We never want anything bad to happen, especially to an athlete like Jon Jones.
NASCAR stepped up their safety concepts, and I think the drivers feel NASCAR is doing everything that can be done. So we are a little behind NASCAR in that respect. Someone in NASCAR realized there were certain things that could be done to make it safer. The same thing has to happen in football.
Athletes, coaches and parents today are increasingly aware of the danger of concussion, and this awareness influences decisions about buying new and reconditioned football helmets.
I am always fighting inside the Council to get the message across that at each competition venue, we should send somebody to inspect and to make sure the athletes will be looked after in a correct manner.
If you're a young kid out there, put away your Twitter accounts if you want to be a pro football player. Somebody's going to hack your account; somebody's going to cause you problems.
I was actually worried about David Ross safety being in Cleveland. I thought I had to be a bodyguard.
In the NFL they talk about 'contracts,' but it's not really a contract, it's a one year agreement. If you have a 10 year contract, it means nothing. If you get cut in the NFL, you get nothing. People don't talk about that.
What we're seeing is an era where governments and huge organizations such as the IOC don't have accountability. They don't have accountability to the athletes they are supposed to be protecting and they don't have accountability to the truth. What we've seen out of Russia is a continual denial, no matter what has been presented. They are still blaming Grigory Rodchenkov as an individual who did this all on his own.
Everyone is on a fair playing field. It's safer for athletes, it's safer for the fighters - it's just a safer thing for fighters. So I think the USADA thing is good.
Since 2000, it's been a privilege and honor for me to be on the competition committee. And our main focus... is player safety.
I think that those wrestlers, those women and men that go in the ring are not protected. I don't think anybody is ever looking out for them and I think that they are used badly.
I think medically, football is generally well looked after. There are always checks made. Anything which can be done to make footballers or sportsmen of any area safer has to be encouraged.
My experience over my five years at Wisconsin and my one year in the NFL was that there were times where I couldn't play the game safely. There are positive measures we can take... but on a lead play, on a power play, there's violence.
I don't want football to not be played, but I would like the sophistication brought forth to take care of those who need to be taken care of and to take the precaution, at the sacrifice of winning, to take care of people.
I'm not pro-owner or pro-player. I am pro-football. I want the game to go on. I want the game to be tough. I don't want the game to be a killer of our players.
All of the sports have a safety net, but boxing is the only sport that has none.
I am available to work together with the commission to create clear laws that give the athletes the proper respect. The athletes deserve more respect.
If you have a kid that loves basketball - that eats, sleeps, drinks, and thinks basketball, and all he knows is basketball - and he gets hurt, and he's your franchise player, you need to hold him back from himself.
You always want to see the NFL try to protect the players.
We got to think of other ways to help these kids out because there's a lot of kids who get hurt in college and then don't make it to the NFL and don't have insurance, and their entire lives are changed when they put their bodies on the line for their school.
If you're an athlete in this game, you have to protect your own interests, and you have to protect your body and your family.
Obviously we will talk about doing everything we can to make our sport as safe as possible.
Every country wants to protect its athletes because it's ultimately Germany vs. Spain, America vs. China; sports are an extension of the government because of national pride.
Sometimes you have to protect players from themselves.
It is so important that our federation stands by our athletes.
