As a general rule, I try not to tell people what they must do. I hate it when people do that. If someone tells me that I, “absolutely have to see this movie,” I tend to avoid it just on sheer principal. Yup, I’m somewhere on that spectrum between “stubborn,” and, “asshole.” That’s how I made it all the way until this year without watching a single episode of Breaking Bad. As we all know, Breaking Bad was awesome and I should’ve listened to everyone. Because of my own refusal to listen to people’s strong suggestions, I really go out of my way to soften my wording when I suggest things. So trust me when I say this.
I know, I know, you’re busy. And yes, that’s one seriously long article. No, you can’t skim it while you’re supposed to be working. No, you can’t read it on a tiny screen during your commute. This is the sort of article that desktop computers and huge, full mugs of coffee are made for. I can wait.
I’m a little embarrassed to say that I just now discovered that article, after a true gentleman and scholar tipped me off to it. Deadspin has been on my radar ever since they had the cojones to mercilessly go after the former San Diego Chargers’ team doctor. (That’s another great one worth reading, but I should stick to one “must read,” per post, so we’ll save that for later.)
If you actually succumbed to my browbeating and made yourself read the article, then now we can discuss it. If not, return to the top of this post and start over.
There is a ton there to digest, and I’ll spread it out over a few posts because some of it is really worth more detail. The first thing that I want to mention though is that, according to Nate Jackson, he never had full access to his own medical records! Stop and really think about how insane that is. Here is Jackson’s quote from the article:
These MRI reports contain information of great value to a player, because they are unfiltered. But I never saw the file. As far as I knew, I never even had access to it.
As far as I can tell, Jackson’s medical information was at least three generations removed by the time he got it. Let me explain that. Jackson mentions a little of this in regards to an MRI, and that’s a great example. So let’s say that Jackson goes to an imaging facility and has an MRI scan on his shoulder. The raw image that is copied onto film or digital media is the first generation. This is really the only, “pure,” stage of the process, as this image is not manipulated by humans with possible conflicts of interest.
Of course, the image itself doesn’t tell you anything without having someone interpret it. I’ve seen an MRI image of my knee, and there’s no way to know what you’re seeing without having someone who is trained tell you. I could’ve had a chewed up wad of Hubba Bubba floating around in there and I wouldn’t have been able to tell with my own eyes. So don’t take this as anti-doctor… this is a crucial step. But that doctor’s interpretation and reading of the image is the second generation. Hopefully the doctor is spot-on and there isn’t a real loss of data there, but that’s always a risk in anything that requires human evaluation.
Now if we want to split hairs (and we do) there’s a whole ‘nother topic here. The doctors that read the scan… who pays them? Is this an independent doctor or is this a team doctor? I’m not saying that team doctors are unethical or that they put the team first, but there is an important difference between those two groups of doctors, right? In fact, you could easily have an independent doctor reading the scans and then consulting to pass the news along to a team doctor. That would make this information now third generation, as it is now two steps removed from the original raw data.
Then, if all this isn’t wacky enough, there’s another step of generational loss here as the team then has to consult with the player to give them the news. From Nate Jackson’s story we have no way of knowing what happened in those first few steps as he wasn’t in the room for those consultations. What we do know, according to Jackson, is that by the time the information got to him, it was condensed to the point that it was almost useless. From what I can tell, it seems like the medical decisions and treatments were decided long before they reached the level of the patient. By the time Nate heard any medical information, it was mostly just presented as, “We’re going to do Treatment Option A…. OK Nate?” If true, that is fucked up. Critics can go ahead and argue that Nate Jackson should’ve taken more control or been more vocal, but the truth is that he had no leverage, as he was fighting for his job. That’s like saying that you should tell your boss that you don’t like his managing style. Good luck with that.
The ownership of NFL medical records is something I’m really curious about, and this article was the first good lead from the inside that I’ve gotten on the subject. In the article, Jackson states that the only reason he has any of his full records now is because he took legal action against the NFL, and obtained these records by a court order. I’ll be reading Nate Jackson’s book, Slow Getting Up, and I’ll be following up with more on the topic. Now please, for the love of god, go back and read that article in full! And feel free to pass articles like this along to me so that it doesn’t take me an embarrassingly long five months to highlight them.
