The awardwinning investigation, league of denial. Frontlinis made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. And by the corporation for public broadcasting. Major support for frontliis provided by the john d. And catherine t. Macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. More information is available at macfound. Org. Additional support is provided by ford foundation, working with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide, at fordfoundation. Org. The park foundation, dedicated to heightening Public Awareness of critical issues. The john and Helen Glessner family trust, supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. And by the frontline journalism fund, with major support from jon and jo ann hagler, and Additional Support from scott nathan and laura debonis. horns blowing erenberg touchdown listen to this crowd, theyre on fire the steelers have their key receivers in. Stallworth on the left, 82, swann, 88, on the right. Franco harris is now at the 30, big pileup. He fumbled the ball and lets see. Minnesota has it jeff siemon on it. Oh, yeah its still wild and woolly, and i love em that way. You love em wild and woolly and youre seeing it now. Impressive drive by the steelers. Everybody loves everybody when you win. The drive has used a lot of time. Heres a rollout. Bradshaw fires. Touchdown an awesome physical team were the steelers today. crowd chanting pittsburgh, the super bowl champs. Narrator pittsburgh. For 70 years, theyve loved their Football Team the steelers. This is a tough town. The people here are tough, toughminded. The way the steelers played the game meshed perfectly with the people. Hit him hit him they loved that hardhitting, punishing, brutal defense that they played. Narrator they called the defensive line the steel curtain. That just fit perfectly into the way they saw their own lives and what they had to be in order to survive. Narrator and if there was one iconic steeler, it was number 52, iron mike webster. Mike webster exemplified what it was like to be a player in the steel city and a player in that era that for me was the greatest team of all time. Pittsburghs going to the super bowl narrator in the 1970s, webster anchored four super bowl championship teams. Mike was a legend and a hero. He may have been the legend and the hero because heres that bluecollar Worker Center who doesnt get any glory, doesnt catch the touchdown passes, doesnt kick the 52yard field goal to win a game. Hes just in every play. I just loved watching him play. And mikes favorite games were the ones that were cold and snowy and frigid, and he could get up there with these short sleeves. And the dirtier and muddier it got made things better. Narrator then, 11 years after he retired, the people of pittsburgh received some bad news. At what price glory . The hall of Fame Center Mike Webster died at the age of 50. He died on tuesday. He was just 50 years old. He was known as iron mike. He had heart disease. Narrator the news that day would start a chain of events that would threaten to forever change the way americans see the game of football. It is hard to find a former pro Football Player whose body hasnt paid a very high price. Narrator mike websters body was delivered to the Allegheny County coroners office. Webster ends up in the autopsy room. And the pathologist whos on call that day is this guy, bennet omalu. Omalu parked his car and walked into the office and he said, whats going on . And one of his colleagues said, its mike webster. Hes up in the autopsy room. And omalus response was, whos mike webster . And everybody looked at me like, where is he from, is he from outer space . Who is this guy who doesnt know mike webster in pittsburgh . Hes a nigerianborn, incredibly welleducated guy, but he doesnt know anything about football. Narrator a doctor, omalu was also a trained neuropathologist. From the beginning of the autopsy, dr. Omalu could see the effects of 17 years in the football wars. Mike looked older than his age. He looked beat up. He looked. He looked worn out. He looked drained. If i had not been told his age, i would say he looked like 70. Narrator omalu started at the feet and worked his way up. There were cracks running the length of his feet and they were incredibly painful, and so webster would ducttape his feet as well to sort of close those cracks and keep them together. Narrator there were several herniated discs, a broken vertebra, torn rotator cuff and separated shoulder. His teeth were falling out. His body. He had cellulitis, his heart was getting enlarged. You know, he was supergluing his teeth back into his head, and he actually made that work. I mean, i think dads the only person who could actually have a medical problem like that and decide to fix it with superglue. Narrator then there was the matter of websters forehead. Websters forehead was essentially fixed to its scalp. The skin on his forehead had built up almost a shelf of scar tissue from the continuous pounding of his head into other people. Narrator websters death certificate made omalu suspect he may have suffered from a brain disorder. When i opened up his skull, in my mind, i had a mental picture of what his brain would look like based on my education. I was expecting to see a brain with alzheimers disease features, so a shriveled, uglylooking brain. But upon opening his skull, mikes brain looked normal. He didnt understand why that would be, but he became more and more curious. It became sort of like his little private mission. Narrator dr. Omalu wanted to fix the brain, preserve it in a chemical bath for further study. I said, let me fix this brain. Let me spend time with this brain. There is something. Something doesnt match. I remember the technician telling me, he said, what are you fixing the brain for . That brain is normal. And omalu becomes very firm in that moment, and he says, fix the brain. I want you to fix the brain. Narrator what omalu could not see was that hidden inside websters brain was evidence of a chronic disease. And that decision would change the nfl, because if websters brain had not been examined, i dont honestly think that we would be where were at today. Narrator Steve Fainaru and his brother mark fainaruwada are investigative reporters. Steve has a Pulitzer Prize for reporting in iraq. Mark broke the barry bonds steroids story. For frontline, espn and in their own book, theyve been investigating how the nfl has handled evidence that football may be destroying the brains of nfl players. I think in the simplest form, one major piece of our reporting just revolves around the simple question of what did the nfl know and when did it know it. Narrator the nfl would not cooperate with the fainaru brothers, nor would it talk to frontline. We went to new york to meet with them and say, look, this is what were doing. Wed like you to participate. Wed like you to make available these various people. And the nfls message was, sorry, were not going to help you. Narrator but they continued to report the story, beginning with mike websters career in the nfl. Theres almost a darwinian quality about the nfl. Webster wanted to prove to the world that he was going to be the toughest, and he did anything that he possibly could to do that. Narrator websters sunday afternoons were spent on the line of scrimmage, brutal territory known as the pit. He had violence in him. He could explode into the player. Every play was a fight. Narrator websters favorite weapon was his head. When he would fire off the ball, hes coming to block me, and if im not ready for him, you know, hes going to pancake me, you know, hes going to hurt me. Narrator hall of fame linebacker for the new york giants harry carson went to war with mike webster. And so i have to meet force with force. All of my power is coming from my big rear end and my big thighs into my forearm, and i hit him in the face. I have to stun him, get my hands on him, throw him off when i see where the ball is going. And when i hit him in the face, his head is going back. Hes going forward, but all of a sudden, his head is going back and his brain is hitting up against the inside of his skull. Narrator for mike webster, the head hits just kept on coming for 17 years. You have to survive, so you learn the methods to survive and be the best at surviving in that environment the minute you put your pads on. Youre only one play away from getting seriously injured. Narrator for webster and others on the field, physical injuries went with the territory. I mean, its affected my life, it surely has, but im not out there crying about it. I know that i went to war, and i came out of the battle with what i got. And you know, thats the way it is. Thats the way mike webster would say it too, im sure he would. I mean, we battled in there, and this is the result of it right here, sitting here looking at you. Narrator but what otto and others do not know is whether football has also caused injuries they cannot see the result of what they called getting their bell rung. Oh, did they hit him that time his helmet went off. I dont know how he held onto that. Sammy white, well, he did, a remarkable catch with skip thomas and jack tatum jackknifing him as he caught the ball for a first down on the oakland 45yard line. Narrator in 1991, mike webster left football. Soon, he and his family would come to believe those hits to the head had taken a devastating toll. Mike wasnt mike. He was angrier quicker than before and didnt have the patience to have the kids on his lap or take a walk with the kids, like he didnt have that stamina physically. Narrator over the years, he became increasingly confused. He would forget, you know, which way the Grocery Store was, which way it was to go home. He actually broke down in tears in front of me a couple of times because he couldnt get his thoughts together and he couldnt keep them in order. Narrator at home, there were bouts of rage. He took a knife and slashed all his football pictures. They were all destroyed and gone and broken glass, and they were all down. It wasnt mike. Narrator theyd been college sweethearts, but 27 years and four children later, mike and pam websters marriage ended. We didnt understand what was happening. Youre just trying to get by in this storm. I mean, your moneys gone, your prides gone, our bills are all overdue, our house is getting foreclosed, all the security is gone. All those parameters are removed. So everythings crumbling. Narrator once one of pittsburghs greatest football heroes, webster began living out of a pickup truck. Id come outside sometimes and just see him sitting in the truck and it would be freezing, and hed just be sitting there, looking miserable. Hed say, the worst thing is im actually getting to the point where sometimes, or if i dont have my medicine, he said, im cold and i dont realize that i can fix it by putting a jacket on. Narrator webster was often unable to sleep. He had a lot of pain and he hasnt slept for days, so he asked me, said, sunny, can you tase me . And im like, what does that mean . So he pulls out this stun gun and goes, bzz, bzz. Im like, mike, thats not healthy. He said, but i havent slept nothing. He said, all you got to do is tase me right here. And im like, okay. I dont know, you know, hes my hero, im going to do whatever he tells me. So i tased him and he goes to sleep. Im like, wow narrator for iron mike, tv interviews became impossible. No, im talking about. No, im trying to find. Yeah, well everybody went through trauma as a kid, im not saying i was different than that, im just saying. The things we do to one another, okay. Uh. Hell, i dont know what im saying. Im just tired and confused right now, thats why i say i cant really. I cant say it the way i want to say it. I could answer this real easy at other times, but right now im just tired. Maybe the saddest i ever heard him say was when someone saw my dad and said, arent you mike webster . And he said, i used to be. I think that was really how he felt, because he really was, he wasnt the same person. It was like a picture of him that was just shattered into a million pieces. Narrator nearly broke, homeless and losing his mind, webster decided football had hurt him, and the nfl was going to pay for it. In 1997, he went to see a lawyer. The thing that struck me the most was how intelligent mike was. And the problem was that he just couldnt continue those thought patterns for longer than a 30second period or a minute or two minutes. He would just go off on the tangents at that point. It was pretty obvious, actually, the first interview that he had some type of cognitive impairment. Narrator attorney Bob Fitzsimmons drew up a disability claim against the nfl. He began to assemble a case with webster to basically say that webster had suffered brain damage as a result of his 17year career in the nfl. Narrator fitzsimmons pulled together websters complicated medical history. So i took the binder of records and got four doctors together, four separate doctors, asking them, does he have a permanent disability thats cognitive, and is it related to football . Narrator websters final application for disability contained over 100 pages and the definitive diagnosis of his doctors football had caused websters dementia. His claim for disability was filed with the National Football leagues retirement board. They were fighting it from the beginning, against just the common sense of, heres this guy, look at him. He played for nearly 20 years in a brutal and punishing sport, and this is whats going on with him. Why would you fight that . What possible motive . Narrator the league had its own doctor review websters case. The nfl had not only hired an investigator to look into this, they also hired their own doctor and said, hey, we want to evaluate mike webster. Narrator dr. Edward westbrook examined him. Dr. Westbrook concurs with everything that the four other doctors have found and agrees that absolutely, there is no question that mike websters injuries are footballrelated and that he appears to have significant cognitive issues, brain damage, as a result of having played football. Narrator the nfl retirement board had no choice they granted webster monthly disability payments. Mr. Webster is currently totally and permanently disabled. Narrator and buried in the documents, a stunning admission by the leagues board football can cause brain disease. His disability is the result of head injuries he suffered as a Football Player. The nfl acknowledges that repetitive trauma to the head in football can cause a permanent disabling injury to the brain. Narrator the admission would not be made public until years later, when it was discovered by the fainaru brothers. And that was a dramatic admission back in 2000, and in fact, when you talk about that later with fitzsimmons, he describes that as the sort of proverbial smoking gun. Narrator it was now in writing the nfls own retirement board linked playing football and dementia. At the time, it was something the league would not admit publicly, and webster felt hed never received the acknowledgment that his years in the nfl had caused his problems. Mike would call this his greatest battle. Hed say it was like david and goliath, over and over, because it was. He was taking on something that was bigger than him. He took on this battle for the right reasons. He was the right person to do it. Unfortunately, it cost us everything. Narrator just two years later, in 2002, mike webster died. 15 seconds to air. Stand by all cameras. Ready with slowmotion. Narrator the first broadcast of monday night football in 1970 marked a turning point in the games popularity and its revenues. Take tape. upbeat music playing i think the nfl has done an incredible job at marketing itself and turning itself into a spectacle, a sort of cultural part of our lives. lively music continues it became an entertainment show. It became a happening. Are you ready for some football . A monday night invasion. Narrator the glory and the violence of football was beamed into tens of millions of american living rooms during primetime. Here come the hits, the bangs, the blocks and the spikes, cause all my rowdy friends drop in on monday night. People liked the violence of it. Oh you watch a pro Football Game and naturally, the biggest cheers are for the touchdowns, but the secondbiggest cheers are for a nasty hit. Narrator the nfls own highly crafted Film Productions celebrated the violence and the spectacle. classical piano playing on this down and dirty dance floor, huge men perform a punishing pirouette. players grunting the meek will never inherit this turf. players grunting . Because every play is handtohand and bodytobody combat. Nfl films captures the essence of football itself, that tension between the violence and the beauty. In the pit, there is more violence per square foot than anywhere else in sport. players grunting the sense of football as something powerful and elemental and mythic and epic. When you talk about big hitting safeties, the Eagles Brian Dawkins always emerges. Were gonna dominate this thing. Respect is not given, it is earned what the nfl would do was they would market tapes crash course, moment of impact, search and destroy in the context of describing the brutal nature of the violence of the nfl. Narrator but away from the glamorized hits, there was a darker side. Superagent Leigh Steinberg saw it firsthand. I watched athletes i represented play with collapsed lungs. I watched them completely fight with doctors at every time to get into the game. I watched players deceive coaches on the sidelines when they were injured and run back into a game. Narrator the inspiration for the movie sports agent jerry maguire, steinberg was a powerhouse alongside the new nfl. He was very much a creature of this expanding juggernaut of the nfl. He ends up at one point representing 21 quarterbacks in the nfl, 21 starting quarterbacks in the nfl one year. Narrator in the early 1990s, steinberg represented one of footballs top stars dallas quarterback troy aikman. Second and 14, passing down, coming up for aikman again. Narrator in 1994, during the nfc championship, aikman took a knee to the head. Down he goes. Stubblefield was there first. Troy aikman took a knee to the head. You see it right here. Its dennis brown coming in, you see the knee right there, knee right on his helmet. Narrator aikmans concussion was bad enough that he could not return to the game. Aikman was taken to a local hospital. I went to visit troy, who was sitting in a darkened hospital room all alone. The room is dark because aikman cant even stand looking into the light. Its this sort of surreal scene where the