NEW YORK (AP) — The NFL and the players’ union have two new
agreements to address player health in the areas of pain management/prescription
medications
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and behavior well-being.The joint agreements, announced Monday, are designed to
lead to advancement and understanding of dealing with pain and to improve
potential treatments. The league and union also will add to programs already
established in education,
prevention
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Redwine Jersey , and overall behavioral health throughout the league.“I
was hired two years ago and when I was hired I was asked about areas of
concern,” said Dr. Allen Sills, the NFL’s medical chief. “And I said these were
two areas I saw from my knowledge of someone taking care of athletes for over
two decades. I felt a real need there.“We’ve been working together with the
players’ union to come up with something that would work proactively for both.
We have the same goal, to take care of the whole player and in a holistic
way
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and to focus on prevention.”Among the stipulations in the pain management area
will be formation of a committee of medical experts appointed by the league and
union that will establish uniform standards for club practices and policies in
pain management and the use of prescription medication by players. The committee
also will conduct research concerning pain management and alternative
therapies.That committee will receive periodic reports from a newly developed
prescription drug monitoring program that will monitor all prescriptions issued
to NFL players by club physicians and unaffiliated physicians.Each NFL club must
appoint and pay for a pain management specialist before next season.All this
builds on the programs in place.“We’ve had an electronically submitted health
record for each club in place for a number of years,” Sills said. “Medical
providers enter the prescriptions they have given to the players. Periodically,
our medical advisory committee and the NFL Physicians Society would issue white
paper guidelines around strategies. The important change here is obviously it
creates a committee tasked with overseeing our educational efforts — the best
practices around pain management.”All 32 teams now must retain by the start of
training camp a behavioral health team clinician focused on supporting players’
emotional and mental health and well-being. The old bromide of “toughing it out”
when someone has such issues has long been discarded, Sills said.“This is not
novel to the NFL or to
sports
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Hill Jersey ,” Sills added. “It applies across all levels of society at
all age groups and walks of life, and we know these are issues we need to
address.”While the NFL and NFLPA have had previous joint programs in these
health areas, Sills and NFLPA President Eric Winston note these initiatives are
a major step forward in medical care.“These agreements are positive developments
for our membership as they will provide new and important resources to help
players and their families,” Winston said. “Our union has always advocated for
advancements in health and safety and we think this work with the NFL is another
important step to improve care for NFL players.” LOS ANGELES (AP)Former Miami
Dolphins offensive lineman Jonathan Martin was charged Tuesday with threatening
two former teammates who had harassed him in the NFL and with threatening his
former prep school
classmates
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Los Angeles County prosecutors said.Martin pleaded not guilty to four felony
counts of making criminal threats and a misdemeanor charge of carrying a loaded
firearm, district attorney’s office spokesman Greg Risling said.A post on
Martin’s Instagram page last month showed a shotgun and referred by name to the
private Harvard-Westlake prep school in Los Angeles that he once attended.The
post also included mentions of the Instagram usernames of former Miami Dolphins
players Richie Incognito and Mike Pouncey and said suicide and revenge were the
only options for a victim of bullying.Martin left the Dolphins midseason in 2013
after accusing teammates of bullying. An NFL investigation found that Incognito,
Pouncey and teammate John Jerry engaged in persistent harassment directed at
Martin.Incognito was suspended for the final eight games and sat out the 2014
season before joining the Buffalo Bills.Pouncey was released by Miami last
weekand agreed to a two-year contract Monday with the Los Angeles ChargersThe
NFL’s investigation also found that teammates threatened to rape Martin’s
sister, called him a long list of slurs and bullied him for not being ”black
enough.” Martin is black and Incognito is white.Court documents say Martin ”did
willfully and unlawfully threaten to commit a crime which would result in death
and great bodily injury” of Pouncey and Incognito. Both Pouncey and Incognito
feared for their own safety and the safety of their
families
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Pollard Jersey , the documents said.Prosecutors said Martin also had a
loaded firearm in his vehicle in Glendale, but court papers provided no other
details.The name of Martin’s attorney was not immediately known. Prosecutors
said he is due back in court next month and faces up to six years in prison if
he’s convicted.—