Nick Buonoconti, a 15-year All-Pro NFL linebacker who
contributed to the Miami Dolphins’s 1972 perfect season and Super Bowl win,
died on July 31 at age 78, following a battle with dementia. Buonoconti’s tenacity, dedication and intelligence
made him an NFL star, despite the fact that scouts had considered him
undersized.
Buonoconti found success well beyond football. The new HBO documentary “The Many Lives of Nick
Buonoconti,” describes his influential
roles as lawyer, advocate and negotiator for pro athletes; NFL commentator; and
dedicated fundraiser for the Miami Project, where he generated nearly $500
million for spinal injury research following his son’s catastrophic injury in a
1985 college football game.
Buonoconti was also an unlikely hero for smokeless tobacco
users. According to Sports
Illustrated, in the 1970s he started working with US Tobacco, the maker of
Copenhagen and Skoal dip products. In
1983, he became executive vice president for legal and federal affairs and
public relations; two years later he was named president and chief operating
officer.
As I noted previously, the campaign against smokeless
tobacco started in 1981, with an article
in the New England Journal of Medicine. In February 1985, Buonoconti squared off with
Ed Bradley on the influential news show “60 Minutes”. The following exchange from that appearance appears
at 24:35 in the HBO Buonoconti
documentary:
Ed Bradley: “The people who are dipping smokeless may think
they are avoiding the dangers of tobacco by not smoking. But there is substantial evidence that
they’re not.”
Buonoconti: “The science as we know it today tells us that
smokeless tobacco has never been scientifically established to cause any harm
to humans. That includes oral
cancer. There is no one saying it does
cause a problem.”
Bradley: “The Surgeon General says it does. The American Health Foundation says it does.”
Steve Croft, another “60 Minutes” correspondent, defends
Buonoconti in the HBO documentary: “My feeling is he handled it very well,
better than most CEOs that we interview and ask tough questions.” However, the interview inaccurately and
permanently stained Buonoconti as a tobacco industry shill. He assumed that he had made a terrible
mistake, noting, “I have to live with it.”
It turns out that Buonoconti was perfectly on target in
challenging the bogus claim that dip and chew products cause mouth cancer. Like everyone else, he was deceived by three
decades of distorted
research, exaggerated findings and unscrupulous
campaigning by supposedly credible medical
organizations. His remarks proved
prescient when a large 2016 federal study found no
elevated risk for mouth cancer among American men who dip or chew tobacco.
HBO has done a public service in chronicling the many
achievements of this multi-talented football legend.
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