Story pick: Concussions, football and the brain

The brain is made up of a soft gelatin-like tissue that is surprisingly soft--and easily damaged. The U.S. military is coming to terms with this, as blast waves from bombs ripple through soldiers' skulls. So too is the National Football League, where head-rattling hits are cause for concern. Sunday was full of these cringe-inducing collisions that demonstrated just how violent a game professional football has become.

Now, the NFL is cracking down, as Mark Maske, the veteran Washington Post sports writer, reports today. Still, there will probably be players like Redskin Chris Cooley, who as The Post's Barry Svrluga writes, kept playing even though he had a concussion. Eventually, Cooley "felt slow" and benched himself.