League of Denial

League of Denial begins with an anecdote describing how the brains of tiny woodpeckers remain pristine and unscathed despite their pecking at trees with power reaching 1,000 g forces. Authors Mark Fainaru-Wada and Steve Fainaru use this anecdote to create a comparison between an animal in nature that is built to withstand this sort of trauma to the head and human beings, who are not built in such a way. The Prologue provides a broad overview of what the authors call the NFL’s concussion crisis. The authors pinpoint the date that the crisis began as September 28, 2002, which they call “one of the most significant dates in the history of American sports” (2). On this day, a young Nigerian-born forensic pathologist in Pittsburgh named Bennet Omalu was performing an autopsy on former Pittsburgh Steelers Hall of Fame center Mike Webster. During his playing days, Webster became widely regarded not only as one of the best offensive linemen to ever play, but also as one of the toughest and most durable, having once played every single offensive snap over a six-year span. However, within only a few years of his 1990 retirement, his body was falling apart, and he was losing his mind.