Truly crappy news:
Former NFL star Junior Seauwas found dead at his home Wednesday, authorities said.
The cause is suicide, gunshot.
I only got to watch Seau play regularly at the end of his career, when he joined the New England Patriots. He was a class act here, fun to watch, fun to listen to. Before that, he was a terror, the reason you really didn’t want a quarterback you liked to face the Chargers.
And then there’s this:
Seau’s death, by gunshot wound to the chest, is similar to the way former Chicago Bears defensive back Dave Duerson died of suicide. Duerson shot himself in the chest on Feb. 17 — a method used so that his brain could be examined for symptoms of CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy), a trauma-induced disease common to NFL players and others who have received repeated blows to the head.
If this suggestion plays out, then it’s going to get harder still for me to indulge the pleasure I get from watching the game. The head trauma thing has to be addressed at every level of the game, or the sport is just going to eat itself up.
But for now, condolences to Seau’s family and friends.
[And yes, I know, he’s been implicated in domestic violence charges. A terrible thing, and something one can only condemn. But I think one can still regret the life lost. And suicide tells you that whatever violence he may have done within his family, whatever was wrong for and with him brought the most harm on himself. It’s important to retain the capacity for moral judgment even at times of loss….but recognition of the suffering he may have brought down on others can’t, or shouldn’t, annihilate the capacity to feel sympathy for whatever that brought him to kill himself at 43.]
barkleyg
a method used so that his brain could be examined for symptoms of CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy), a trauma-induced disease common to NFL players and others who have received repeated blows to the head.
BAD choice of words gets right to the point!
redshirt
Not meaning to justify domestic abuse, but there’s a corresponding history of behavioral instabilities associated with these types of brain degradations.
Not sure I agree with your other point though Tom – injury is part of the sport. The players get this. The fans should know it too. It’s the gladiatorial games of our times.
SatanicPanic
Not to excuse it, but domestic violence might have stemmed from his head injuries, if it turns out that he had CTE
Mnemosyne
Here’s the other thing about the domestic violence allegations, though — violence is a common and well-known side effect of CTE:
It’s hard for me to judge someone’s actions when it seems possible that he may have had a medical reason that he was not in control of those actions.
General Stuck
I don’t know how it can be short of ditching football altogether. They have state of the art headgear and some fairly stringent spearing rules these days. I played football just in high school and got at least one concussion. I think it is just impossible for players to not hit with their heads. Especially linebackers and corner backs, safeties, etc.. Really sad that it’s come to this. These guys are so big and fast these days, making the collisions even more violent.
Mnemosyne
@redshirt:
Honestly, I don’t think the players or coaches really are aware of the risks — most of the research is only just becoming public now, decades after many of these men have already experienced irreversible brain damage.
Even worse, the NFL is doing everything they can to cut these former players loose from the health insurance that the NFL pays for so the league doesn’t have to pay the medical bills for the injuries the players suffered. That’s despicable, IMO.
IrishGirl
This is really sad….I’m starting to change my mind about letting my son play football.
mistermix
Jesus, the guy drove off a cliff the other day. He must have really wanted to kill himself.
The Dangerman
Very sad news, especially on the same day that current players got suspended for head hunting. Seau played for a long time (20 years?); unfortunately, that comes with a heavy cost. He must have had many concussions and, sadly, one can’t help but note that his career started and ended with rough correlation to the start and the “end” of the Steroid Era (note that I’m not accusing him, I’m just considering the common dates involved).
Again, very sad. RIP.
eric
@Mnemosyne: there is no doubt that the players are aware of “a” risk, just no evidence that they are aware of “the” risk. What we are learning is that the real risk is of a harm far greater and more debilitating than ever contemplated before. I, too, have trouble watchign the sport now.
Steve
A tragedy.
Lee
I’ve got two daughters and both play sports. After all the information about head trauma there is no way on earth I would let a son play football.
That being said, the oldest has already had one concussion playing soccer.
pragmatism
sad day in oceanside. junior was such a presence in the local community and in san diego county in general. he was genial and very approachable. he’d hang out in his restaurant down by the chargers’ stadium and extend his paw and a giant smile to everyone who wanted to meet him. just tragic.
currants
Malcolm Gladwell on football (and dogfighting) and brain damage.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
What a damned shame. I’m a lifelong Chargers fan and I loved watching him play. It’s hard not to wonder about the effects of all those hard hits, though. And I’m another who will do everything I can to dissuade my son from playing football, and who feels increasingly hypocritical while I’m enjoying the game.
Someguy
To keep kids and older athletes safe from these horrible, life-destroying head injuries, we have to ban three things: football, hockey, and Ron Artest.
Someguy
@Lee:
FWIW, you really need to read the injury studies on kids that play soccer. If they head the ball at all, the repetitive concussive force is brutal. I’d sooner let a kid play football in a state-of-the-art helmet, than field long clearing kicks with his uncovered head in soccer.
Mnemosyne
@pragmatism:
My co-worker is from San Diego and her sister called her to tell her the news. This is just reinforcing her determination that she will be steering her four-year-old son into sports other than football.
Emrventures
@redshirt:
Yes,injury is part of the game. Players go in knowing their bodies are going to get beat all to hell, and they’ll be on a first name basis with their orthopedic surgeon by the time they’re done.
I think more people are coming around to the viewpoint, though, that brain damage is not injury, it’s tragedy, and beyond the pale of what they will consume for entertainment. The death of people like Seau, because he was so recent and so good and so charismatic, is going to turn at least some people off to the game if it turns out to be CTE-related.
redshirt
@Lee: @currants: I got 3 separate concussions playing soccer, 2 of them pretty severe. I also read there’s some evidence that even heading the ball forcefully can cause a mild concussion.
There’s no easy answers to this issue.
Triassic Sands
@General Stuck:
I was wondering the same thing. If ever there was a case to be made against a sport, it would be boxing, whose most famous practitioner ever (Ali) is now on display as a tragic, horribly crippled example of what can happen when the human head gets hit hard too many times. Maybe it’s just that no one really cares about boxing anymore, so addressing its dangers isn’t a priority, whereas football is so popular and so lucrative for so many, it simply can’t hide from this issue.
But how to stop head injuries given the nature of the sport?
(And what about MMA?)
pragmatism
@Mnemosyne: your co-worker is onto something. the life expectancy and post-career quality of life issues are severe.
Culture of Truth
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ have signed Eric LeGrand, the former Rutgers University football player who was paralyzed from the neck down during a 2010 game, to the 90-man offseason roster . Bucs coach Greg Schiano coached LeGrand at Rutgers.
redshirt
@Emrventures: I get your point, and the more we learn about the brain the scarier all contact sports become.
But consider boxing, for example – you have to know your risking not just bodily injury, but severe mental injury, to compete. And yet people do.
If folks are honestly apprised of the risks, I say go for it. A whole different matter for kids though.
geg6
@Mnemosyne:
Yes. I remember back when this CTE stuff was just starting to bubble up in the press. I first heard about it just after Mike Webster’s death. For those who are not Steeler fans, it had been apparent for years and years that something was terribly wrong with Webby. Drugs, alcohol, homelessness, domestic violence; you name it, he went through it. You never read about it in the national press (at least I didn’t) but the Pittsburgh and local papers were full of stories about how Webby most likely had this horrible brain damage and that it led to his numerous problem and eventual death. His wife and kids all claimed that he had these problems shortly before he quit playing and that he was a great husband and father until it manifested. The autopsy showed that he definitely had CTE. He was only 50 years old when he died back in ’02. That’s three years younger than I am right now.
Emrventures
I remember as a kid a day came around 11th grade or so, when two consecutive weeks we had people end up in the hospital during a tackle football game. And everyone just kind of knew, without saying it, that we’d gotten old enough and strong enough to really start hurting each other, and tackle football in the schoolyard ended for us. The same thing is happening in the NFL — modern equipment or no, these guys have gotten too big and too strong to play this game safely.
Interrobang
I can’t even watch football because even with those pads and things, it just looks too painful for me to take. Add the possibility that I’m watching these guys sacrifice their intellects, identities, and possibly family and friends to their brain injuries for the sake of entertainment, and it’s all just too much to take.
I also disagree with you in a sense (not completely, but somewhat) that Seau did more harm to himself than to the people he abused in the end. Seau’s out of it; the people he abused have to live with that trauma and what he did to their lives and self-perceptions forever. Harm is relative, and where you stand depends a lot on where you sit.
Argive
Football helmets these days are great for preventing skull fractures, but they’re pretty bad at preventing concussions. And there’s not much that can be done about that. While I agree that the players are grown adults who are capable of making an informed decision about whether or not they want to play football, let’s not forget that for years both the league and the individual teams tried their best to keep this information from the players.
rlrr
@Someguy:
Some studies suggest the added protective gear may be a contributing factor. Players are actually more violent if they think their gear is protecting them from injury…
gian
8 players from the 94 charger sb team are now deceased. Sorry no link on cell phone
Sloegin
Seau is now the *eighth* member of the Chargers ’94 squad to die prematurely.
*edit* found on the sports.yahoo.com article
Davis X. Machina
The science goes back and forth on the danger to soccer players from headers.
Napoleon
He is the 8th member of the Super Bowl playing 94 Chargers to die before his 45th birthday. Even more bizarre check out the 3rd death on this list and keep in mind what the Charger’s helmets look like.
deadspin.com/5867720/death-is-stalking-the-1994-chargers
SatanicPanic
@redshirt: Pro-wrestling has a real problem with this, MMA probably will and I suspect that’s going to be the case for some “extreme” sports like skate and snowboarding. I don’t what the answer is, except to say that I’m glad my son is only mildly interested in baseball and nothing else.
Argive
@Triassic Sands:
When I was in college a good friend of mine told me that MMA was way safer than boxing as far as head injuries go, because instead of 15 10-minute rounds, it’s just 3 5-minute rounds. Doesn’t change the fact that it involves two guys hitting each other really hard in the head.
It’s times like these that I’m happy my favorite sport is baseball, although elbow and shoulder injuries can be really awful as well.
redshirt
@Argive: I got concussions in baseball too. Damn! I might be in some surprises later….
Seems like Basketball is the safest mainstream sport, by far.
Emrventures
@redshirt: Yeah, but I think there’s a difference between knowing and Knowing. And, yes, consider boxing, because I think it proves the point exactly — slurring 50-year-olds and Jerry Quarry in diapers killed boxing in this country, as more and more people said “Uh, not fun anymore.” While it has not shown up in their numbers yet, I think the NFL faces the same danger. Too many Junior Seaus and Jim McMahons and people could start voting with their feet.
Emrventures
@redshirt: Yeah, but I think there’s a difference between knowing and Knowing. And, yes, consider boxing, because I think it proves the point exactly — slurring 50-year-olds and Jerry Quarry in diapers killed boxing in this country, as more and more people said “Uh, not fun anymore.” While it has not shown up in their numbers yet, I think the NFL faces the same danger. Too many Junior Seaus and Jim McMahons and people could start voting with their feet.
Martin
@rlrr:
So you’re advocating that the NFL be dumped for the LFL?
Mark S.
@redshirt:
As long as you aren’t playing against Metta World Peace.
I’m surprised I didn’t get a concussion playing basketball when I was a kid. I went to save a ball and banged my head really hard on a concrete wall. I guess I have a thick skull.
redshirt
@Mark S.: I took some serious hits in basketball too, but the difference is they’re always incidental – like your example. Unlike football, hockey, all the fighting sports, and even soccer, where they’re fundamental to the game.
I’ve got an answer! No real sports playing – everything’s done through video games and holographic avatars!
But seriously, there’s no good way out of this. No helmet can reliably and consistently protect you against concussion.
WereBear (itouch)
For someone to play as an adult, they have to start before then, no? With young athletes, there is no such thing as informed consent. They are still in the “invincible” stage, and will take the money and the fame and the women.
This is a problem, I understand, because they changed the rules and the strategy. Can’t they change it back?
Culture of Truth
They are still in the “invincible” stage, and will take the money and the fame and the women.
We already had a Newt Gingrich thread.
Argive
@rlrr:
Very true. But rugby players, who wear no protective gear at all, also get concussions.
techno
Football is to physical culture what bullfighting is to agriculture. (TBV)
I enjoy watching sports because of the sheer talent on display. I love watching people do something extremely difficult and making it look easy.
That said, I have given up. Watching a game knowing that virtually everyone on the field is suffering some form of excruciating pain entertains me no longer. But what makes it worse, MUCH worse, is listening to the announcers cheer on the most wanton acts of barbarism while trying to make us believe that sport is actually a form of virtue. I quit watching football after watching the dozens of dirty hits the Saints laid on Brett Farve in the playoffs. NO ONE said anything about it until this spring. Certainly not the hacks in the booth.
Culture of Truth
where do the soccer concussions come from? head-to-head?
Uncle Ebeneezer
It seems like basketball is pretty safe except for the big men (the ones who most likely will naturally gravitate towards it for obvious reasons.) Most of the tall guys I know (especially ones who played into college) have pretty messed up knees.
It may not be mainstream, but this is another argument for my favorite sport, tennis. Looking at the greats, I can’t think of any that really suffered major (life-altering) injuries from playing the sport. Even Agassi’s back woes, were based on a genetic disorder that was only exacerbated by a lifetime of hard training (playing any sport would have likely had the same effect.) Not to mention, you can play until the day you die. I see 60 and 70 year-olds out on the courts.
Mnemosyne
@Interrobang:
I do sort of wonder about that, though. If it turns out that the person who abused you had severe brain damage that (at least partially) caused the person to say and do the things that they did, would that be of any comfort at all afterwards?
I really, honestly don’t know the answer. Logically, it would seem to me that knowing that there was a disease that you could not change or influence behind the abuse might help with healing, but I really don’t know.
Cassidy
With MMA, in regard to boxing, it is safer but only by margins. There are less blows to the head over shorter periods of time, but the 4oz gloves probably nullifies that. The refs make a very valiant attempt to stop a fight before someone gets seriously hurt but flash knockouts have gotten more common.
Culture of Truth
@Uncle Ebeneezer: .
Commenter: “There’s Fred Perry, once the greatest English player.”
McEnroe: “I think he still is.”
The Other Chuck
@Culture of Truth:
Heading the ball. I’ve seen people block goal shots that way, and that ball is kicked *hard*
Jim C
@Culture of Truth: Some do; others come from other interpersonal contact, or contact with the ground (or other barriers in an indoor soccer setting).
Argive
@Culture of Truth:
Players run into each other going full speed (not always intentionally, mind you; you’re not trying to knock the guy out). Hell, my 6th grade soccer coach told me flat out that soccer was a contact sport and that I had to hit people if I wanted to get the ball. I played throughout middle school and part of high school; there were two collisions where I probably got minor concussions.
Mark S.
Have there been any studies on what positions and plays cause the most concussions? I would imagine there are fewer concussions on running plays. Guys are prepared to get hit and they aren’t running full speed. You’re also generally tacking and not just hitting each other with your heads.
Mattminus
@SatanicPanic:
MMA is relatively safe because skilled practioners will win a good number of fights by getting an opponent to submit when he’s in a situation where HE WILL get hurt if he doesn’t. There’re lots of ways to win that don’t involve punching and kicking, and, at least for a while, the main knock on the sport was that it just looked like two guys hugging on the ground.
Anyway, what does one do to “address” the football concussion problem short of ending it? I don’t know what you can do to stop a guys brain from bouncing off the inside of his skull.
It seems sensible to at least lay off youth football if we don’t have an answer. Afterall, we still let adults box, but we don’t have middle school boxing leagues.
Putting an end to youth football would probably be the push that the south need to finally secede, though, so it would be worth it.
redshirt
I played goalie in high school and college and I found the position to be far more similar to football than soccer. It was rough – that’s where I got my concussions playing.
gaz
@Cassidy: I’m not sure about MMA, but gloves have been known to make boxing more dangerous, not less. The conclusion here is Bare-knuckle fights would break more hands but fewer heads.
And head injuries are pretty dangerous
ETA: Oops, I guess the 4oz gloves are better about this than boxing gloves. thanks google. =)
Argive
@Mattminus:
Penny Arcade put it pretty well.
redshirt
I’ll mention the gladiator premise again, this time from the fan’s perspective. The danger of the sport to the participants is a large part of the appeal. For example, amateur boxing requires participants to wear headgear, which is certainly safer for the boxers, but I doubt would ever be allowed/popular for professional fighters.
redshirt
@Mark S.: Don’t know of any studies, but I’m going to guess it’s Linebackers and Safeties on the defensive side, and Wide Receivers and QB’s on the offensive. The linemen on both sides get their legs completely shredded, but fewer concussions.
Amanda in the South Bay
You know, there’s also the issue of soldiers getting TBIs from IEDs in Iraq/Afghanistan. I have a feeling that brain damage is responsible for a lot of the problems combat vets are facing, from PTSD, depression, anger management, all the way to suicide.
Heliopause
Duerson played until age 33 and Seau until age 40. I’m wondering if mandatory retirement ages, depending on position, might be appropriate. Just throwing it out there.
Argive
@redshirt:
Linemen get CTE too. It’s not that they get lots of concussions, but they hit someone on every play, and the slow build-up of collisions over time will cause brain damage. This happened to Owen Thomas.
Culture of Truth
Interesting idea. I mean, the man played in the NFL for 20 years.
redshirt
@Argive: No doubt. I just meant fewer, if you’re ranking concussion related injuries by position. No doubt everyone who plays football gets concussed – maybe except the kickers/punters.
SatanicPanic
@Mattminus: It is safer than boxing, but still, getting hit/kicked in the head isn’t good and there are plenty of guys who rely more on boxing than grappling. You could just eliminate blows to the head in MMA, it would probably cost the sport some fans, but you could do it. You could ban using your head in soccer and it would still be a good sport. But outlawing tackling in football? You might as well just shut the whole game down. Maybe it will come to that. Or it will just be a game that poor people have to play for the entertainment of the better off, who aren’t willing to let their kids do it anymore.
Amanda in the South Bay
@Triassic Sands:
The Army several years ago switched over to MMA style fighting for its hand to hand combat training. I remember doing it, and hated it with a passion.
I wonder, given how pervasive the influence of MMA is in the military, if combined with vets who’ve spent multiple tours experiencing IEDs and so forth…I think these are serious issues for the Army.
gex
Ultimately, these are gentlemen who are rewarded quite highly for violent athletic behavior. You can not make a take-no-prisoners mentality competitor, nurse that for an entire life, add head trauma and expect there not to be negative consequences on their behavior in other realms. I do not condone domestic violence, but sometimes the blame goes beyond the perpetrator. Ultimately when you explore tragedies, the victimizers were often victims themselves.
RIP Junior. He always seemed like a class act in the NFL.
Roger Moore
@Lee:
As I understand it, they’re finding that the concussions in football are just the tip of the iceberg. The thing that’s really bad for the players is the repeated pounding they take on every play. Players can get severe CTE entirely from repeated minor trauma that never reached the threshold of a concussion.
Poopyman
@Culture of Truth: My 14 year old cousin caught a hard-kicked ball on the side of the head. She never saw it coming. Unconscious for 10 minutes. Now she’s … different. Quick to anger, can’t concentrate. She’s slowly getting better, but it’s been 3 years.
Argive
@Roger Moore:
Yuuuup. I think you’d see a big drop in CTE if teams went to no-contact practices.
danimal
As a lifelong Charger fan, I can’t express how devestating this is. Junior wasn’t a perfect man, but his passion on the field was inspiring, his dedication to the community genuine and the respect he earned was universal. RIP #55.
MattR
@Culture of Truth: Goalkeepers at my high school started wearing leather helmets 20 years ago after one of them got kicked in the head trying to get on top of a loose ball in the box.
burnspbesq
RIP, Junior. The Trojan Family will always carry you close to our hearts.
BTW, Junior’s son Jake is one of the best high school sophomores in America in his chosen sport.
It’s not football.
I wonder why.
MattR
@Argive: You are never going to eliminate concussions completely when there are large bodies flying around at high speeds, but I would be curious to know the concussion rate playing football versus rugby.
Part of the problem with football equipment is that it is often not worn/fitted properly. This is especially true of helmets which should not feel comfortable if they are properly fitted (kinda like ski boots). IMO, one of the first rules they should issue is that if your helmet pops off during the game, you are out of the rest of the game – either because your helmet doesn’t fit right or if it was properly fitted that means you took a worryingly massive hit to the head.
Similarly, there has been research showing that a properly fitted mouthpiece can decrease concussions by dispersing the jolt from the hit. (Though I am guessing you can still end up with CTE or similar problems since the jolt is limited, not eliminated)
RalfW
Interesting MN Public Radio commentary (text) the other day that brought up the head injury issue in the Vikings stadium flibbildywhipsit.
elmo
@danimal:
Yes. I had season tickets from 1994-1996, and I have lived and died with Charger football since 1978. I’ve met Junior several times. This is like losing a member of an extended family, a distant cousin maybe.
I’m just sick over this.
gene108
@The Dangerman:
The NFL started steroid testing in the 1980’s. Seau was drafted in 1990. He played in the post-steroid era.
The odds he played as long as he did and as well as he did and somehow managed to do steroids without getting caught are pretty slim, in my opinion.
On a side note, I wonder what we can do to get people, who are thinking of suicide or have issues with mental illness, in general, to get treatment. It’s really a pain in the ass to get someone committed and with the stigma around mental illness, people don’t want to accept they have a problem.
I really hope Seau’s suicide and Don Cornelius’ suicide, earlier this year, can hopefully get people talking and acting about mental illness.
Both of them were at the best at what they did and you don’t climb that high without self-confidence and self-esteem, because if you don’t believe in yourself you won’t try to begin with.
Something must’ve really been eating away at them, which would be surprising because of how successful both of them are.
gene108
@Poopyman:
From what I’ve read girls soccer in high school has concussion rates on par with or greater than almost any other sport, including football.
Girls don’t have the same amount of muscle mass to absorb physical contact, when compared with boys, so more of kinetic impact of a soccer ball, for example, jars joints and bones.
DougJ
Terrible.
JayAckroyd
The good argument against permitting performance enhancing drugs is that if they are bad for you (I’m not persuaded this is so–that under a doctor’s supervision it may well be that steroids can be used to speed recovery in a safe manner)then it’s profoundly immoral to take advantage of people willing to do themselves harm as a form of entertainment. Moreover, the idea that you make participation conditional on that willingness unfairly excludes people who value their health, and their lives.
The trouble is that this argument also implies that we should ban football. The annual injury rate for non-kickers is 100% There are few players who do not suffer some kind of lifetime infirmity or source of pain, and many who are quite infirm. Is this really okay? Because it’s voluntary?
Schlemizel
@gaz:
Yes, for years doctors have said boxing would be safer if they had to do it bare knuckles. It hurts to hit someone in the head.
As for hockey, if the rules were actually enforced and they stopped the stupid fist fights there would be very few concussions. But we can’t have that can we? Like NASCAR too many of the fans only come for the death and dismemberment.
The same goes for football with “blowing the guy up” being praised & rerun on Sports Center. The problem is there are so many hits & so many of the too the head. I’m not sure if bigger helmets would even help but if they did there is so much damage to the spine and nervous system it might not be enough.
Schlemizel
@gene108:
Do you actually think we are in the post-steroid era? It doesn’t seem like it particularly as more sophisticated drugs and better dosing schedules make hiding doping have become known. Unlike baseball the players don’t seem to be getting smaller.
Just a couple years ago a couple of Vikings got caught taking stuff to hide the doping and they went to court to prevent the NFL from enforcing a few game suspension.
AS long as the owners turn a blind eye (hey! the money is rolling in by the ton) and the players association is willing to let its members kill themselves & others there will be people willing to take the risk.
MattR
@Schlemizel:
The evidence seemed to indicate that they unknowingly took the banned masking agent because it was in a weight loss supplement, Star Caps, they were taking but was not listed in the ingredients (which led the FDA to pull Star Caps from shelves). The supplement was not on the NFL’s approved list which made Pat and Kevin Williams liable under the NFL drug policy, but the NFL also knew that this supplement was spiked with the banned agent and did nothing to warn the players.
The Sailor
@redshirt: If you don’t know of any studies, then you should probably do some research before inserting foot.
p.s. when the ‘sport’ is hitting someone in the head to knock them out is the point, it should be outlawed.
++++++++++
Not really, it’s cumulative damage. It probably started in HS when folks got big enough and fast enough to hurt/get hurt.
F=MA.
++++++++++
Be careful of self-selection in your premise. People who get hurt stop playing because it hurts.
And the only brain damage is to fans. Like golf.
Davis X. Machina
@Schlemizel: Hockey concussions are almost all head-ice, or head-boards. You might wind up on the receiving end of either one due to an illegal hit, but the fighting itself isn’t going to be that big a factor. It’s bare-knuckled, by amateurs, on skates.
gaz
Personally, I think the harm of playing in the NFL is pretty well compensated with cash. I’m all for educating the players about CTE, and other serious health/injury risks. I think most reasonable people can agree that if it’s possible to make the game safer without fundamentally changing the sport, then that is worthwhile.
That said, despite these tragic deaths, I’d no sooner ruin professional football than I would boxing if that’s what the cost of safety was. And I don’t even like the game, so maybe I’m just being heartless … OTOH: These people get paid piles of money basically to run head first into walls (eg: each other). If they understand the risks, I say more power to them. And their fans.
Silver
Avoiding a positive PED test is pretty easy for cyclists. Lance likes to say that he never tested positive (which is a lie, but that’s another story) and while he didn’t get nailed, IIRC every single person he stood on the Tour de France podium with either tested positive or was implicated in some other manner. Marion Jones comes to mind as well.
For North American athletes (football, baseball, basketball, and hockey) you have to be real fucking stupid or incredibly reckless to get caught. Hell, the NHL testing policy is specifically written to NOT catch people. They actually aren’t allowed to drug test in the playoffs at all.
Argive
@Davis X. Machina:
Depends on the player; Derek Boogaard and Bob Probert had CTE when they died. Of course, it’s hardly surprising that enforcers, whose main job is to fight, would have brain damage. More surprising might be if Marian Gaborik or Alexander Semin wound up with CTE.
Arclite
He shot himself in the chest so his brain could be preserved?!? That’s a FUCKING brave thing to do. If I’m gonna kill myself, it’s a headshot. Every time.
MikeJake
I bet after OJ Simpson dies, we’re going to find out that he had the kind of brain trauma that these ex-players have been killing themselves over. It would explain a lot.
brantl
How long before you guys realize what a meat grinder football is? Just wondering.
Lee
I’ve noticed something in the few years my oldest has been playing soccer. It could be attributed to the skill level increase or it could be coaches worried about head trauma.
But coaches are going more toward chesting the ball instead of heading the ball. The player usually ends up with control of the ball instead of just having it bounce back up in the air for someone else to attempt to control.
EIGRP
Lots of people kill themselves. Why does anyone care more about this guy more than someone who makes it into the local paper? It’s a tragedy regardless of who they are.
Eric
Heliopause
@The Sailor:
Uh, yeah, the point of mandatory retirement would be to halt cumulative damage.