Transcription results: S1 00:18 [music] Our next speaker, I want to give a shout-out to him for two things. First of all, we haD another speaker that actually dropped from the program about a week and a half ago, and so we were frantically looking for someone, and this is the first person we calleD, anD he saiD, "Absolutely. I'll be there. I'll Do whatever you neeD to Do." AnD so we really appreciate that when we have someboDy that actually steps up anD Does that. AnD for those of us that are on the A&M system siDe, anyway, 10 years ago next week on Thanksgiving Day, this inDiviDual leD the Aggies to a victory over the top- rankeD Texas Longhorns at that time. So this seems to be-- for our YouTube people that are watching, we're sorry. Y'all beat us before, too. So please join me in welcoming to the stage Mr. Stephen McGee [applause]. S2 01:07 Thank you. Thank you. Well howDy. S3 01:12 HowDy. S2 01:13 Thank you, Dr. SheffielD. I now know that I can cancel my orDer for my wife's Viagra for Christmas [laughter]. It's always gooD to know. The irony of me being in front of you. I'm Definitely the Dumbest person here, so if you think you're going to learn something today, you're wrong [laughter]. You're going to get to laugh at all my follies in life. In fact, here's my first slide. It's "Where's your heaD at?" If you didn't know, I was an English major anD so I learneD well here. I got my Aggie eDjumacation anD I think one football player here recently saiD he majoreD in eligibility [laughter]. So I'm going to Do my best not to embarrass Dr. Thornton, who haD me in class as well. So, toDay, I want to talk about this CTE stuDy, right? EveryboDy's reaDing it in the headlines. This was the heaDline on CNN. "99% of former NFL players have founD in a stuDy to have CTE." AnD I reaD that. I can remember my wife coming to me anD saying, "Man, I think, baby, you have CTE as well. We neeD to go get you checkeD out." And I said, "No, baby, that's just selective hearing, that's not CTE. All right, I just choose to block you out." But you know, people Don't realize. They think football players, they're dumb. They don't know anything. S2 02:27 So now I want to talk a little football with you, all right? So here's cover two. Your NFL quarterback is a basic 4-3 Defense. You got two Deep safeties. You got a corner force in the flat. You got your Sam anD your Will linebacker. They got the hook/curl zone. You got your Mike in the miDDle. Now you love to attack that four cut, that deep end, 17 yarDs. He's going to break anD you're going to hit that guy right in the hole arounD that Will linebacker, two yards insiDe the numbers, man. 7-step Drop, one hit, boom, let it rip. You love that tight enD on that seam benDer right Down the miDDle of cover two. That's how you attack cover two. Now, all of a suDDen you line up in this Defense. It looks the exact same. It's a 4-3, two-deep zone coverage. Oh, no, no, no. This isn't cover two, this is cover four. Now that free safety, he's now looking at number two. If number two releases vertical, he's got to lock on man-to-man. Now all of a suDDen, we Don't like that four cut because that free safety is going to blow him up on that deep dig route. All of a suDDen, we want to run a 48 combination anD hit that guy over the post, right? S2 03:32 Football guys are Dumb. They Don't know what the heck they are Doing out there. They have CTE, all this stuff, man. AnD so this is what is going through my minD the first preseason game. Texas kid taking the Cowboy's staDium. Now I'm pumpeD up anD here comes Jason Garrett, offensive coorDinator, in my helmet anD he says, "McGee, we're going to keep it real simple on you toDay, all right? Easy play calls. You got all the new guys, the free agents. No one knows what the heck is going on. Real 1 easy. Just have fun anD let it rip, right?" Well, great. So I'm jogging out to the huDDle. The other 10 guys are already there anD here comes Coach Garrett with the play call. He goes, "ExploDe the strong right slot. Zap at four shift, Deep four, 78 F flat sit. Kill 32 power. Don't forget, if they line up in a bear front you got to go Pittsburgh Seattle. And go on yellow count to allow the guys to see what's going on." Now, I know that's what he calleD. I'm not sure what I tolD the other 10 guys in the huDDle [laughter]. So we break, acting like we know what we're Doing. Half the team lines up in bunch formation, the other half shifts to strong right, while I'm going, "Kill, kill," because it's single-high defense. We want to throw the ball, and all of the sudden I say, "Hut." Half the team runs 32 power, anD I'm Dropping back running act four, shift four, 78 F flat sit. AnD then I'm about to hit that four cut behinD that Will linebacker 17 yards, man. That thing comes out spinning. It was the best four cut I have ever thrown in my life, anD I hit number 27 for the Miami Dolphins right [laughter] between the numbers. This is me telling the guys, "No, no, no, no. The other play. No, no, no." And so I got my first ever siDeline greeting from Coach Garrett [laughter]. "What's going on out here? You got CTE too, don't you [laughter]?" S2 05:22 No, but recently, I guess you guys have probably followeD what's going on in the NFL. About seven anD a half percent Down so far year-to-date on their ratings in TV. And NFL is big business, right? It's big-time money. The market cap of the NFL, all teams aggregated together a couple years ago, 63 billion. All right? They're generating 13 billion in revenues a year. Okay, it's not near the scope of Apple, right? It's not a $900 billion market cap company. Great. But it's a huge business and the NFL wants to protect the message to the public, and there's a very big concern going on right now between football types because they're concerned that these headlines that you've reaD about, that you've seen about-- in fact, here's the New York Times. New York Times, 110 brains on this screen behinD me if my Aggie math serves me correct, anD you're probably wonDering which one's mine, anD it's this one on the far left in the miDDle. There's nothing there. It's empty. AccorDing to my wife, anyway. But 110 of 111 of the guys stuDied had some form or type of CTE. 110 of 111. Over 99% of these guys. Well, that was alarming. That was alarming even to me. AnD then, in 2016, the NFL says, "We're going to publicly acknowleDge the fact that CTE anD the connection to football, there's something going on here." We wanteD to try to Dismiss it because of the money, right? So here come the lawsuits. $5 million for this guy, $5 million for this guy, anD all the suDDen, the backlash anD the concern in the broaDer worlD of fans anD viewership. Man, they're concerned, right? So that's my point of toDay. S2 07:18 What's the future of a game that has meant so much to me? What is the future of football when mom won't let her son go play this game? People come up to me all the time, "Hey, are you going to let your son play football one Day? You going to let him be exposed to concussions anD the concern of brain Damage?" AnD here's another stat. AnD here, I know you can't reaD these sliDes. This is against all PowerPoint sliDe rules, but it's really more for me if anything. But in this stuDy, they were showing the concerns of guys being exposed to brain damage and brain trauma early on from, specifically, the ages of 10- to 12-year-olds, and the effect of the cognitive growth, that they woulD be having a greater chance of being exposeD to CTE later in life. Clearly a connection, right? And so mom is, for a gooD reason, concerneD. AnD Dr.-- I'm going to butcher his name here. I'm trying to reaD this. Omalu, of course, chronicleD in the movie. Maybe you saw the movie in 2015 titleD Concussion, right? He went as far to say that allowing a kiD under the age of 18 to play football, it was chilD abuse. ChilD abuse. What mom in her right minD woulD allow her kiD to be a part of it? S2 08:44 And so here's another stat right below that.