The XFL, a new football league set to launch in February 2020, has established a health advisory committee with a focus on improving athlete wellness across neurology, orthopedics, and mental health.
The league also named Daniel Wright, a veteran Major League Baseball athletic trainer who recently served as the head athletic trainer for the Milwaukee Brewers, as vice president of health and safety at XFL.
Wright, a member of the National Athletic Trainer’s Association for more than 30 years, will work with the health advisory committee to prepare and maintain the XFL’s health, wellness and safety policies, procedures and protocols. Wright will also hire, supervise, and evaluate a team of athletic trainers.
“The health and safety of our players is an important focus on our path to reimagine football and deliver a great product to fans when we kick off in February 2020,” said XFL Commissioner and CEO Oliver Luck. “Putting in place the right experts and medical professionals is key. Our health advisory committee will work closely with our football operations department to create protocols and build best practice guidelines that put player health and safety at the forefront of everything we do.”
Founding members of the XFL’s health advisory committee include Dr. Julian Bailes, Dr. Larry Lemak, and Dr. Claudia Reardon, who together represent the fields of neurosurgery, orthopedics, and mental health. Bailes has also been named chief medical advisor.
Bailes is considered a leading authority in neurosurgery, traumatic brain injury and research, and neurological sports medicine. He is Chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery at NorthShore University HealthSystem and Co-Director of the Northshore Neurological Institute in Evanston, Ill. He served as team physician for the Pittsburgh Steelers for a decade, and as a doctor form teams in NCAA Division I for 15 years. He is a member of the NFL Head, Neck and Spine Committee, NFLPA Mackey White Health and Safety Committee, and Chairman of the Pop Warner Football Medical Advisory Committee.
Lemak is the Founder of Lemak Health, a center of excellence in orthopedics and primary care sports medicine. He serves on Pop Warner Football’s Medical Advisory Committee and the Alabama High School Athletic Association. Dr. Lemak founded the National Center for Sports Safety in 2001 and the Alabama Sports Foundation in 1996. He also served as Medical Director for Major League Soccer for 20 years, was a founder of the American Sports Medicine Institute, and was the Medical Director of NFL Europe League for more than 15 years.
Reardon is a certified psychiatrist specializing in sports psychiatry and an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health Department of Psychiatry. Clinically, she works as the consulting sports psychiatrist to the University of Wisconsin Athletic Department at UW-Madison’s University Health Services. She has served on the International Society for Sports Psychiatry Board of Directors since 2010, currently as its Secretary and Education Committee Chair, is the sole psychiatrist on the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association Sports Medicine Advisory Committee and chairs a workgroup on mental illness for the International Olympic Committee.
Wright has been an athletic trainer since 1985 and most recently spent 18 seasons with the Milwaukee Brewers. Over his career, he’s held athletic training positions at a number of minor and major league-level basketball teams spanning the Kansas City Royals, Cincinnati Reds, and San Francisco Giants MLB franchises. He also spent 13 years as a co-owner and president of FitLife Health Systems, which provided athletic training, injury rehabilitation, and performance, fitness and conditioning services.
The XFL has spent time leading up to its inaugural season to focus on player health and technology. The league has been in the midst of a significant amount of research and development, including an ongoing exploration of rules changes. In December, at an earlier R&D session, it worked with two Mississippi junior colleges to test gameplay and rule modifications. In February, it teamed up with Your Call Football to test new rules under consideration.
At a showcase in April during the Spring League, the league pulled together nearly two-dozen vendors across athlete management, tracking, and operations to imagine how it might be able to use technology to enhance the game of football. The XFL’s first dedicated showcase of technology was intended to help league organizers strategize how to best leverage tech to improve operations, gameplay, fan experience, and athlete health and safety.
Now, with this new group of doctors, the XFL is hoping to address ongoing concerns in football about athlete health and wellness, particularly around head trauma. The NFL has had a similar focus on player health and preventive care and has invested resources in technology companies and equipment manufacturers that help to reduce the instance of concussions in pro football.