’ understanding of the bleak future of youth football. Keating knows what he’s doing. I’ll be pointing and clicking.

Irv Muchnick