Mad Dog Blasts NFL on Player Safety: “They Have Never Cared”

“The NFL does not deserve any benefit of the doubt with health and safety for its players,” Chris “Mad Dog” Russo said on SiriusXM’s Mad Dog Unleashed.

Russo accused the league of addressing safety problems only after public pressure forced it to act. He pointed to playing conditions in Brazil, the lasting effects of repeated head impacts and Jalen Hurts’ medical care, then challenged the NFL’s push for another regular-season game.

“They have never cared. Never have they cared,” he said. Later, he added: “They weren’t proactive. They were reactive.”

The Brazil field and Jordan Love

“You have done absolutely nothing for years and years and years and years unless you were embarrassed to do so to take care of your labor,” Russo said. “And that includes a crappy field in Sao Paulo when Love got hurt.”

Philadelphia beat Green Bay 34–29 in São Paulo on September 6, 2024. The Packers’ contemporaneous account described a slippery surface and missed tackles. Their September 9 report said Love hurt his knee while attempting to avoid a sack on the third-to-last play.

Russo also criticized the league’s use of artificial surfaces despite players’ objections. His challenge to the league extended beyond one field or one injury.

The CTE finding

“They don’t want you to know that one out of four NFL players might end up with CTE,” Russo said, asking listeners whether they had seen the report.

In an August 25 study published in The BMJ, researchers confirmed chronic traumatic encephalopathy in 215 of 878 former NFL players who died between 2016 and 2021. That established a minimum of 24.5% in that deceased group. CTE is associated with long-term exposure to repeated head impacts, according to the CDC.

Read how the researchers calculated the finding and what the study measured.

Hurts, trust and an 18th game

Russo connected that wider safety record to the NFL’s assurances about Hurts. “You have not earned that trust,” he said.

The Eagles said doctors cleared Hurts to play against Jacksonville in London on October 11 after identifying a superficial blood clot. An October 19 update from the team and agent Nicole Lynn subsequently disclosed deep vein thrombosis and clots in both lungs. They said he was clinically stable and receiving anticoagulants, which prevented contact football during treatment.

“They might actually have followed this right. I don’t know that,” Russo said of Hurts’ clearance to play.

Goodell welcomed the NFLPA’s requested review on October 21 while maintaining that protocols had been followed. The NFL’s chief medical officer, Dr. Allen Sills, defended the care, saying progression of a condition did not itself establish that the process was flawed.

Russo argued that the league’s pursuit of an 18th regular-season game undercut its safety message. He dismissed removing a preseason game as a justification for adding another game that counts.

“You can’t make a big deal about we’re going to cut a game in August,” he said.

“How in the world can you be such a hypocrite that you tell the world that you care about safety, that your main goal in life is to add another game?” Russo asked. “Now, don’t you see the hypocrisy, Roger, in that?”