The NFL is home to some of the most vicious tackles in the game of football. League officials had to answer scathing questions on Wednesday from the House Judiciary Committee on the correlation between head injuries and football.

            Cognitive impairment is considered the boundary or transitional stage between normal aging and dementia. Too many blows to the head can cause an early onset of Alzheimer’s disease, which can greatly impair not only the individual’s life, but the lives of his or her family as well. Many former football players have experienced such a decline in their functioning.

            Players are one injury away from losing millions of dollars. Most of the time, when a player gets hurt, the team replaces him and he loses the benefit of having team doctors looking after him.

            The NFL is a multibillion-dollar industry that has been built on the backs of its players. The fact that the league needs to hold hearings on whether or not there is a link between football and head trauma is appalling.

            The committee repeatedly confronted NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell about evidence of a link between professional football and cognitive impairment later in life and reports of poor medical treatment for some former players with dementia and other signs of mental decline.

            Goodell gave no definitive answer. He personally thought there was some link between playing football and cognitive decline among current and former players. He did say, “I can think of no issue to which I’ve devoted more time and attention than the health and wellbeing of our players, and particularly retired players.”

            This is all a little funny, considering the NFL hasn’t budged on its position regarding extending benefits to former players. Former players don’t benefit from the most up-to-date medical treatment and their salaries are not even comparable to current players.

            The NFL’s defensive stance on the issue is reminiscent of the tobacco industry’s belief that smoking does not cause damage to your health.

            The NFL has only gone halfway toward fixing the problem. Although it promotes the use of the latest helmets to reduce head trauma, it doesn’t help former players that didn’t benefit from such technology.

            Another blow to the NFL was the absence of Dr. Ira Casson, Dr. Elliot Pellman and Co-chairman David Viano of Wayne State University, in charge of the NFL’s study of head trauma.

            This committee has the reputation of doubting outside research. Independent experts have called the group’s studies into question due to conflict of interest and sampling problems.

            The NFL balked at the chance to prove its studies’ validity; it elected to hand over all study material, but not player medical records because of certain confidentiality issues.

            Vague answers and question dodging doesn’t bode well for the NFL. It seems the league is hiding something. In any business, employers do not want to raise their operating costs, even when it affects the wellbeing of their employees.

            The way this plays out not only affects the NFL, but also millions of high school and college football players who take their cues from that institution.

            The ball is in your court, NFL. What’s your next move?