I know it makes me a killjoy, but I feel like any adult who plays in a fantasy football league has failed on some level, has never fully matured. Whenever I hear someone excitedly discussing “their team,” I feel sad. What makes it so bad, of course, is that the players suffer devastating brain damage (and other serious injuries) as part of this entertainment. And the “fantasy” aspect of the game, where teams are imaginary and players merely statistics, has moved us a further distance from this horrifying reality. The NFL has marketed the car-crash violence on Monday Night Football, in video games, and in every way imaginable, only feigning concern for its on-field personnel occasionally for PR purposes, attacking the credibility of those who’ve spoken the truth, like neuropathologist Dr. Bennet Omalu.

Make sure to watch the Frontline episode, “League of Denial: The NFL’s Concussion Crisis,” which takes its impetus from the new book by Mark Fainaru-Wada and Steve Fainaru about the NFL’s terrible record in regard to brain injuries. That it focuses in part on the Pittsburgh Steelers team of the 1970s makes it that much more poignant. It was those Steel Curtain teams partly responsible for pioneering steroid abuse in the NFL.