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A larger-than-life image of Tom Brady is plastered on the outside wall of Boston’s Museum of Science. Inside, Brady’s famous sixth-round draft card is enshrined in a glass case. And on a bank of TV monitors, a half-century of football highlights run continuously.
It’s all part of a travelling exhibit produced by the Pro Football Hall of Fame called Gridiron Glory.
Eleven-year-old Owen Champlin of Hopkinton was trying to throw a football like a pro. He gets practice every day on his school playground where he plays football at recess. He loves the sport, but he has a concern.
“Sometimes I kind of worry about playing because I see a lot of football players getting concussions,” said Champlin. “They can really injure you. They can even stop your career. And then you’ll have some bad head injuries and that could last the rest of your life.”
The mounting evidence that football can cause brain damage is the most significant science impacting the game. It’s the talk everywhere from NFL offices to elementary school playgrounds. Yet nowhere in the Gridiron Glory exhibit is there a single mention of the disease diagnosed in the brains of more than 100 former NFL players: Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or CTE.
“The decision to host the exhibition was many years ago, as the science was new and emerging,” said Christine Reich, vice president of exhibition development at the Museum of Science. “As it came closer to the exhibition we had to think about, 'Do we still continue or is there a way we can use this exhibition to start the dialogue?'”
She says the museum decided to add what the Pro Football Hall of fame left out, its own separate programming around CTE.
“Whoever created the exhibition has the right to refuse content added in,” explained Reich. “It’s sort of a field norm and I didn’t want to add our content in a way that would be edited by another organization.”
Museum-goers can learn about the latest CTE research at a daily presentation. It’s held on an open stage.
Seats filled quickly recently as Susan Heilman, a museum educator, began her presentation. She says there’s a lot of interest in the research around football and brain injuries. She says one thing often surprises museum audiences.
“You could have CTE without ever having a concussion,” said Heilman. "You could just have all these sub-concussive hits.”
It’s potentially eye-opening information, but the half-hour presentation, and the chance for people to ask questions of a scientist, like Heilman, happens only once a day. The Gridiron Glory exhibition is always open, and it’s the blockbuster attraction.
Reich is candid. She says the goal of presenting Gridiron Glory is to bring in people who would not normally visit the museum. Reich says it’s an effort to preach beyond the choir.
“Who comes to an exhibition about CTE?” asked Reich. “People wouldn’t be attracted to come to an exhibition about CTE unless they already knew what that was and felt passionately about it.”
She says getting them in to see the football exhibit will hopefully ignite their curiosity about science and potentially see its relevance — and importance — in determining the future of football.
“If the content of CTE is only owned by university researchers or people who see themselves as being knowledgeable about science, we’re not going to make progress in this area,” said Reich. “What we really need is everyone to see that they can be part of scientific decision making.”
But connecting to both Gridiron Glory and the once-a-day CTE presentation means museum goers, just like football players, will need to pay attention to the clock.
