Jerry Jones Says That The Link Between Football And CTE Is Absurd, And I Would Expect Nothing Less From Him

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones told reporters it's absurd 2 say there's a relationship betwn CTE and playing football,saying not enough data

— daniel kaplan (@dkaplanSBJ) March 22, 2016

A week after a high-ranking NFL official acknowledged a link between CTE and football, Jerry Jones said today such a claim is “absurd.”

— Bart Hubbuch (@BartHubbuch) March 22, 2016

You know, technically he's not wrong. There is no link between football and CTE. They simply do not have a close relationship. Football followed the fist rule of engaging in shady business tactics and that is to always have a middle man. That middle man is concussions. As Cris Carter would put it, concussions are the NFL's fall guy. Of course prolonged brain trauma is related to CTE, but the sport that causes prolonged brain trauma is merely CTE's distant cousin as far as I am concerned. CTE is a friend of a friend of National Football League. They may know of each other, but they don't interact without their good buddy concussions. That means that when it comes to their connection you have to go down at least one more link down on the chain. Now they may be in conjunction with another to shorten or even prematurely end the lives of both current and former athletes, but to claim that they have a separate, distinct relationship is factually untrue. 

I know the only thing absurd about this story is Jerry Jones' claim in and of itself, but that doesn't mean that I can't appreciate what Jerry Jones did. Everyone needs a Jerry Jones in their life. He's the friend that you go to when you just need someone to say "yes". Sure, it's important to have the friends that give it to you straight, but if you always went to them then you would have no one to enable your questionable behavior. The NFL knows that if it needs someone to make them feel better about themselves then they will always have Jerry Jones. He's the guy that will always be on their side. The guy that will blindly support them no matter what. The main reason that's true is because they put billions upon billions of dollars in his pocket, but that doesn't change the fact that Jerry Jones is the best friend a guy like Roger Goodell could have.