Percy Harvin's Migraines Exemplifies the NFL's Growing Fear of Neurological Issues

With the NFL Preseason well under way, the litany of players injured during training camp and in games continues to grow.  With all of the media in Eden Prairie, Minn. devoting their attention to Brett Favre’s return, it was wide receiver Percy Harvin’s migraine episode that grabbed the attention of the NFL and medical staffs around the league.  According to the Vikings medical staff, Harvin was taken by ambulance after collapsing watching practice and experienced what head coach Brad Childress called a seizure-like episode.  While migraines are most often associated with genetic factors including certain hormone levels that make a person more susceptible to developing migraines, it is still a condition in which the cause is relatively unknown to medical professionals.  What is known is that migraines are a neurological condition that is triggered from repeated stress on the brain. Although Harvin’s migraine episode at last week’s practice may not be directly related to repeated head trauma, the incident exemplifies a growing concern in the NFL community regarding neurological problems and the effect the physical contact players face during the NFL season has on the brain’s functioning.  With the revenue stream at an all-time high and popularity continuing to grow, there has been growing support from Commissioner Roger Goodell and other league pundits to expand the regular season from 16 to 18 games.  However, the NFL needs to take a serious look at the growing number of neurological deficiencies being reported as a result of head trauma occurring on the field. 

Recent studies among researchers have found statistically significant outcomes that link on-field concussions to losses in motor control, cognitive functioning, balance and memory.  In fact, former NFL wide receiver Chris Henry’s autopsy found that the receiver had Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a type of brain damage that is a direct result of repeated trauma to the head, as Henry experienced during his football career.  CTE causes mental degeneration and dementia that occurs at a much quicker rate than the normal brain, causing a person’s quality of life to be reduced drastically at an age in which neurological problems should not be occurring.  Even scarier for the NFL: Chris Henry never had a concussion during his college and professional career. 

The recent research findings and the growing list of head related injuries puts the NFL in a precarious situation; The league needs to continue to promote its stars, but at what cost?  With the talks of expanding the regular season, the NFL continues to push the level of dangerousness that will eventually need to be addressed.  Lawsuits that are a result of loss of quality of life are sure to arise if the NFL doesn’t take a proactive stance on head trauma.  Albeit the short-term effects could hinder the growth of the game and of superstars such as Harvin, the NFL would be doing itself a favor by stepping in and dictating the playing status of players coming off head injuries.  Just this week, researchers found that NFL players are 8 times more likely to develop ALS than the average person and that Lou Gehrig may have developed the disease as a result of concussions.  During his tenure as commissioner, Goodell has never been lax regarding policy decisions.  This could be the most important aspect to protecting the league brand and safety of its players.     

Training the Mind to Overcome Stress with Derrick Rose, Tyreke Evans and OJ Mayo

The human brain is a funny thing. It controls every aspect of the human body, from the fluid movements made on the basketball court to being able to decipher whether the pitch is a fastball or a slider, all in about the same time it takes toblink an eye. With training, practice and mental preparation, the brain can go through the ins and outs of physical activity with little or no hindrance and control the body’s actions in ways that it was trained to do. Conversely, when the brain is under pressure or in times of high stress, the physiological chain of command operates differently and elite athletes are required to train their bodies to adapt to the change in stress levels that come at the end of tight games and in high-pressure situations.

With LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and a host of other free agents taking over the American media, it’s easy to forget that less than a month ago, the Lakers overcame the stress and pressure of the 4^th quarter and willed their way to their 16th championship over the Celtics. The biggest key to the Lakers victory was overcoming the stress, pressure and exhaustion and get the body to react in a normal way in spite of the circumstance. When faced with non-normative conditions, the physiological reactions to stressors do not occur in the same ways as before and players must train their bodies to react to the impending changes. To prepare the mind for the upcoming season, Derrick Rose, Tyreke Evans and OJ Mayo are already putting in work with renowned NBA trainer Rob McClanaghan in workouts designed to match explosive drills with drills designed to test a player’s cognitive limits.

Even before the Lakers completed there title defense against the Celtics, Rose, Mayo and Evans were back at work, training their mind and bodies to overcome the stressors of the long NBA season and pressure packed situations. McClanaghan runs the players through hard-hitting workouts that switch between explosion drills and either shooting drills or exercises that engage the player’s mind and makes them think. This forces the body to engage the mind at times when it is under high stress, in this case from fatigue as a result of the explosion drills.

“Some of these guys, rightfully so, are tired. If Tyreke’s tired, Derrick picks him up. If Russell Westbrook’s tired, Derrick or Tyreke can pick him up,” said McClanaghan at a private workout at Lon Angeles’ Harvard Westlake High School.

The goal of the workouts is to train to mind to handle end of game situations by replicating the physiological response to the mind being tired before the pressure is multiplied in front of thousands of fans. Training the mind to react to fatigue before pressure situations allows players to better handle tough decisions in a big moment because they already know how the body will react to stress.

“All these drills make you push yourself and make you go hard so that when you’re tired you know that you’ve been through this before and you can do it,” said Derrick Rose.

“He gives you little time to rest so when an overtime game comes and down in the clutch, you’ll be prepared for it,” said Tyreke Evans, last year’s NBA Rookie of the Year. “When you’re tired, you have to be able to think,” Evans continued. “It helps you focus in late games when you’re tired and make good decisions.”

For Rose, Evans and Mayo, the offseason is not a season to take off. The rest of the NBA should be warned.

“I’m working out every day. I’m not taking a day off,” said Rose.

Special thanks to Jack Jensen at Dime Magazine and Rob McClanaghan at Wasserman Media Group LLC.

How the pressure of greatness will affect John Wall

Last week at the NBA Draft in the World’s Most Famous Arena, Commissioner David Stern stepped to the podium and surprised exactly no one when he announced that the Wizards with the first pick took John Wall, the 19-year-old sensation from Kentucky. Wall will be following in another teenager’s footsteps when he steps on the court for the Wizards as the number one overall pick, as Kwame Brown did almost a decade ago alongside Michael Jordan during his second farewell tour.

Wall, the Wizards and basketball fans in general hope that this time is different and that Wall blossoms into the superstar that the Wizards front office at the time thought would happen with Brown. So how do players with arguably equal athletic gifts become a bust, an average professional or a star? What is it about a player’s mental make-up that allows them to strive to reach another level and become great?

Players like Wall, Evan Turner and Derrick Favors have to have the belief that they can be great but also want to put in the effort to become a great player, not just tell the media that they want to be a star. In a recent interview, John Brenkus from ESPN’s Sport Science told me that athletes all have unbelievable physical talent but it’s those that truly want to be great that are more likely to achieve it. “You have to have a certain amount of belief that you are better,” Brenkus said. “The question is do you actually buy into it or are you aspiring to be it?”

Even though Kwame Brown had the athletic tools to be a great professional, it is often difficult for a kid who has been told they were great their entire life to buy into the fact that it takes work to go beyond potential. Elite athletes realize early in their career that the mental aspect of the sport is as important as the physical aspect in terms of reaching their full potential.

“People look at Kwame Brown and they say ‘Why did Kwame Brown not turn out to be amazing?’” said Brenkus. “He was 19, he got a ton of money, he was playing with Michael Jordan. If you’re 19 years old and you have more money than everybody in your family combined will ever make in their entire lives and you haven’t really accomplished anything, it’s hard to say that you’ve done something wrong,” Brenkus continued. “You’re like, ‘wow, I’ve done something right’.”

In terms of John Wall, it was obvious over the past season at Kentucky that he could become the best point guard in the NBA but the question remains: Will his cognitive process push himself to reach his full potential or settle for being a decent NBA floor general? For many years, Wall, like those who have come before him, have had people telling them they are the best for most of their athletic lives. However, there will inevitably come a time when the pressure is on and the body doesn’t react in ways that it has in the past. The mental side of the game is much more grueling the higher a player goes in the professional ranks and a player’s ability to adapt to the stress and pressure will play a large role in how good they can become. As Brenkus stated, “It goes back to, ‘do you buy into it or do aspire to be it?’ If you hear it and are able to say, ‘I want to prove that people are correct, then it’s okay to be told that. If you just simply believe it, then you’re setting yourself up ultimately for failure.”

“It’s that balance of aspiration versus just buying into it,” Brenkus continued. “It takes an exceptional human being to be able to differentiate between the two.”

Will John Wall be the next NBA superstar? The Wizards certainly hope so.

Landon Donovan's Exclamation Point

As the minutes and seconds ticked away on the Unites States chances of advancing in the World Cup, it would have been easy for the Yanks to throw in the towel and accept the agonizing thought of coming so close to blowing the game wide open but never capitalizing on their chances. But like they did against Slovenia last week, the Americans continued to pound the opposing keeper and attacking the midfield with the same ferocity and swagger as they did early in the game. When Tim Howard started a breakaway in the 91st minute, Landon Donovan and three other Americans attacked as if they were in the first minute of their first game, not in the 91st minute of their third game in which two potential game-winning goals had been disallowed and countless other chances had been sent away. The result was Donovan putting a rebound in the back of the net, sending the Americans on to the knockout round as winners of their group for the first time since 1930 and announcing to the world that American soccer (not football) is a power to be reckoned with.
The Americans finish against Algeria illustrated the power of positive thinking in sports, in which athletic performance is greatly improved when a player is playing to win instead of trying not to lose. As we saw last week in game 7 of the NBA Finals, the team feeling the least amount of pressure was able to play without the creeping doubt that comes from thinking about the consequences of the result instead of the process of getting there. Even casual fans could see that the Celtics were playing not to lose instead of going after the win in the 4th quarter and the doubt started to enter their heads as the lead shrunk. After all, it is a normal human reaction to be much more terrified of the criticism that comes from underperforming than from seeking the praise that results from achievement. To say that people have a fear of failing is to say that they are human. Harsh criticism has much greater effect on the cognitive processes than being praised for doing something great.
As far as the Americans go in the World Cup, they proved that playing to win is much easier than playing not to lose. After they fell behind 2-0 in the first half against Slovenia, the pressure was off and the Americans played like they should have been playing the entire time: attacking without the incoming thought of negative consequences. To further illustrate this point, ESPN looked at every shootout from the World Cup, UEFA Champions League and European Championship and found that when a player has the opportunity to clinch the game, their success rate is 92%.When they take a shot that will cost them the game, their success rate falls to 62%, a staggering difference so great that it simply can’t be credited to chance or any other type of selection bias.
Recent research has shown that negative experiences activate the right prefrontal cortex of the brain, which is most often associated with fear and sadness. Once a person has failed in previous attempts, the thought of it happening again allows doubt and fear to creep into their cognitive process which often causes physiological as well as mental lapses. When those areas of the brain are not activated, the brain is able to concentrate on what it has trained the body to do, which for professional athletes, results in performing at a world-class level.
After the excitement and agony of the group stage, the Yanks have nothing to lose and are simply playing to win. A scary thought for the rest of the world.

How Vince Young's rise and fall Illustrate a growing problem in professional sports

With training camps set to open next month, Vince Young enters Titans camp as the definitive number one quarterback after leading the Titans to the brink of the playoffs after a dismal 0-6 start, capped by a 59-0 throttling at the hands of New England. In only 10 starts after taking over for Kerry Collins, Young threw for 1,879 yards and 10 touchdowns and lead the Titans to an 8-2 record, making them a trendy pick among NFL insiders to make the playoffs in 2010. Looking back, it’s hard to believe that not long before his resurrection, fans were wondering if Young would ever play again after it was reported that he was suicidal and hadn’t been in contact with his family or team.

When Young was found the next day, he stated that he simply needed to get away from the pressure of being a starting quarterback and the questions surrounding his poor start to the season. By this time, the groundwork had already been paved for the public to second guess him for not being tough enough to be a professional athlete. Nearly two years later in the May 31, 2010 issue of ESPN the Magazine, Carmen Renee Thompson continued to speak of his mental toughness by stating, “He says he was in no mood to talk after the game and got sick of friends and family clamoring to know he was okay.” She continued, “And ever since, he’s had to fight the perception that he was a headcase.”

If the public would have simply taken the Vince Young situation for what it was—a young professional struggling with adjustment disorder, likely a result of the growing changes and mounting pressure in his life—his abilities as a professional wouldn’t have been questioned as ruthlessly as they were. The sad part about the sports world is that most athletes are expected to be gladiators—robots who are immune to the pressures of performing at a high level without any sort of mental lapses, in the game or in life. Athletes simply aren’t allowed to struggle with mental illness and are stigmatized negatively by the public if they dare take any time off for something intangible that the fans can’t see. The fact is that mental illness is readily treatable today with positive prognoses that rivals most physical injuries in terms of time lost and recovery to full strength.

Delonte West of the Cleveland Cavaliers has struggled with Bipolar disorder and has been scrutinized by the Cavaliers organization for off the court incidents which were likely a result of the manic episodes he was experiencing as a result of his disorder. Instead of talking publicly about possible disciplinary actions for West, the Cavaliers would have been much better off treating West as if he had an injury and given him time to learn how to deal with the symptoms of his disorder.

Speaking on West, Kenneth Robbins, M.D., a professor of psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison stated, “If people don’t know what he’s going through, it runs the risk of further stigmatizing mental illness and looking like he’s taking advantage of the system,” he said. “But it’s also an opportunity to educate people and help them understand what he’s struggling with and how, with treatment, he’s likely to respond and these events will hopefully not continue to take place.”

With the lifetime prevalence rate of mental disorders at nearly 50%, it’s time that front offices and the general public gain an understanding that professional athletes are not immune to psychological and emotional crises and that they need treatment, not criticism.

Tiger's Intrapsychic Conflict

Last week at The Masters, the most famous athlete in professional sports finally got back to playing golf. Tiger Woods, marred by the scandal that has shaken up the golf world, the tabloids and the dynamics of his family posted an 11 under to finish The Masters tournament tied for 4^th, remarkable considering the fact that he spent six weeks at an inpatient sex rehabilitation clinic and has been away from the game for over four months.

While the patrons at Augusta National were respectful and enthusiastic for Tiger’s performance, the court of public appeal still had one question for Tiger regarding his affairs with over a dozen mistresses. Why? Why would an athlete with so much going for him—a beautiful wife, beautiful children and a game that is the best in history—seemingly throw it all away?

However, in order to have any type of understanding into why something like this could occur, you must examine the intrapsychic issues that were likely going on with Tiger over the course of his marriage. Since he was a teenager, Tiger has been smothered by everyone in his inner circle—his overbearing father and strict mother—along with millions of people who had never met him. Tiger was always viewed as the perfect citizen, someone who had the mental toughness to handle all obstacles while saying everything the public wanted to hear. However, being forced to be perfect all the time had to take its toll on Tiger at some point.

To the amazement of those around the game, there never seemed to be any moments in which Tiger wasn’t nearly perfect and even more remarkable, never any moments of backlash towards those close to him, even though he had been forced to be perfect in so many aspects of his life for so many years. In Elin, Tiger likely saw someone that fit the perfect mold that had been created by the people around him his entire life, someone who would be his perfect other half. However, subconsciously Tiger was looking for a way out of the seemingly perfect world that others had constructed for him.

Even though Woods will apologize profusely for his mistakes and beg for forgiveness from both his family and the public, Tiger was looking to flee from his mistake-free persona that he couldn’t live up to. The adultery committed was Tiger's way of announcing to those around him that he didn't want the life that had been created and fabricated for him. And even though nobody in the media will ever even touch Elin for her role, she had to have played a small part in Tiger’s actions, even if it was at a subconscious level.

“The fact that (Woods) continued extremely reckless behavior in the face of such dire consequences strongly suggests that he was unconsciously seeking an escape from the most burdensome elements of his life,” said Golf Digest senior writer Jaime Diaz in the April 2010 issue of the magazine. “No matter how great his accomplishments in golf, they would never be quite good enough for what he felt was a growing legion of critics.”

Woods' complete disregard for consequences suggest that something deeper was at play in his mind, even if it is something that Tiger will never be able to pinpoint over the course of his life.

“I’m certain that as bad as Tiger feels,” says renowned sports psychologist Dr. Gio Valiante, “On some deep level, he is relieved.”

Now that the expectations that were both unrealistic and unwanted are gone, Tiger has an opportunity to play with the freedom that he has always sought and possibly be better than he has ever been.

Tiger, Tiger, Tiger...

Last month, Tiger Woods shocked the sports world by confessing to committing several occurrences of adultery. Suddenly the most famous golfer of all time, sterling image and bright smile, became a staple on the five o’clock news and was on the cover of every gossip magazine. To date, nearly a dozen women have come out and said they had an intimate relationship with Woods. After creating such an uncompromised image over the years, people had to wonder why he would risk everything he had worked for to have superficial affairs with several women. Although it seems crazy, athletes with the killer instinct that makes them so successful in their sport often carries over into the real world. They have been wired to view themselves as impenetrable through the years and that shield makes them feel invincible to those close to them.

Like Michael Jordan, Woods suffers from an unequivocal work ethic and competitiveness that makes them great but often doesn’t translate to the real world without consequences. Jordan committed adultery during the peak of his athletic brilliance and eventually faced much scrutiny for his divorce and gambling issues that likely stemmed from the competiveness that he needed to blow off in some way. Thomas L. Friedman of the New York Times states, “(Tiger) is merciless, a man who, when he steps on to the golf course, will not feel their pain. He will inflict it and enjoy it.” Competitiveness is not something an athlete can simply turn off when they aren’t competing.

In the end, it will be the same mentality that got Tiger into this mess that gets him out of the predicament he finds himself in with his sponsors and fans. The competitive nature will take over and Woods will do anything to prove his doubters wrong and rise once again to the top of the sports world. Even after his apologies, it is likely that his mentality of invincibility will not change. Personality traits are the most difficult things to change in people because they have likely become so entrenched in the makeup of the person’s brain that their skewed thought process seems normal to them. No matter the outcome, the damage has been done. However, as Golf Digest’s David Owen stated in a piece written before the scandal, “(Woods) is such a complete master of his talents and ambitions, he has been able to pull himself together after setbacks that would have ruined the rounds, or even the careers of lesser players.”

Mr. Woods, you’re away.