by Bruce Wolk for Sports Ethics
If you have grown up loving football, and Brett Favre in particular, I cannot believe what he has done to ruin his reputation in these past months. First, there was the diversion of PPP funds that he and co-defendants at the University of Mississippi were able to hide away from deserving welfare recipients, only to re-emerge as a sleek volleyball center. As his daughter is on the volleyball team, aside from the nepotism angle, it all smacks of a sickening privilege. Irony of ironies, Favre is a multi-millionaire. He could have legitimately reached into his pocket and pulled out wads of cash and called the center any damn thing he wanted. In fact, it would brought tears to the eyes of the sports media, volleyball players the world over, and sealed his legacy.
It didn’t happen. The wads of cash belong the federal government and people almost too poor for the average American to conceive. In case you weren’t aware, Mississippi usually vies with New Mexico as the poorest states in the nation.
What in the heck is “concussion cream?”
Years ago, I was trained to be a biologist and I picked up two degrees. Not bragging, only humble. I worked hard and took advantage of the G.I. Bill. Later on in life, I became a New York City Paramedic (the things we writers do to support ourselves!). In my time on the job I saw many concussions and far worse. I am NOT a doctor and was a fair Marine Biologist. But speaking of that, I know the smell of rotten fish when someone at a seafood restaurant passes a plate under my nose.
However, Brett Favre and his compatriots have taken scam and science to new heights, and it’s called Prevacus a concussion treatment. Favre is so sure that Prevacus works, he talked up the cream during Superbowl LIV. Said Favre to multi-millions of locked-down listeners:
“Prevacus is a company that is going to treat concussions, but we also have a pre-game cream, PreVPro, which is available now. You apply it on the neck. It’s a cream. A concussion is inflammation of the brain, which is bad. It adds some relief for six hours. It’s pretty neat.”
There is so much mystery surrounding the biotech start-up that reputedly developed Prevacus that it seems to make Theranos look like an ethical company that was only out to save human-kind. However, one thing that is crystalline is that in some way, money was diverted was diverted from Mississippi to Florida by way of the Mississippi Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) agency.
About $2.2 million in welfare funds got diverted and somehow became PreVPropre-game cream. In the first place, it is illegal to divert welfare funds to a for-profit cream with virtually no scientific credence. The key figure in this switcheroo, allegedly seems to be a multi-millionaire, Hall of Fame, quarterback.
I don’t want to concuss this issue into submission, but $2.2 million may not seem a lot of money to a wealthy athlete or a biotech company with an incredible “burn-rate,” but it is a huge amount of money to poor welfare recipients. Forgive me my soap-box indignation, but this seemingly, allegedly transfer of funds is classist, racist and damn downright unethical.
Turning Serious
If I have made light of this subject, it is only because me, as marketing director of Sports Ethics, and Chuck Gallagher, Sports Ethics keynote speaker and Sports Ethics consultant, could not have used the language or the attitude we really wanted to use.
Does PreVPro work? I have no idea. I would like to see FDA data. I would like to know how parents, teachers, coaches, conferences and leagues regulate and monitor its usage? How many weekend warriors and naive trainers will rub this stuff on a child’s neck and then scoff at the thought that a child with head trauma could not possibly have a concussion?
As Sports Ethics Keynote Speakers and Sports Ethics Consultants we have many more questions than answers. Maybe the biggest question is what has happened to the athlete so many of us idolized?
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