Your brain is split in two. You can thank Roger Sperry for pointing that out. Roger is the Caltech Professor who received the 1981 Nobel Prize for his observation that there is “functional separation in the cerebral hemispheres.” The rest of us know this as the Left Brain / Right Brain theory; we love to classify geeks as left-brainers, while referring to artistic types as right-brain dominant.

     In the ensuing 30+ years, brain research has produced a cascade of new knowledge, repeatedly underscoring the fact that our brains are complex, amazing, and essential to the very lives we lead. In the same time period, in a parallel universe, the NFL has grown to a $46B business. They have done this with a combination of smart business decisions and continuously tweaking the rules to make the game more entertaining. They have also inadvertently contributed to brain research; for deceased NFL football players, 96% of their brains showed signs of degenerative disease related to head injuries. The NFL brain is split, with half focused on growing revenue, and the other half acknowledging the dangers of repeated head impacts. So far, they appear revenue-dominant.