Michael Cohen: 6:53, this is the 1320 WIOS capitol city recap. I’m Michael Cohen. So NFL commissioner Roger Goodell announcing this week that the NFL is pledging $100 million towards medical research of brain injuries and also to find maybe technologies to limit them. Let’s talk to a former NFL football player and Superbowl champion. Doctor John Michels is here now. He now is one of the country’s top pain doctors. Doctor Michels it’s great to have you on WIOS.
Dr. Michels: Thank you for having me on tonight.
Michael Cohen: Yeah and this concussions, it’s all about these concussions. In terms of when you were playing, did you experience any yourself?
Dr. Michels: I don’t remember.
Michael Cohen: Okay.
Dr. Michels: No, just kidding. I’m just joking. You know, I think the definition of what a concussion is has changed over the years. We used to think that you had to be knocked unconscious for that to be determined to be a concussion. And now we’ve changed the definition to where even if you get your bell rung and you see stars that is a concussive injury. And the reality is in the national football league, if you didn’t see stars after a block, you didn’t hit someone hard enough.
Michael Cohen: Would you say that happened usually in every game you played?
Dr. Michels: I would say almost every game you had a head contact that caused you to feel a bit woozy or see stars or just kind of a feel shaken for a little bit.
Michael Cohen: When you were playing, were players talking about this issue?
Dr. Michels: No, it wasn’t an issue. I think no one realized that there could be potential long term side effects of these concussive blows. I think you viewed things like that as just part of the game and really sometimes it was a badge of honor that when you hit someone hard enough that one of the two of you saw stars, you felt like you were actually playing the game at the level it was supposed to be played at. And now our perspective has changed a little.
Michael Cohen: Did you ever have thoughts in the back of your mind of I wonder this might be causing some damage?
Dr. Michels: I think anybody who plays the game at that level is under no disillusionment that it isn’t a dangerous game. We all know that we could get injured whether that was a head injury or in my case, it was a knee that ended my NFL career. I think we knew that the game was dangerous, but we loved playing it and I think if you asked any player today who’s retired, if they had have the opportunity to go back again tomorrow and do it, I think 100% of them would say yes.
Michael Cohen: Talking to a pain doctor John Michels, he’s a former Superbowl champion, played for the Green Bay packers as he said until a knee injury ended his career there. When you look at technology, do you think any kind of new helmet or new technology would dissipate the types of hits you were experiencing?
Dr. Michels: To be honest with you, I think they’d probably be less concussions if we were wearing leather helmets again. I think the technology has gotten so good that there’s a false sense of belief that you can go and lead with your head lead with your face and have these violent impacts without suffering any long-term effects from it.
Michael Cohen: What about the rules now where you target the shoulder instead of the head, do you think that’s doing anything?
Dr. Michels: I do, I mean I think it’s a good move on the NFL’s part start to reevaluate some of the rules of the game, especially on defenseless wide receivers and quarterbacks to limit the head to head contacts that are going on. You know, with running backs coming through holes and with linemen hitting linemen, that’s tough to limit. I don’t know that there’s any rules that could really effectively limit that. But I think it’s a great start to try to minimize some of the most severe impacts that we were seeing, especially on wide receivers coming across the middle.
Michael Cohen: Do you feel that there has been any long-term effects to your own head from playing in the NFL?
Dr. Michels: You know what, after I retired from the National Football League, I went on to medical school and became a doctor. I’m double board certified as a physician. If there were, I’d hate to think of how smart I was before I started this. So I would say no, I haven’t noticed really any long-term effects. It’s something that I’m always trying to stay on top of. Do I notice any changes? My wife is constantly, especially with the news coming out, evaluating me and making sure that there’s no changes in my mood or behavior or thought processes or memory. I have not noticed anything significant, but that’s not to say that I’m not going to be very cautious as I move forward and take every precaution that I can to make sure I don’t have any mental effects from that game.
Michael Cohen: Well this is 1320 WIOS, we’re talking to Doctor John Michels, now a pain doctor, former Superbowl champion or is a Superbowl champion I should say. Do you think that there’s anything that, I mean the concussions we’re having now, is this just part of the game or is there any realistic way of dramatically changing that aspect?
Dr. Michels: I’m not sure. I think the nature of the game is a physical one. The reason that the public is so drawn to it, we are the gladiators of the modern day and we’ve always kind of liked that high speed, aggressive physical sport. And I think if you change the game too much, you start to lose the interest of it. I think players have gotten bigger, faster, stronger. The way that we train now, the way that we eat and the nutrition and the way that we train has gotten these guys to become larger than life. They are fast. They can jump through the roof, they’re bigger, stronger. And so the impacts, I mean when I went back to medical school, I learned some basic physics force equals mass times acceleration and you’ve got a big person moving at rapid speed. There’s a lot of force behind that impact and that’s why we’re seeing some of the injuries that we’re seeing.
Michael Cohen: Do you have any regrets playing football at all?
Dr. Michels: Not at all? Like I said, I would go back and play tomorrow. Football gave me some opportunities in life that I never would have had. I’ve gotten to meet governors, presidents of the United States. I’ve gotten to see places on this planet that I would have never gotten to see. The game just …
Michael Cohen: When you’re on the field, when the plays about to, how much of a high is that to be out there?
Dr. Michels: There’s nothing that compares to it. Now I have never experienced anything in life that quite compares to being on the football field.
Michael Cohen: I mean are you a like hyper-conscious or what is the feeling that you’re having when you’re out there?
Dr. Michels: No, it’s an adrenaline rush that very few things can give you your life. I think maybe big wave surfing could give you a similar adrenaline rush because you are physically having to be on top of your game and when you get to dominate something, in my case an opponent across from me, if I put a 300 pound guy on his back and we score a touchdown, I don’t know of any other high on the planet that could feel quite so good.
Michael Cohen: Do you feel any pain when you’re out there?
Dr. Michels: Never. In fact, I used to get in the shower after the games and I would notice big claw marks on my neck or huge bruises on my arm or leg that I had no idea how they got there.
Michael Cohen: It’s just that much of an intense moment. Where did you play college by the way?
Dr. Michels: I played at the University of Southern California.
Michael Cohen: Gotcha. And how would you compare the transition from college to the NFL?
Dr. Michels: It’s night and day. The best player I played against in yet my senior year at USC was the worst player I played against my rookie year in the NFL. The talent level is just extraordinary each level that you grow up.
Michael Cohen: This is 1320 WIOS Lansing. We watch the football on television it’s fun and exciting, but is there any connection you feel when you’re watching it? Does it bring back memories at all?
Dr. Michels: Oh absolutely. This time of year is very nostalgic. I miss the game. I smell fresh cut grass outside and it makes me want to get back out onto the football field and start playing again. So I will always be connected to that game. It was my first love, my first passion and I miss it almost every day.
Michael Cohen: And one last thing, you’re a doctor now, with what we know about concussions and the impact of these kinds of hits today, would you allow your children to play this game?
Dr. Michels: If they were as passionate about the game as I was? Absolutely. I would never deny them the opportunity to play it. I would start them a little bit later. I don’t think that 10 year olds need to be hitting in full pads. I think let them play flag football, learn the fundamentals of the game, and then as they get older you teach them the proper techniques in order to protect themselves. But the game just again gave me so many gifts in life that nothing else could have offered in the same way. I would never deny that from anybody else.
Michael Cohen: Interesting, well you could have gone to medical school that playing football, right?
Dr. Michels: I could have, but without the experiences that I had from the game, I mean I’ve got a big rock on my hand from winning a Superbowl and how many people can say that?
Michael Cohen: Did you wear that every day, your Superbowl ring?
Dr. Michels: I never wore it and then I had got so much grief from my patients because they all wanted to see it that I’ve finally just in the last couple of weeks have started wearing it to the office everyday so my patients could see it.
Michael Cohen: Let’s say if you go to the supermarket, do you take it off at that point or do you keep it on?
Dr. Michels: Yeah, I mean typically if I’m just out on my own, I’m not wearing my Superbowl ring, but I wear to the office now.
Michael Cohen: You’d have strangers walking up to you wanting to take a closer look, I’m guessing.
Dr. Michels: Absolutely, I mean it’s a great talking piece because again, how few people have one of these and I feel absolutely blessed and honored that I got to play for such a great team like the Green Bay Packers.
Michael Cohen: Doctor John Michels now he a pain doctor. He’s based in Dallas, but won the Superbowl with the Green Bay Packers. As we started the piece off, the NFL saying that putting a hundred million dollars additional dollars into medical research, looking at concussions and also engineering advances. We’ll see if anything can help. Doctor Michels, thanks.
Dr. Michels: Thanks for having me on.
Michael Cohen: That is it for us. Michael Cohen, producer Solomon Martin have a good night.
