NFL Physicians: Committed to Excellence in Patient-Player Care

Abstract

The National Football League Physicians Society read with disappointment the article "A Proposal to Address NFL Club Doctors' Conflicts of Interest and to Promote Player Trust." In spite of the authors' suggestions, NFL physicians are accomplished medical professionals who abide by the highest ethical standards in providing treatment to all of their patients, including those who play in the NFL. It defies logic for the authors not to have engaged experienced and active NFL physicians from the very start of their effort to explore, challenge, and recommend significant alterations to the delivery of health care to NFL players. As troubling as this article is from so many perspectives, it does represent an opportunity for the NFLPS to set the record straight and call attention to the excellent quality of care NFL players receive. In addition, it represents an opportunity to expose the extraordinarily weak evidence presented in the article and to refute the baseless allegations that challenge the high ethical standards of NFL physicians. Contrary to solid scientific research that starts with a hypothesis based on theory, in this case, it seems quite apparent that the authors started with a predetermined conclusion and set out to justify it. Their premise was flawed, and they failed in their execution.