Why the NFL should be concerned about an Australian concussion crisis

A scandal in Australia threatens to upend the league’s protocol – is the NFL prepared?

To the NFL’s way of thinking, it is a singular organization. It stands alone — for better and worse — from the rest of sports. It is too big, too powerful. It leads; others follow. 

That’s about to change. 

Is the NFL keeping tabs on Australia? It should be. Trouble stirring in the research community is likely to soon lap upon the league’s shores — and it will face a dilemma in how it should respond. The first alarm bell: Paul McCrory, a leading concussion expert in the field of sports medicine and the former Editor-in-Chief of the British Journal of Sports Medicine, was accused of plagiarism. The coverage of such disruptive events was muted. It came and quickly went. Steve Haake, the author who presented the first claim against McCrory, said that to accuse McCrory of plagiarism alone would be to “miss a hell of a lot of detail”. 

Until recently, McCrory was the chair of the Concussion in Sport Group (CISG), a body funded by the likes of the IOC, FIFA, World Rugby, FEI, FIA, and IIHF. Th…