ATHLETIC ASSHOLES

[Cutz]

It gets Omalu's message across very well. There's a scene where the doc has something floating in a jar and he says how the human brain is completely suspended in fluid. He then shakes the jar slightly, over and over again, and you see the thing hitting the side of the glass over and over. Each time it doesn't look like the object is damaged, but it makes you think about the aggregate effect of repeated football hits. It's a really simple analogy, and that's what people latch onto well. Of course, the movie also implies that every Pittsburgh Steeler from one generation became a raving lunatic and committed suicide. It goes a little overboard in terms of extrapolating that.

I agree that players should have more leverage in negotiating, but I doubt it changes individual contracts much. Contracts are negotiated at team level, but the salary cap is set by the league. You're giving every player the same bump in leverage, but they're still splitting the same pizza.

Where it could affect things is in the next CBA between the players association and the league. The current one goes through 2020. All they can really do tho is demand higher minimums for rookies and veteran players, which gives teams bigger slices for the low-money guys. That just reduces the amount the big-name guys can make. There's no real way to increase the X% of revenues going into salary because the players association already knows the health risks and uses player safety as a negotiating tool. Popularizing the risks gives them no additional clout the way I see it.