Trump Spews Ignorance on Concussions

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gained news attention and public backlash in the last week for his comments on concussions and the NFL. Click on the image below to view the video from a political rally in Florida. 

After a woman passed out at the rally, Trump commented: "The woman was out cold and now she's coming back. We don't go by these new, and very much softer, NFL rules. Concussion? Oh, oh! Got a little ding on the head? No, no, you can't play for the rest of the season. Our people are tough."

Trump's comments were met with tremendous backlash by many current NFL players, such as Giants tight end Larry Donnell and cornerback Buster Skrine.

Lisa McHale, director of family relations at the Concussion Legacy Foundation and wife of the late NFL player Tom McHale, who was diagnosed with CTE postmortem, commented, "It’s not really surprising that a man who came out publicly believing that he knows more than our top generals about ISIS would think he knows more about concussions than the world-renowned researchers who are studying the issue.” Obviously, this is not a political blog, and traumatic brain injury is certainly a problem in society that should transcend any political divide or agenda. Nevertheless, I can't help thinking that Trump's comments are indicative of a larger trend of ignoring established facts and tradition in order to promote some farcical notion of toughness or know-how. 

One of the first steps in any nationwide problem is spreading awareness and giving people access to complete and reliable information. That's the goal of this blog, and that's the only way we can stop the archaic and barbaric notions of head injury that still seem to be held by Trump and other people.