Giants owner John Mara said Sunday that the NFL has a long way to go before it fully understands the issue of brain damage as a result of playing a violent sport. “There’s no secret that repeated concussions can have a very serious long-term effect [on players],” Mara said via ESPN. “And I am startled to a certain extent by the rise in concussions this year because we were on a steady downward trend for the last three years, and all of a sudden they spiked up this year, and we’re still trying to understand why that is. There’s no secret that repeated concussions can have a very serious long-term effect [on players],” Mara said via ESPN. “And I am startled to a certain extent by the rise in concussions this year because we were on a steady downward trend for the last three years, and all of a sudden they spiked up this year, and we’re still trying to understand why that is.
“You don’t want to put your players at a greater risk than you already understand they’re taking. You’ve got to do whatever you can to protect them,” Mara said. “We need to understand why concussions are up because you hate to see it. It’s the No. 1 challenge going forward, and everything else we talk about this week is secondary to that.”