By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, January 29 -- Four days before the National Football League's Super Bowl XLVIII is played in the New Jersey Meadowlands, a meeting about concussions is being held in the UN featuring current and former NFL players. Without much explanation, it is being sponsored by Malawi; a co-sponsor is Dominion Capital, which has invested in bio-medical companies involved in concussions.
Inner City Press, while covering the UN Security Council meeting about War and Its Lesson, obtained an "Internal Use Only" technical agenda, which lists among the participants former New York tight end Jeffrey Shockey and current New York Giant safety Antrel Rolle. (And see below.)
Skipping out on the Security Council debate for a moment, in the Trusteeship Council Chamber was NFL Network correspondent Andrea Kremer, asking her own questions about the NFL Concussion Litigation (the program said, "No Q&A.") Some players are angry they will not be helped; some have no insurance. Inner City Press tweeted photo here.
In the next panel, a sports trainer said that younger child were happiest in wrestling because they were not competing. A mother from Concord, Massachusetts recounted having to withdraw one of her triplets from football. It was interesting.
But one wondered: why was this in the UN? Why did Malawi sponsor it? Why was it in the UN Media Alert, with its "No Q&A" and financial firm sponsorship? The event took, apparently for the whole day, the UN Delegates' Dining Room, for which Aramark receives the funds. What's the UN's role in this?
Also listed among participants in the "for internal use only" technical agenda were Ben Urecht, Clinton Portis, current Carolina Panthers cornerback Drayton Florence, Hank Baskett, Jermichael Finley, Jermaine Wiggins, Sidney Rice, Steve Weatherford and Darrell Reid; boxer Andre Berto and MLS player Tony Sanneh. His father, research finds, came from Gambia. What was the Malawi connection, then? Watch this site.
