Concussions continued

Ironic to use Gladwell's Tipping Point phrase to discuss the changing attitudes towards concussions in the National Football League?  Perhaps, but this piece shows how framing and agenda-setting can be key in social change.  Once again, no one wants to be compared to tobacco companies.

Representative Linda T. Sánchez, a California Democrat, said it clearly and forcefully into the microphone at a House Judiciary Committee hearing room and onto video clips nationwide. “It sort of reminds me of the tobacco companies pre-1990s,” she said, “when they kept saying no, there is no link between smoking and damage to your health.”

Many others helped dismantle the N.F.L.’s edifice on concussions. But Sánchez’s cigarette remark ultimately burned it to the ground.