Head Case

There I was, minding my own business, sitting on my couch and watching college football two days after Thanksgiving. I wasn't shopping. I was sitting. Okay, to be completely up front and transparent, I wasn't fully minding my own business. If that were true, I wouldn't  have been tagging along on the annual rivalry between the universities of Michigan and Ohio State. I had no real rooting interest, but it was certainly a holiday experience for which I have become attuned. It used to be that the weekend after Thanksgiving offered up the rivalry game between the universities of Nebraska and Colorado. I was on the Colorado side of that story. These days, with the shift of teams in conferences in hopes of making more money for those academic institutions, the Buffaloes and Cornhuskers no longer cross paths. Somewhere in Utah, the Utes would be playing against CU, and it would be my chore to try and track it down on my cable listings.
It was so much easier to just turn on ABC and watch The Game of the Week. That was where I saw, during one of the many television timeouts, a commercial for a movie came on. I had heard about this new film, starring perennial favorite Will Smith. This time, instead of battling aliens or trading quips with other A-list stars, he was arguing with other men in dark, but not black, suits. He wanted to know why nobody else wanted to know the truth. The truth about Concussion.I had heard that Sony Pictures had the temerity to run that same ad during the Detroit game on Thanksgiving day. Having been busy cooking and ignoring the drubbing that the Lions were putting on the hapless Eagles, I missed this full frontal assault on our American Way of Life. How dare these Hollywood types leap into my line of sight with their confrontational interrogative about the relative safety of this game we all love? With no shame whatsoever, Luke Wilson was doing his best impersonation of Roger Goodell, insisting that the study of head injuries in football was "still an evolving science." Ouch. In a lot of ways.
But here's the deal: Do they really think that we will think about this mess while we're watching those head injuries occur? I believe they do. I also believe we should. As hard as it is to mind my own business while I am watching athletes put themselves in danger for my entertainment, I really should pay attention. It's getting pretty serious. Now back to our regularly scheduled gladiatorial trial.