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Sports
WNPR News sports coverage brings you a mix of local and statewide news from our reporters as well as national and global news from around the world from NPR.

"The System" of College Football and the NFL's Concussion Crisis

Connecticut Public Radio | By Colin McEnroe,
Patrick Skahill
Published October 9, 2013 at 12:08 PM EDT
Flickr Creative Commons, janie.hernandez55

At the heart of a new Frontline documentary is a simple question - does playing football expose you to life-threatening brain damage?

It's a question putting America's most popular sport on notice - raising concerns for moms, players' wives, and all of us who love football. Today we talk with Jim Gilmore, producer for Frontline's new documentary "A League of Denial: The NFL's Concussion Crisis."

But before we get into concussions and the NFL, we talk about the industry that grooms players for the big leagues. Jeff Benedict is author of The System: The Glory and Scandal of Big Time College Football. College football brings millions to 100,000 seat stadiums every Saturday, so why can't players - who are essentially working full-time jobs - have some share in the revenue? 

GUESTS:

  • Jeff Benedict - Journalist/Author, The System: The Glory and Scandal of Big Time College Football
  • Jim Gilmore - Producer/Reporter, "League of Denial: The NFL's Concussion Crisis"

You can join the conversation. Leave your comments below, email colin@wnpr.org or tweet us @wnprcolin.

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Sports News Sports
Colin McEnroe
Colin McEnroe is a radio host, newspaper columnist, magazine writer, author, playwright, lecturer, moderator, college instructor and occasional singer. Colin can be reached at colin@ctpublic.org.
See stories by Colin McEnroe
Patrick Skahill
Patrick Skahill is the assistant director of news and talk shows at Connecticut Public. He was the founding producer of Connecticut Public Radio's The Colin McEnroe Show and a science and environment reporter for more than eight years.
See stories by Patrick Skahill

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Federal funding is gone.

Congress has eliminated all funding for public media.

That means $2.1 million per year that Connecticut Public relied on to deliver you news, information, and entertainment programs you enjoyed is gone.

The future of public media is in your hands.

All donations are appreciated, but we ask in this moment you consider starting a monthly gift as a Sustainer to help replace what’s been lost.

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