JOHN DOHERTY: CNN’s Sanjay Gupta gets concussion chronicle correct

The media focus in the weeks before the Super Bowl is much like it was two years ago: concussion, concussion, concussion.

On television alone in the last week, HBO's "Real Sports with Bryant Gumble," ESPN's "Outside the Lines," and CNN's "Dr. Sanjay Gupta Reports," devoted their lead or only story to concussion.

Andrea Kremer was the reporter for HBO last Tuesday, calling into question the use of Toradol as an anti-inflammatory by NFL players. Initially, the theme seemed to be "good for pain, bad for the kidneys." Well done. You wanted to cry right along with recently retired lineman Jeremy Newberry, who now has kidney failure.

That was until Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher was interviewed and you wanted to laugh -- at him, not with him. Admitting his ignorance of the side effect of Toradol, he then raised the issue of concussion and how he misleads Bears medical staff when he suspects he has just suffered one. From there, Kremer went down the path of theory regarding the possible dangers of mixing concussion with Toradol, but it was just theory.

For ESPN on Sunday morning, it was the helmet issue all over again. First, we learned that Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) wants helmet companies, particularly Riddell, to stop claiming their helmets prevent concussions. Bravo.

From there, though, we received a jumble of information. At one point, reporter Peter Keating called into question an NFL study showing the newest Riddell helmet, the Revolution Speed, was the best at preventing concussion. Then, he touted a study out of Virginia Tech which concluded the very same thing.

Neither study, however, was able to reproduce on-field conditions. The fact is that there is no "concussion" helmet. For anyone to offer the hope that such a possibility is on the way any time soon is just plain irresponsible.

Expecting much the same from CNN, I was more than presently surprised by Dr. Gupta. Leave it to the medical professional, in this case a neurosurgeon, to get it right. Sunday night's program, entitled "Big Hits, Broken Dreams," told of the football-related death in 2008 of Greenville, N.C., high school player Jaquan Waller and what his school has done since to make sure such a tragedy never happens again.

Unlike the hatchet job done on high school football by PBS's Frontline in April, CNN & Gupta's effort was fair and sensitive to the family of the dead player and his coach. Thereafter, viewers learned that Greenville's financially strapped school district has since managed to put in place an entire sports medicine team and concussion management program for each of its high schools with the help of Eastern Carolina University.

Meanwhile, the coaching staff at Waller's school is putting to use lessons learned from University of North Carolina athletic trainer Kevin Guskiewicz, PhD, ATC. No longer are their players making initial contact with the helmet.

Put it all together and concussion problems there were minimal in 2011.

John Doherty is a certified athletic trainer and licensed physical therapist. This column reflects solely his opinion. Reach him at ptatcsport@sbcglobal.net.