The Invisible Labor of Women in the Construction of the National Football League’s Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy and Concussion Crisis
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6453371 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Deana Simonetto (0000-0001-7063-375X, University of British Columbia), Daniel Sailofsky (0000-0003-0406-6800, University of Toronto) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 43 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 1-10 |
| Publication date | 2025-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Sociology of Sport Journal (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0741-1235 • E-ISSN: 1543-2785 |
| Publisher | Human Kinetics (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1123/ssj.2024-0287 |
| OpenAlex | W7104176319 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 33 |
The origin story of the National Football League’s concussion crisis and the link between chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and football have mostly been portrayed through discourses led by scientists, athletes, and sports organizations, with the wives, daughters, and family members of football players largely remaining tertiary characters in this story. In this paper, we show how women are engines of the concussion and CTE crisis in the National Football League, whose work is vital both in the science and public understanding of CTE. However, we show the economic power of football constrains their messages. We argue that these women can capture the discursive space to talk about CTE largely because of the cultural resonance of football, though paradoxically, is it this same cultural resonance that denies them credibility as messengers and victims
Chronic traumatic encephalopathy · Concussion · Credibility · Football · Injury prevention · Poison control · Power (physics · Work (physics · Sport Psychology and Performance · Sports, Gender, and Society · Traumatic Brain Injury Research
Gender and Social Reproduction
‘It’s freer and easier in a changing room, because the barriers disappear…’ a case study of masculinity ideals, language and social status amongst Swedish ice hockey players
Exploring the Missing Link Between the Concussion “Crisis” and Labor Politics in Professional Sports
I Don’t Think It’s Worth the Risk”
The Curious Case of CTE
Football after fragmentation
The Fall of the Gladiators
Soccer, CTE, and the Cultural Representation of Dementia
Women Caring for Retired Men
The First Concussion Crisis
Counting Care Work
A Human Being Like Other Victims
Invisible Work
Play'ing College Football
Baseball Wives
The Anti-Intellectual Coach
Big Football
An Unpaid Labor of Love
Medicalization and Social Control
The social construction of an alcohol problem
Former Athletes' Illness Stories of Brain Injuries
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |