"It’s serious business because, in theory, it threatens to end the business."

Mara gets defensive about concussions

"It’s serious business because, in theory, it threatens to end the business. But while Mara takes seriously the increase in concussions, like others connected to the league he has tried to explain the increase in concussions by pointing to something other than, you know, the actual increase in concussions.

“Yes, when that statistic came out it certainly caught my attention,” Mara said. “But I want to understand the reasons for that. Are we just diagnosing [concussions] more? Is there more self-reporting? Or are we actually having more incidents? I don’t fully understand that yet. That’s something [the health and safety] committee will look at in Indianapolis in a couple of weeks.”

Some have suggested that the Case Keenum debacle sparked a sudden culture change, with more diagnosis and self-reporting of concussions coming after it. But that incident happened in late November, not early September. Besides, it’s hard to call it a watershed moment when the fine-happy NFL opted to impose discipline on no one for failing to grab Keenum by the facemask and dragging him off the field when he clearly was concussed."