While unfortunate I don't find this that surprising (or even nefarious). Getting every doctor to consistently do something outside of their normal scope is probably pretty challenging. Sometimes things can slip.
As for the Dallas Cowboys, well, they clearly just couldn't be bothered.
I originally had something a little more accusatory about the Cowboys before I edited it. In light of Jones' attitude, it seems likely that he obstructed it out of self-interest.
What is nefarious, or at least extremely sloppy, is that the paper's authors claimed prominently that they had captured all of the data on every concussion in the NFL within the time period. Also, they included the games played by the teams that provided no data in the total, which therefore reduced the incidence rate of head injuries in their final analysis.
From a companion article in NYT:
“It was understood that any player with a recognized symptom of head injury, no matter how minor, should be included in the study,” one paper said.
And in confidential peer-review documents, the committee wrote that “all N.F.L. teams participated” and that “all players were therefore part of this study.”
Yeah. It seems they've been doing that actaully before the Super Bowl based on what I've seen. THey'll do anything to try to find loopholes for players to still play regardless of the safety preacutions that experts have warned about
As for the Dallas Cowboys, well, they clearly just couldn't be bothered.