Football after fragmentation: brain banking, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, and racial biosociality in the NFL
Daniel A. Grano
Abstract
This essay analyzes relationships between brain banking practices, football-related head trauma research, and the production of “racial biosocialities”—forms of group affiliation that are constituted through experiences of bodily suffering and shaped around racialized health disparities. The head trauma crisis raises questions about the sustainability of football that will require new strategies for managing the vitality of racial bodies while simultaneously warranting the consumption of harm to these same bodies. I argue that brain banking potentially supports these strategies by publicizing new systems for testing and prevention that reify neoliberal conceptions of personalized risk management and informed choice.
Topics & Concepts
Chronic traumatic encephalopathyVitalityFootballHarmAmerican footballBrain traumaCriminologyRestitutionPsychologyMedicinePolitical scienceTraumatic brain injuryPoison controlInjury preventionSocial psychologyPsychiatryMedical emergencyLawPhilosophyTheologyConcussionTraumatic Brain Injury ResearchRace, Genetics, and SocietyNeuroethics, Human Enhancement, Biomedical Innovations