No Holds Barred: Ken Reed of League of Fans on Concussions and Sports

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman spoke with Ken Reed, the sports policy director for the League of Fans. League of Fans is a sports reform project started by activist Ralph Nader. Ken Reed is also the author of the book How We Can Save Sports. We spoke with him by phone Thursday. League of Fans, he explained, is "an effort to look at contemporary sports issues." It is "kind of a sports policy think tank. We look at sports issues from youth sports to concussions to financing of professional stadiums, etc." They seek to "look at ways that we can enhance the positive and mitigate the negative. It's certainly not anti-sports." Sports are hampered by "ego and greed and 'profit at all cost', 'win at all cost', and those types of issues. So those are the kind of things we try to focus on and limit those factors as much as possible." We focused a lot on the issues of concussions, head trauma, and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). These are major problems which have not only endangered the future of sports like NFL football, but, he said, must be considered when deciding whether or not to participate in sports like youth football, both by parents and their children. We also discussed how we expect the popularity of American football to decline over the next several decades because of these problems, how some sports without intentional head blows need to be modified to minimize the danger of head trauma, what we can do to fight for safe youth sports, and much more. In addition, we open with a brief summary of some of the major issues about sports corruption which have been covered on No Holds Barred since this show started almost ten years ago, in March 2006. The PodOmatic Podcast Player for iOS is available for free on the App Store. The No Holds Barred theme song is called "The Heist", which is also available on iTunes by composer Ian Snow. No Holds Barred is free to listen to and is sponsored by: Gracie Tournaments, featuring regional, national, and world competitions in submission-only Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. For more information, go to GracieWorlds.com. The National Registry for Wrestling, whose mission is to increase wrestling's fanbase, to build a registry of all wrestling fans, to serve as a connecting point for all wrestling fans, and to provide TV and Internet listings for wrestling. For more information, go to NR4W.com. Defense Soap, an effective, deep penetrating body soap with natural antifungal, antiviral, and antibacterial soap ingredients. Defense Soap is the best cleansing body soap for men and women athletes who are involved in contact sports such as MMA, wrestling, grappling, jiu-jitsu, and judo, to help their antifungal, anti-ringworm, anti-jock itch strategy. Check out their web site, at DefenseSoap.com. Thanks, Eddie Goldman EddieGoldman.com