Reversing Field: An Investigation into the Impact of League of Denial on Media Coverage and Attitudes about Head Injuries in the NFL A dissertation submitted to the College of Communication and Information of Kent State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by David Cassilo May, 2019 Dissertation written by David Cassilo B.A., Villanova University, 2010 M.S., Northwestern University, 2011 Ph.D., Kent State University, 2019 Approved by ________________________________ Danielle Sarver Coombs, Ph.D., Chair, Doctoral Dissertation Committee ________________________________ Cheryl Ann Lambert, Ph.D., Member, Doctoral Dissertation Committee ________________________________ Tang Tang, Ph.D., Member, Doctoral Dissertation Committee ________________________________ Theresa Walton-Fisette, Ph.D., Member, Doctoral Dissertation Committee Accepted by ________________________________ Miriam Matteson, Ph.D., Chair, Doctoral Studies Committee ________________________________ Amy Reynolds, Ph.D., Dean, College of Communication and Information ii Table of Contents Page TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................... iii LIST OF TABLES ...............................................................................................................v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... vi CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................1 Background and Problem Statement ............................................................3 Significance of the Study .............................................................................8 II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE ........................................................11 Media Framing ...........................................................................................11 National Football League ...........................................................................16 NFL and Concussions ................................................................................18 Football and Hegemonic Masculinity ........................................................25 Media and Documentaries Affecting Change ............................................29 Research Questions ....................................................................................34 III. METHODOLOGY ..........................................................................................36 Theoretical Bracketing and Research Quality ...........................................36 Phase 1 - Textual Analysis .........................................................................39 Media Frame Analysis ...................................................................39 Sample and Data Collection...........................................................40 Data Analysis .................................................................................44 Phase 2 – Journalist Interviews ..................................................................45 Interviews .......................................................................................45 Sample and Data Collection...........................................................46 Data Analysis .................................................................................48 Ethical Considerations ...............................................................................49 IV. FINDINGS .......................................................................................................50 Examining coverage patterns around head injuries ...................................50 Types of experts being cited in coverage ...................................................79 How players and coaches discussed head injuries .....................................81 Journalist assessment of head injury coverage ..........................................91 Changes in attitudes surrounding NFL and head injuries ..........................95 Influence of League of Denial ...................................................................98 Additional data ...........................................................................................99 iii V. DISCUSSION .................................................................................................103 A shift in coverage? .................................................................................103 Influence of League of Denial .................................................................114 Implications and future research ..............................................................117 Limitations ...............................................................................................120 Conclusion ...............................................................................................122 APPENDICES A. Media frames coding sheet .............................................................................125 B. Interview protocol ...........................................................................................127 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................129 iv List of Tables Table Page 1. Data collection time periods for media framing analysis ..............................................40 2. Sample counts for media framing analysis time periods ...............................................43 v Acknowledgements First, I would like to thank my wife, Shannon. We started this journey shortly after we were married, and I cannot thank you enough for your support. You never doubted our path and kept me motivated. You have made this adventure a fun one, and you have celebrated every milestone with me. I love you! Next, I would like to thank our child. We don’t know your name and probably will not meet you until after this journey is over, but a lot of this was for you. We cannot wait to meet you, and we love you! I would also like to thank Otto. Since you became our dog, you have literally been by my side every single day I have worked from home during these last four years. While you still insist on getting on my lap most of the day, you have been patient with me and give me the mental break I need. I love you! Of course, I would also like to thank my parents and my family. You have been so supportive in everything I have done, and that began well before I started at Kent State. With that support, you have allowed me to pursue my goals. I could not have done this without you, and I would not have wanted to. I love you! And finally, I would like to thank my Kent State family. First, my advisor Dr. Danielle Sarver Coombs. I believe that there would have been no better starting point for me then under your guidance, and I truly appreciate all the help and support you have given me. Thank you! And to my dissertation committee as well as all the faculty I have interacted with since my first day at Kent, I will miss my time on campus. You treated me like family, and I learned from so many amazing scholars along the way. Thank you to all! vi 1 Chapter 1 Introduction After years of silence, the chatter surrounding the National Football League’s concussion crisis in the last decade is louder than it has ever been. There were 281 concussions reported during the 2017 NFL season–a six-year high for the league (Jones & Reyes, 2018). Even with that high number, many believed the total could have been greater. The league came under fire for its concussion protocol that seemingly allowed several players with concussion-type symptoms to return to the field (Jones, 2017). Health and safety fears for players have been further exacerbated by medical research. A 2017 Boston University study found that of 111 brains of former NFL players, 110 tested positive for chronic traumatic encephalopathy–a progressive degenerative disease linked to memory loss, depression, suicidality, Parkinson’s disease, and dementia (Mez, et al., 2017). Although notable, researchers did express caution that the sample included brains donated by family members who believed the deceased had CTE symptoms during their life. In another study released later in 2017, the first case of a living person with CTE was found in a former NFL player (Kounang, 2017). The discovery could allow doctors to identify CTE while the patient is still alive. While the NFL attempts to find ways to make its game safer, several players have walked away from the sport amidst health concerns (Cassilo & Sanderson, 2018). This focus on safety in the NFL has clashed with the traditional values of toughness and physicality for the sport. Considered the most masculine of American sports (Butterworth, 2008), playing through pain and returning from injury has been viewed as heroic (Anderson & Kian, 2012) and such cases have been glorified by the media (Trujillo, 1991). Yet in recent years, these traditional frames of sports injury have been contested. Cassilo and Sanderson (2018) noted that 2 in news stories about the retirement of Chris Borland, a standout defensive rookie for the San Francisco 49ers who left pro football after one season, there existed a departure from past coverage trends, as media coverage was mostly supportive of Borland and focused on the health risks, and Sanderson et al. (2016) presented evidence that media coverage was putting the health of players first and shifting blame