A boxer sits on a stool in a corner of the ring with a man who isn”™t a fighter by trade leaning over the athlete and looking into his eyes.
It”™s an image that hangs on the wall of the office of Barry Jordan, a physician at Burke Rehabilitation Hospital in White Plains and a pioneer in sports neurology. Jordan is the doctor in the photo, looking at the boxer from above with his hands on his knees, a scene that Jordan has been a part of countless times in his career.
“I was interested in sports neurology when I was in medical school,” said Jordan, sitting behind his desk in an office filled with football and boxing memorabilia. “I thought about trying to develop the field and get involved with sports neurology. As a consequence, when I was doing my residency, I gravitated to the sport where I would see the most neurological injury, and that was boxing.”
In addition to his work at Burke, Jordan is the chief medical officer for the New York State Athletic Commission, which oversees professional boxing and wrestling in the Empire State. Through that position, as well as serving as a team physician for USA Boxing, Jordan has been at ringside for numerous bouts.
“Boxers are a population that has been neglected in terms of providing neurological care, and that”™s why I have continued my participation in that sport,” said Jordan, who graduated from Harvard Medical School and holds a master”™s degree in public health from Columbia University. “It”™s a dangerous sport, can never be made 100 percent safe, but it can be made safer.”
The sweet science, however, is not the only sport that has attracted attention from neuroscience. As professional football”™s head-injury crisis has developed, Jordan has been a significant figure in the research and discussion of brain trauma caused by repetitive injury from sports.
“When I first started working with boxing, I had suspicions that it would involve other sports, including soccer, football, hockey and rugby,” Jordan said. “My major concern regarding boxing and contact and collision sports are the long-term consequences associated with participation in those sports, and the possible link between repetitive traumatic brain injury and the risk of dementia and other neurodegenerative disorders.”
Because of his unique expertise, Jordan has been named to the NFL Players Association Mackey-White Traumatic Brain Injury Committee, the NCAA”™s concussion task force and the Pop Warner Football advisory committee.
When asked what parents should know about concussions in youth sports, Jordan was direct. “I think it”™s important that the athlete and the trainer or the coach be educated on how to recognize a concussion. And if the athlete does experience a concussion, they should remove themselves from competition,” he said.
Parents with children in youth sports shouldn”™t overreact to the specter of brain injury, Jordan said. According to the doctor, the amount of exposure needed to cause the problems seen in some former NFL players goes far beyond what most players will ever experience.
“The biggest risk factor for long-term consequences is exposure. It”™s unlikely that your average amateur exposure is going to cause any long-term chronic problems,” Jordan said. “So your typical Pop Warner or high school football player, it”™s unlikely that they”™re going to have any long-term consequences. Now when you get to high-exposure athletes, those that actually end up playing in the pros and have a college career, a high school career, that”™s when that level of exposure will increase your risk.”
At Burke, Jordan serves as assistant medical director and attending neurologist, as well as a director of the brain injury program and the memory evaluation and treatment service.
“It”™s ideal being here,” Jordan said. “We have quite a few teams in the New York area, so that”™s an advantage, and being that I work with the New York Athletic Commission and they”™re in Manhattan, so it”™s a plus to be here.”
