‘Joseph Maroon, Doctor for NFL and WWE, Has It Every Which Way on Concussions’ ...today at Beyond Chron

[posted 1/11/11 to http://wrestlingbabylon.wordpress.com]


by Irvin Muchnick

With the Pittsburgh Steelers about to open their playoff schedule Saturday in quest of a franchise record-extending seventh Super Bowl title, one of their long-time team physicians, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center neurosurgeon Joseph Maroon, is under heightened scrutiny for his role in the National Football League’s increasingly visible concussion issue. It’s a role best described as some undetermined compound of “part of the problem” and “part of the solution.”

Last week Senator Tom Udall of New Mexico called for a Federal Trade Commission probe of Riddell helmets, an official NFL supplier, for the company’s consumer-product claim of a new design promising to decrease concussions by 31 percent. That number was based on a research paper co-authored by Dr. Maroon and commissioned by Riddell. Maroon told the New York Times that Riddell advertising overreached from a limited sample of his results, which require further testing.

CONTINUED TODAY ON THE FRONT PAGE AT BEYOND CHRON, THE SAN FRANCISCO ONLINE NEWSPAPER, http://www.beyondchron.org/articles/Joseph_Maroon_Doctor_for_NFL_and_WWE_Has_It_Every_Which_Way_on_Concussions