A sobering look at 'gridiron dementia'

Should our kids play tackle football? Read Dr. Bennet Omalu's book, "Play Hard Die Young," and you might reflect long and hard on that question.

Omalu is the Lodi resident and forensic neuropathologist who has coined the phrase "gridiron dementia."

Despite the scorn of a macho-driven football culture, Omalu has raised important questions about the sport and long-term intellectual deficits.

Omalu was the first person to identify gridiron dementia in the brains of several former NFL players. He believes that concussions suffered during football can have insidious and lasting effects that have not yet been fully studied.

A few findings from his eye-opening work:

• Every NFL game has at least one concussion per team.
• There is no such thing as a "minor" concussion.
• Concussions in the NFL are massively underreported.
• Helmet design could make a difference in the number and severity of concussions.
• The rate of dementia among retired NFL players appears much higher than the rate in the general population.

It is sobering stuff, important stuff. And the prose of "Play Hard Die Young" is clear and concise.

Omalu won't state whether parents should let their sons play tackle football. He says that is a personal decision, and he only offers scientific evidence.

Omalu writes that his own son, however, will not be putting on shoulder pads.

A triumph

Both the Tokay and Lodi girls basketball teams were defeated Wednesday night.

Check that.

Both teams prevailed.

For the first time, both local girls teams made it to the semifinals in the section playoffs.

That's a triumph.

And what a refreshment these athletes provided, in a year of political rancor and economic doldrums.

Both teams, in their losing efforts, hustled. Sure, they may have been a bit jittery, a little nervous.

But they never gave up. They showed grit and spirit.

With a 21-5 record leading up to the semi, Lodi's team was tough and dominant all year, a testament to the players' talent and the ability of coach Erin Aitken.

Tokay's playoff run was a delicious surprise. The Tigers were not expected to have an extraordinary year, but they did.

They entered the playoffs the 13th seed and proceeded to vanquish the fourth and fifth seeds before dropping the semi.

This was the first time in school history a Tokay girls team has reached the semis. That's a tribute to the resilience of the team and its coach, Cip Sanchez.

Girls, what you accomplished during this season, and what culminated at the Spanos Center on Wednesday night, was nothing short of historic.

You did us proud.

Mortgage default rate nearly the lowest

We feel lucky to live in Lodi, where it appears the mortgage crisis has not cut as deeply as other communities.

City Manager Blair King reports that our mortgage default rate is nearly the lowest in the county: 1.62 per thousand residents. In Stockton the ratio is 3.02 per thousand and Lathrop is 5.7. Only Ripon, with 0.50 foreclosures per thousand is less stressed than Lodi by this crisis.

Meanwhile, Lodi Association of Realtors President Linda Bush and others in her profession are reporting a glimmer of an upturn in sales. One leading indicator of a healthy housing market that we watch closely — real estate advertising — that's up in the last couple of weeks.

In the bigger world, we are dismayed at the inattention to the mortgage market crisis by the presidential candidates.

Oh, they've all issued plans and pronouncements, but those are empty campaign promises at best and destructive ignorance at worst.

Hillary Clinton wants to freeze mortgage rates which will drive funds out of the housing market just when it needs it most.

John McCain said he supports "additional aid" if the problem gets worse. He thinks the FHA needs to be modernized. We wonder when the senator thinks the time for action will arrive?

Barrack Obama is focused on improved lending regulation and blaming President Bush for the problem. But his proposal to provide $10 million to help lenders and borrowers renegotiate is laughably inadequate.

There are hundreds of thousands, perhaps more than a million bad loans — trillions of dollars lent by banks and investors all over the world. America's borrowing spree is a massive threat.

We suspect the lack of attention to this issue in the presidential debates is proof the candidates don't have the answers. The stimulus package approved by Bush and Congress is useful but doesn't go to the heart of the problem.

William Poole, President of the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank, and many others have complained about the lack of a mechanism to renegotiate this mountain of bad debt. These mechanisms may be thought up by financial business people soon. Or they may not. But they need to be authorized by lawmakers and regulators.

Too bad. Just now, Washington is distracted by the campaign.

When the new president takes office in January 2009, we hope somebody hands him or her the tools to fix the problem. We hope they are better tools than the ones the candidates dreamed up.

Until then?

Some people will just batten the hatches and ride out the storm for a year, maybe two. The brave of heart might buy a house. There's an old saw that predicting a turn in a market is a fool's game, but we would point out that those who can get the money to buy a house now are seeing prices not seen in years.

Sure the world scene is shaky, but Lodi looks like a good place to invest in a home. Just one more blessing of old livable, lovable.

Lodi News-Sentinel

Reader Feedback

wtf wrote on Mar 4, 2008 2:40 PM:

" LNS said, "...we are dismayed at the inattention to the mortgage market crisis by the presidential candidates...they've all issued plans and pronouncements, but those are empty campaign promises at best and destructive ignorance at worst."

Ron Paul *has* paid attention to this problem as well as to the bigger picture which helped create this problem. He also has a solution found today in Forbes:

http://www.forbes.com/2008/03/04/election-economy-paul-oped-cx_rp_0304ronpaul.html

Plus, Ron Paul has demonstrated that he walks his talk:

http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/index.asp

And Congressman Paul Ranks #27 in House GOP out of 200 Republicans.

http://pressmediawire.com/article.cfm?articleID=18158
"

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wtf wrote on Mar 3, 2008 7:33 AM:

" Gator, why don't you read the *entire* opinion piece before offering commentary? It might make you look less foolish. Try looking under the sub-heading, "Mortgage default rate nearly the lowest", above. "

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Gator wrote on Mar 2, 2008 2:02 PM:

" A sobering look at 'gridiron dementia'
I thought what has Ron Paul have to do
with this story's lead, then it hit me,
he played foot ball with out a helmet!! "

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wtf wrote on Mar 1, 2008 11:42 AM:

" And after all of this, what is the Fed's solution? Cut interests rate *again*

Ron Paul brought this up with Bernanke recently on February 27, 2008:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gldETRlhiXk "

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wtf wrote on Mar 1, 2008 11:41 AM:

" On September 27, 2007, Ron Paul said, "As with asset bubbles and investment manias in past history, the fuel for the current housing bubble had its origins in monetary manipulation. The housing boom was caused by the Federal Reserve's policy resulting in artificially low interest rates. Consumers, misled by low interest rates, were looking to consume, while homebuilders saw the low interest rates as a signal to build, and build they did."

http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul410.html "

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wtf wrote on Mar 1, 2008 11:40 AM:

" Few people realize that many of the home builders also owned and operated their own mortgage and title companies.

http://www.dailypaul.com/node/32063 "

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wtf wrote on Mar 1, 2008 11:39 AM:

" On October 27, 2005, Ron Paul said, "Mr. Speaker, HR 1461 fails to address the core problems with the Government Sponsored Enterprises...since this legislation creates new government programs that will further artificially increase the demand for housing, HR 1461 increases the economic damage that will occur when the housing bubble bursts...More importantly, the line of credit is a promise on behalf of the government to engage in a massive unconstitutional and immoral income transfer from working Americans to holders of GSE debt. This is why I am offering an amendment to cut off this line of credit."

http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul282.html "

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wtf wrote on Mar 1, 2008 11:36 AM:

" LNS said, "In the bigger world, we are dismayed at the inattention to the mortgage market crisis by the presidential candidates."

You're looking at the wrong candidate. LOL! Ron Paul not only *is* paying attention to the mortgage crisis, he predicted it would happen.

http://www.wakeupfromyourslumber.com/node/5218 "

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