One of the Australian Football League's top concussion advisers has questioned American football's landmark $765M settlement with players over the issue, saying "the problem in the NFL has been grossly overblown," according to Samantha Lane of THE AGE. Paul McCrory, associate professor at Melbourne's Florey Institute, which is regarded as the pre-eminent brain research organization in the southern hemisphere, "sits on the AFL concussion working group, responsible for guiding the Australian football code on one of world sport's most vexed topics." McCrory has argued that the dangers of concussion in the NFL are "not nearly as serious as some reports -- and even a recently released feature film -- has led the public to believe." Referring to "all the carry on and hoo-ha you get from the United States," McCrory accused the media of "over-simplifying" a complex topic and, not for the first time, he questioned the significance of NFL-related findings tabled by Boston University's influential Concussion Legacy Foundation. A neurologist and former Collingwood club doctor, McCrory branded some of the statements out of the U.S. on concussion and sport as "crazy." He cited data showing participation in junior American football was "plunging as a consequence and suggested this was largely related to media-driven public fear." McCrory began his lecture by addressing "myths." He said, "The first myth: this idea that every hit causes some sort of brain damage; it's patent nonsense. ... In the media you get a lot of ... overly simplified views and explanations of what concussion is: getting shaken up, the brain hitting the inside of the skull, bruising, bleeding, micro-hemorrhaging and so forth. None of that occurs. It really works at a chemical sort of level" (THE AGE, 4/7).
