NFL player decides health must come first
In the last week or so, we have seen a noteworthy number of still-in-their-prime National Football League players who have decided to leave millions of dollars on the table and abandon their professional football careers.
Patrick Willis, a dominant 30-year-old linebacker for the San Francisco 49ers, passed up a $7.8 million salary for 2015, citing nagging foot injuries. Jason Worilds, a free-agent linebacker who had spent all of his career with the Pittsburgh Steelers, quit at age 27 to devote more time to his church work. Tennessee Titans quarterback Jake Locker decided, at age 26, that he simply had lost the desire to play. But the early retirement that has garnered the most attention is that of 24-year-old 49ers linebacker Chris Borland, who announced he was giving up the game and perhaps tens of millions of dollars because he simply refused to take the risk that injuries suffered today might come back to haunt his tomorrows.
And who could blame him for worrying?
The evidence is mounting that a player in today’s NFL is rolling the dice as to whether he someday will be mentally incapacitated to some degree as a result of the hits he is absorbing now. Perhaps he’ll just suffer some relatively minor memory problems, like former Steelers quarterback and current broadcaster Terry Bradshaw. But it could be worse, much worse, as a seemingly endless string of tragic cases illustrates. The following players all were diagnosed, after death, as suffering from the degenerative brain disease CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy):
• Dave Duerson, former Pro Bowl safety with the Chicago Bears, shot himself to death in 2011 at age 50.
• Terry Long, who had been an offensive lineman for the Steelers, killed himself at the age of 45 in 2005 by drinking antifreeze.
• Junior Seau, a Hall of Fame linebacker for the San Diego Chargers, Miami Dolphins and New England Patriots, took his own life with a gun in 2012 at age 43, just a couple of years after his retirement.
• Jovan Belcher, a linebacker with the Kansas City Chiefs, murdered his girlfriend and then shot himself to death at the Chiefs’ training facility in 2012. He was 25.
• And then there’s the case of Mike Webster. The Hall of Fame center, who spent the bulk of his career with the Steelers, became the poster child for brain injuries suffered by NFL players and, through litigation, helped to force the NFL to admit it had a concussion problem. Suffering from dementia and depression, among other ailments, Webster sometimes found himself living in his car. He died at 50 in 2002.
CTE is being found in an increasing number of former NFL players, but postmortems also are identifying the disease in college and even high school football players. Borland was aware of this, and he said a mild concussion he suffered in last year’s training camp, before his first and only season in the NFL, started him wondering about whether the rewards of playing pro football were worth the possible consequences.
“I just honestly want to do what’s best for my health,” Borland told ESPN. “From what I’ve researched and what I’ve experienced, I don’t think it’s worth the risk. … I’m concerned that if you wait (until) you have symptoms, it’s too late.”
The NFL, which has shot itself in the foot on this issue so many times that it’s a wonder it still has feet, tried to put the best spin on Borland’s decision, saying in a statement, “By any measure, football has never been safer, and we continue to make progress with rule changes, safer tackling techniques at all levels of football, and better equipment, protocols and medical care for players.”
Fact is, NFL players are bigger, stronger and faster than ever before. No matter how much the equipment is improved and no matter what tackling techniques are employed, there is hitting on every play, much of it extremely violent, and the league can do only so much to prevent players’ brains from banging off the insides of their skulls.
Sports journalist Israel Gutierrez perhaps put it best the other day when he said, “It’s never been safer, but it’s still not close to safe.”