U.S. Rep. Linda T. Sanchez, D-Lakewood, was named one of the most influential people in sports in 2009 by the New York Times for focusing attention on brain injuries in the National Football League. She likened the unwillingness to discuss concussions and resulting disorders to Big Tobacco's reluctance to discuss the effects of smoking prior to the 1990s. Sanchez used telling video clips during a House Judiciary Committee meeting to make her case.
