“Learning to Listen to Them and Ask the Right Questions.” Bennet Omalu, Scientific Objectivities, and the Witnessing of a Concussion Crisis

The death of American Football player Mike Webster has become foundational to narratives of sport's twenty-first century concussion crisis. Bennet Omalu, the neuropathologist who conducted Webster's autopsy and subsequently diagnosed Webster with Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), has, likewise, become a central figure in the concussion crisis. Indeed, it is frequently argued that there is something about Omalu in particular that made it possible for him to “witness” CTE when the disease entity had hitherto remained invisible to a great many medics and scientists. In this article, and drawing upon auto/biographies, I consider Omalu's self-described mode of scientific witnessing which purportedly allowed him to (re)discover CTE. I find Omalu's described objectivity to be shaped by three factors: First, the importance of “trained judgment” within which Omalu's scientific training is emphasized. Second, the infusion of religiosity within scientific practice. Third, a self-described position as an “outsider” to both football and American culture. Throughout this analysis, I pay attention not only to the ways in which Omalu's narratives depart from conventional depictions of scientific objectivity; I also note the similarities with particular bodies of social scientific work, most notably within a feminist “turn to care” in Science and Technology Studies (STS) and related standpoint epistemologies. Following these analyses, I argue that, first, Omalu's writing affords the dead a “response-ability” that is often absent within analyses of the concussion crisis and, second, that a focus upon diverse forms of objectivity, such as those described in Omalu's work, complements existing work into concussion science that has foregrounded scientific conflict of interest.

Attachment Theory: How Marvelous Mother Guided An Adoption Child

The paper focuses on analyzing a mother who guides an adoption child reflected in The Blind Side movie. The researcher applies descriptive qualitative method in analysing the problem to find the data. The research questions are 1. What problems are faced by Leigh Anne's, as a mother? 2. What are the factors cause those problems? 3. How does Leigh Anne's solve the problems? The first data consisting of texts of the movie which is related to a mother guide adoption children and the second data that support the analysis. The technique of the data analysis is carried out by applying the close of mother and children using attachment theory by John Bowlby. The result shows that Leigh Anne Tuohy creates efforts in her supporting strategy such as adopted Oher to be her family, Mrs. Tuohy’s guide Oher to be an American football player. Part of that emotional funding for Leigh Anne is that finaly Oher can find his potential as a human being and find his identity to be a happy person like everyone else.The result is the power of love a marvelous mother can make Oher to be a successful American football player.

Do Americans Really Support Black Athletes Who Kneel During the National Anthem? Estimating the True Prevalence and Strength of Sensitive Racial Attitudes in the Context of Sport

Professional athletes in the United States have protested racism in various ways for decades. Kneeling during the national anthem became a prominent form of such activism, ever since American football player Colin Kaepernick popularized the practice in 2016. “Anthem protests” gained renewed attention after the police killing of George Floyd and nationwide unrest in the summer of 2020. This article explores whether public approval of those protests was weaker than scholars and journalists suggested, because survey respondents were reluctant to admit that they considered the protesters disrespectful. A list experiment confirms hidden opposition to anthem protests, especially among people of color, who may feel heightened pressure to support racialized protesters. A second experiment reveals that social desirability bias persists even after respondents hear reassurance that nobody will judge their views. These findings indicate that mainstream surveys misrepresent attitudes toward contemporary racial issues, and that anthem protests have yet to gain wide acceptance in the general U.S. population.

Sudden Paralysis in an American Football Player! Monster Football?

This case of ascending paralysis, following an episode of diarrhea, was initially misinterpreted as Guillain-Barré syndrome. The prominent hypokalemia led to the search for other differential diagnoses, initially interpreted as a rare case of periodic hypokalemic paralysis, which usually occurs in Asians after intake of large amounts of starch foods, such as Spaghetti, or rest after heavy exercise. In this case, the reason for the hypokalemia with associated paralysis was caused by a hyperhyreosis factitia through denied intake of T3.

Graphic panelling and the promotion of transnational affiliations in Thien Pham’s Sumo

In Thien Pham’s comic Sumo, simple graphics, iconic figures and limited dialogue assist in efficiently conceptualizing the notion of the transitive, the ability to convey meaning, to allow images to translate concepts quickly, including that of transnationalism itself. Character Scott, a failed American football player, relocates to Japan to take up sumo. His physical transnational move and eventual accommodation to a new sport, new city and new friends are reflected in Pham’s loose OuBaPo form: sections of the comic occurring in Japan and those in the United States follow a fairly strict panel count, diminishing evenly as the narrative progresses, suggesting Scott’s amalgamation of and acceptance in the East from his arrival from the West. But neither is privileged in Pham’s use of nearly equal numbers of panels representing Scott’s past in the United States, present in Japan and future in a smooth amalgamation of football and sumo, East and West, strength and flexibility, failure and success. Sumo uses efficient visual approaches – the unique play inherent in OuBaPo as a drawing exercise in constraints, colour-coded panels and iconicity – to accommodate and unify race and national differences.

The contingency of corporate political advocacy: Nike’s ‘dream crazy’ campaign with Colin Kaepernick

An emerging field of research views Corporate Political Advocacy (CPA) as a communication strategy that responds to the challenges of public relations in divided societies. CPA takes a political position in public and, by doing so, appears to deliberately alienate some of its stakeholders. This study challenges the assumption that CPA discards a unifying epideictic rhetoric in favour of agonistic politics. The investigated case is Nike’s Dream Crazy campaign starring American football player Colin Kaepernick, whose protest against race discrimination in the United States sparked a heated public debate. Although the critical analysis of the campaign and responses on Twitter reveal deep political cleavages, Nike is concurrently engaged in unchallenged communication praising the hyper-individualism of a market ideology. The epideictic contingency of Nike’s CPA undermines the social cause ostensibly at the heart of the campaign: the fight against racial discrimination.

Facial twitching: calcium or concussion conundrum? Hypocalcaemia in a young American football player masking an internal carotid artery dissection

A 30-year-old male American football player presented to the acute medical unit with left-hand and hemifacial spasms. History and examination revealed hemifacial spasms in keeping with seizure-like activity possibly due to symptomatic hypocalcaemia. Subsequent investigations revealed an adjusted calcium of 1.87 mmol/L and, hence, he was managed with intravenous calcium replacement. He presented two further times in a 1-month period, with subjective limb weakness, despite normal adjusted calcium. During his third admission, he developed slurred speech and a marked facial droop, with absence of power in the right upper limb. Imaging revealed acute and old infarctions in the left middle cerebral artery territory and appearances consistent with left internal carotid artery dissection. This presentation of arterial stroke is atypical but with potentially grave consequences if missed. There is limited literature on the presentation of hemifacial spasm, and its association with ischaemic or haemorrhagic stroke represents a key learning point.