1. Provide the title of your story or series and the names of the journalists involved.
Hard Hits: Concussion Series
Correspondent: Dr. Sanjay Gupta
Sr. Executive Producer: Roni Selig
Sr Managing Editor: Tim Langmaid
Producer: Stephanie Smith
Editor: Alfred DiSanti
2. List date(s) this work was published or aired.
11/22-11/27/2010
3. Provide a brief synopsis of the story or stories, including any significant findings.
They happen hundreds of times during a football game, thousands of times during a season: hits&tackles&blows that jostle the brain. They are a fundamental part of football, and yet few players, coaches, parents or fans know anything about the sobering side-effects of those blows: concussions. CNN chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, spent several months investigating the concussion crisis in football. The investigation spanned three parts. Part one was Gupta's candid conversation with former NFL MVP quarterback Kurt Warner about "playing through" – the pressure football players feel to keep playing despite a concussion. Part two examines the story of Max Conradt who, when he was 17, was slammed down by a 280-pound linebacker during a high school football game. He nearly died. Part three looks at the long-term impact of concussion. Gupta spoke with a 58-year-old former player who considered taking his own life, blaming his melancholy on concussions he suffered as an NFL linebacker.
4. Explain types of documents, data or Internet resources used. Were FOI or public records act requests required? How did this affect the work?
We built on online information available about concussion and traumatic brain injury from health agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and from studies on the topic from the National Institutes of Health medical study repository, Pubmed.gov. But since this is an injury about which so little is known, we relied less on documents and Internet resources, and more on mining information from experts and ongoing studies. Most of the information presented in this series is composed of scientific study still in process at major universities and a number of off-camera interviews with experts
5. Explain types of human sources used.
Our intention was to use sources representing the major areas of concern related to football and traumatic brain injury: a current/recent NFL player, a former NFL player experiencing symptoms of traumatic brain injury, and a young player who experienced a catastrophic brain injury associated with concussion. Human sources included Kurt Warner, a recently-retired quarterback in the NFL; Fred McNeill, a linebacker who played in the NFL two decades ago who recently began experiencing cognitive decline; and Max Conradt, a young player whose brain damage is attributed to multiple blows to the head on the
6. Results (if any).
Articles associated with the series received hundreds of thousands of hits on CNN.com, numbers bolstered by extra video released only on the web.
7. Follow-up (if any). Have you run a correction or clarification on the report or has anyone come forward to challenge its accuracy? If so, please explain.
There have been no challenges to the accuracy of our reporting nor any reason to clarify it.
8. Advice to other journalists planning a similar story or project.
Covering a topic about which the science is burgeoning – and considering the number of people that reporting could reach – has to be done with care and balance. We tried to present compelling stories about potential risks of concussion, while at the same time presenting the opposing view that the science is still stacking up in this area.