by David P. Greisman
The debate now going on in the National Football League surrounding concussions and the changes being made to prevent them is, boiled down to its essence, the kind of debate that has taken place in sport after sport – including boxing.
Should the game be changed? And is the game still the game if it’s no longer the same?
Baseball extended its seasons – there went record after record in the sport most obsessed with historical numbers – and it added wild cards for the playoffs. Basketball added the shot clock, the three-point shot, and brought zone defense into the NBA. Hockey instituted the overtime shootout and allowed the two-line pass.
Football introduced instant replay, dropped it, and then brought it back again, this time with limitations on when and how often it could be used. And league officials constantly tweak rules both big and small. And all of the major American pro leagues have expanded and then expanded again, which some say has watered down the competition.
The NFL is cracking down on blows to the head, clarifying what hits are illegal and how illegal hits will be punished. This has happened primarily because the problem of concussions and their long-term effects, including degenerative brain conditions, is finally being put under the microscope.
That football is confronting this issue – and the direction in which the debate goes – is somewhat reminiscent of where boxing once was and could someday have consequences on what goes on with boxing in the future.
“This is the game of football,” New York Giants safety Antrel Rolle was quoted as saying by the New York Daily News. “This is a game of speed. This is a game of power. This is a game of physical guys going to battle. Once you start saying to guys, ‘You’ll get suspended for a game,’ that’s when you’re going to get a very, very tentative football game.”
Rolle is right – football as it is now is a game of aggression, a mentality that is necessary in order to bring down runners and receivers. Howie Long, the Hall of Fame former defensive end who now is a television commentator, said on the Fox Sports pregame show Sunday that players who pass up such hard, high hits because they might end up being illegal would not only lose their credibility with their teammates, but could lose their jobs, too.
Long said some blame must also go to the quarterbacks who throw passes that leave their receivers defenseless and vulnerable. And other players were quoted by several media outlets as suggesting that the sport might as well become flag football.
But what is the alternative? What is more important? The sanctity of the game or the sanctity of life?
Knowledge of the consequences of concussions and/or repeated head trauma is only now becoming more widespread, be it with the late Andre Waters in the NFL or the late Chris Benoit in WWE.
What if more and more players were to come forth with problems? What other changes could be made to the sport to show that long-term health for the athletes isn’t being sacrificed in favor of short-term enjoyment for the fans?
Mixed martilal arts is thriving now, years and years after it moved away the way matches were held back in 1993 with UFC 1. There are now weight classes and time limits and far more restrictions on what strikes are legal.
Boxing has changed, too, over the course of its history. Boxers are no longer bareknuckled, but have worn gloves since the institution of the Marquess of Queensberry Rules. More recently, the 1963 death of Davey Moore following a fight with Sugar Ramos brought about smaller but important changes.
The San Francisco Chronicle looked back at the aftermath of the Moore-Ramos fight in a 2001 article: “Neurologists determined the injury could not have been caused by a punch. Viewing a videotape of the fight, they focused on Moore's fall against the bottom rope late in the 10th round. In what a doctor called a "million-to-one" accident, the rope had struck Moore like an expert karate blow.
“California officials ordered ring ropes padded, a fourth rope added and the bottom rope loosened in an attempt to prevent similar damage from a fighter striking his head.”
Under the Queensberry Rules, fights were capped at a certain number of rounds. And as with so many other rules, the number of rounds has since been modified: championship fights are now 12 rounds instead of 15.
Fighters still die from taking too much punishment, though. Those numbers are easily available: at least 1,465 deaths as of November 2007, according to the Journal of Combative Sport.
What’s more difficult to track is the number of fighters whose lives have been shortened because of the punches they took earlier in their lives, much the same way that football players, young and old, now seem to be deteriorating in health and dying off.
It is easier for us to stomach because of the distance between those watching the sport and those taking part in it. We see the fighters when they are on the screen and in the ring, not when their careers are over. We see the cause without getting a glimpse of the long-term effect.
Boxers and football players understand the risks. It is less certain whether they truly comprehend them. Much of what is being learned is all very new. Many athletes are only now learning that what has happened to others could very easily happen to them, too.
Boxing has measures in place. On fight night, there are ringside physicians to monitor the fighters and ambulances on site to rush them to the hospital if necessary. Afterward, there are mandatory medical suspensions for fighters who have been knocked out. Some state athletic commissions, but not all, make fighters undergo brain scans and other medical tests.
There is always more that can be done. The question is what changes will be made – and what will have happened to cause those changes. Nothing happens inside that proverbial vacuum. There is always a tragedy or frightening injury that leads to reform.
Sports do change. They have to. Football will still be football. And boxing will still be boxing. These changes must happen, for there should be no athletic competition if it is not safe enough for the athlete to compete.
The 10 Count
1. Though we’ve not yet been told precisely what neurological issues are plaguing Andre Dirrell, it was interesting see that Dr. Margaret Goodman, who used to be the chief ringside physician in the state of Nevada, basically foretold what would happen with him.
“By definition, Dirrell suffered a concussion,” Goodman said in the October issue of THE RING magazine, which actually came out in September or so and which went to press even earlier than that. “Even if there were no obvious symptoms at the post-fight exam, he had a Grade Three concussion and required time away from further head blows, in training or another fight.”
The article, by Don Stradley, goes on to point out that the six months between Dirrell’s disqualification win over Arthur Abraham and the date he was originally to have faced Andre Ward might not be enough time for Dirrell to recover. Goodman expanded on this:
“We know so little about the brain and how it responds to concussion. We may think a person is better, but on a cellular, microscopic or even biochemical level, the brain has not fully healed and the fighter is predisposed to another knockout.”
2. When people don’t like something or somebody, they’ll find any line of logic possible to demean it.
Case in point: those tearing down the UFC (and mlxed martial arts as a whole) for Saturday’s main event between a 5-1 champion (Brock Lesnar) and his 8-0 challenger (Cain Velasquez).
“When will people realize that any sport where a guy can be world champion after three fights is a joke?” a boxing fan friend wrote on his Facebook wall.
Now, now. What about a sport where a guy with no pro fights can challenge for the heavyweight championship (Pete Rademacher against Floyd Patterson)? What about a sport where a guy with eight pro fights can become the heavyweight champion (Leon Spinks against Muhammad Ali)? What about a sport where a guy can capture a light heavyweight title in his 10th pro fight (Beibut Shumenov, earlier this year, over Gabriel Campillo)?
Maybe if pro boxers faced stiffer competition earlier in their career, we’d see more of this in boxing. Cain Velasquez deserves recognition: He just beat the guy (Lesnar) who beat the guy who beat the guy, etc.
In a sport where wins and losses can come in such a variety of manners – and a sport where much of the learning curve comes in training camps with some of the other best competitors and then go on to test what they’ve just worked on – you’re as likely to see a 3-1 champion (Lesnar, after his win over Randy Couture) as you are to see a 16-8 champion (Couture, going into the fight with Lesnar).
I’ve said it time and again: Some people like both boxing and MMA. Some people like boxing but don’t like MMA, and that’s fine. Some people like MMA and don’t like boxing, and that’s also fine. But it’s silly how a matter of personal taste leads into attempts at diminishing the skills and joys of both combat sports.
3. And, back to the absurd: Mike Tyson is being sued…
The photographer who claimed Tyson hit him at the Los Angeles airport in November 2009 is now claiming he suffered “brain concussions and contusions” and has “sprain and strain to the ligaments, tendons and muscles around the cervical spinal cord region,” according to a copy of the lawsuit obtained by TMZ.
This is where I remind you that no criminal charges were filed against Tyson.
The photographer, Tony Echeverria, is seeking $10 million in general damages for pain, suffering and emotional distress; $1,090,000 in special damages for past and future medical expenses, loss of earnings, loss of future earnings, and property damage; and another $25 million in punitive damages
This is the second lawsuit against Tyson this year: a former pro boxer named Michael Wayne Landrum Sr. has sued Tyson claiming Tyson stole his “Iron Mike” nickname and deprived him of earnings and opportunities because of that. That lawsuit asked for $115 million.
Uh, they do realize Tyson’s basically broke, right?
4. Boxers Behaving Badly: Speaking of heavyweights who’ve bitten their opponent’s ears, let’s move on to Dereck Chisora (who did just that against Paul Butlin in 2009).
Chisora, the man pegged as the next opponent for Wladimir Klitschko, has pleaded guilty to charges of assault and theft, according to multiple reports from across the pond, none of which actually say what he was specifically accused of doing.
The sentencing hearing is scheduled for November. But the Klitschko bout does not yet appear to be off – both fighters appeared at a London press conference last week, according to an Associated Press report.
Chisora, 26, is 14-0 with nine knockouts.
5. Boxers Behaving Badly update, part one: Interim flyweight titleholder Luis Concepcion, arrested last week after allegedly pulling a gun during an incident of road rage, will not be facing criminal charges, according to notifight.com, which passed along newspaper reports from that country.
Concepcion, 25, was said to have been speeding when he cut off a driver and nearly caused a wreck. The person who’d been cut off then chased after Concepcion. They soon got in an argument, and Concepcion allegedly showed a 9mm pistol to intimidate him, according to the report.
But Concepcion told police that, facing three people, he pulled out the gun as self-defense. The fighter also had a permit for the weapon.
In his last fight, Concepcion (22-1, 17 KOs) impressively took out Denkaosan Kaovichit within a single round. Please, no jokes on whether Concepcion would’ve been able to take out those guys from the other car with three rounds.
6. Boxers Behaving Badly update, part two: British boxer Derry Matthews was found not guilty of criminal damage in a trial that came about after he was accused of breaking a side mirror on his ex-girlfriend’s car, according to the Liverpool Echo.
Matthews was also given a six-month conditional discharge – basically probation before judgment – on a charge of using threatening words or behavior.
Matthews, 27, was arrested in July. Police said he’d gotten angry after seeing his former flame driving around with another man. In years past he’d held a regional featherweight title; he now fights at higher weights and is 23-4 with 11 KOs.
7. Boxers Behaving Badly update, part three: Undefeated Irish cruiserweight Ian Tims has been sentenced to four months behind bars after being found guilty of two counts of unlawful possession of weapons – one count for having a machete, one count for having nunchakus, according to that country’s The Evening Herald.
No word on whether Tims, a 30-year-old with a 7-0 (2 KOs) record, was training for a role in the next Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie.
8. We don’t know for sure whether Tiger Woods truly slept with porn actress Devon James, but we can say for certain who did: a pro boxer named Taneal Goyco.
Goyco, a 29-year-old cruiserweight from Philadelphia listed as 3-1 on BoxRec.com, told the tabloid website RadarOnline.com that not only did he sleep with James – but that James paid him $1,000 to dress up like Tiger Woods for a taped tryst, complete with a Nike hat and a sweater vest, the report said.
What James didn’t tell Goyco, apparently, was that she’d be selling the footage for what she’d end up claiming is a sex tape of her with Tiger Woods.
“I was in it to make a couple bucks and have sex with a pretty lady,” Goyco was quoted as saying.
How selfish. Most men would just take one or the other…
9. Meanwhile, British tabloid The Sun, in a blurb on this news, called Goyco an “amateur boxer.”
No, no. Goyco’s a pro.
(The same could be said for Devon James.)
10. I can see the commercial now – a stack of money with eyeballs, and people talking about it…
“Do you see that $1,000 over there? That’s the money you could be saving by not sleeping with Goyco.”
David P. Greisman is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. His weekly column, “Fighting Words,” appears every Monday on BoxingScene.com.
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