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A review by kaygray78
Concussion by Jeanne Marie Laskas
4.0
As a mom to two athletic kids, neither of which play football (and after reading this book, neither of which will play football ever), I was drawn to this book because of the title. Head injuries and the cumulative effect they have on health has been in the news a lot, and after watching a child taken off the field during a lacrosse game on a backboard because he hit his (helmeted) head on the ground last spring, I was interested in reading more.
As other reviewers have pointed out, this book is not really about what happens to your brain when you get a concussion. The author assumes readers already know what a concussion is, and doesn't expound on that beyond the barest terms: a traumatic brain injury caused by a blow to the head. Like you would receive if you slipped and fell on a floor, or if you were in a car accident. Or if you were a football player.
Instead, this book is about a Nigerian boy born in the midst of genocide, a boy from a deeply religious family, a boy who grew up watching shiny American movies and comparing America to his own country, with its pugilistic leaders and its poverty and dirt and "do not urinate here" signs. This is the story of a high educated man, an oddball, who made studying brains his life's work and in doing so, unearthed something surprising, shocking and sickening. This is the story of that naive boy discovering that America has its own warts and that the almighty dollar is, to huge corporations like the NFL, more valuable than human lives.
The NFL does not come off well in this story. In my opinion, the NFL shouldn't come off well. Bennet Omalu's work raises a lot of questions. At what point does informed consent apply to athletes? What responsibility does the NFL, or college football, or even pee wee leagues have to protect and educate their players? Is the domestic violence problem in the NFL less to do with steroids and competitive men and more to do with brain damage caused by repeated on field hits to the head? Will research on preventing and treating CFE in football players eventually lead to help for people suffering from other forms of dementia?
Highly recommend this book. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.
As other reviewers have pointed out, this book is not really about what happens to your brain when you get a concussion. The author assumes readers already know what a concussion is, and doesn't expound on that beyond the barest terms: a traumatic brain injury caused by a blow to the head. Like you would receive if you slipped and fell on a floor, or if you were in a car accident. Or if you were a football player.
Instead, this book is about a Nigerian boy born in the midst of genocide, a boy from a deeply religious family, a boy who grew up watching shiny American movies and comparing America to his own country, with its pugilistic leaders and its poverty and dirt and "do not urinate here" signs. This is the story of a high educated man, an oddball, who made studying brains his life's work and in doing so, unearthed something surprising, shocking and sickening. This is the story of that naive boy discovering that America has its own warts and that the almighty dollar is, to huge corporations like the NFL, more valuable than human lives.
The NFL does not come off well in this story. In my opinion, the NFL shouldn't come off well. Bennet Omalu's work raises a lot of questions. At what point does informed consent apply to athletes? What responsibility does the NFL, or college football, or even pee wee leagues have to protect and educate their players? Is the domestic violence problem in the NFL less to do with steroids and competitive men and more to do with brain damage caused by repeated on field hits to the head? Will research on preventing and treating CFE in football players eventually lead to help for people suffering from other forms of dementia?
Highly recommend this book. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.