Posted on 05/03/2012 4:17:30 AM PDT by No One Special
Professional football should come with a warning label. Like cigarettes, football can be hazardous to your health ... and all too frequently lately it can be fatal.
If the sad truth of Junior Seau’s tragic death yesterday is that it came by his own hand, as Oceanside, Calif., police believe was the case, he is only the latest example of the ravages of a sport whose concussive demands seem to be regularly destroying its own.
Only a week ago, Ray Easterling, a former defensive back with the Atlanta Falcons, took his life in similar fashion — with a handgun that lay by his side when his wife found his body inside their home in Richmond, Va. Seau was found similarly in a bedroom overlooking the Pacific Ocean by his girlfriend yesterday morning.
Like ex-Chicago Bears safety Dave Duerson, who took his life a year ago, Seau apparently shot himself in the chest. In Duerson’s case a note he left made clear he had done so to preserve his brain for study by a Boston University medical team tying head trauma in sports to the presence of CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy), a protein buildup in the brain causing progressive degenerative deterioration.
The accumulation of tau protein kills certain parts of the brain related to impulse control and results in dementia, early onset Alzheimer’s, memory loss, aggression, confusion and depression. Often it leads to suicide.
Easterling was the lead plaintiff in the first of what has become an avalanche of lawsuits filed by more than 1,000 retired NFL players against the league, charging it with knowingly and willingly ignoring information tying concussions with long-term brain damage. According to the Easterling lawsuit filed last August, the NFL “continuously and vehemently denied that it knew, should have known or believed that there is any relationship between NFL players suffering concussions while playing ... and long-term problems such as headaches, dizziness, dementia and/or Alzheimer’s disease that many retired players have experienced.”
Easterling, 62, allegedly suffered bouts of depression, insomnia and other symptoms linked to repeated head trauma for 20 years before being diagnosed a year ago with dementia. Seau was 43 when he took his life, barely three years after the end of a 20-year NFL career in which he was a 12-time Pro Bowl selection and the definition of the often misused term “first ballot Hall of Famer.’’
“He felt like his brain was falling off,’’ Easterling’s wife, Mary Ann, told foxsports.com after his death. “He was losing control.’’
Now we have Seau, a gentle bear of a man known in San Diego not only for his exemplary playing career but also for his charitable foundation begun 20 years ago and for a popular restaurant that bore his name. He had, it would seem, everything to live for, but ended up alone and despairing in his final minutes after having texted his ex-wife, Gina DeBoer, and their three children individually “I love you’’ the previous day.
None thought much of it beyond appreciating that expression, but late yesterday DeBoer responded to the tragedy on her Facebook page with one word: “lost.’’
There is so much pain in that one word and in Seau’s passing. Anyone who knew him quickly recognized his passion for football and life, a man easily approachable and openly kind, even to strangers.
Now he is gone in a haze very likely caused by the savagery of the game he loved. Pro football and the men who run it have much to think about this morning beyond grief. They have to think about where their game is headed.
And your free market/social darwinism outlook is one I might have shared even just a couple of years ago. No longer. Any person suffering from depression would gladly trade any material riches they have to be rid of it. Sadly, though, the damage was likely done to these individuals before they had ability to understand its ramifications.
Without an audience, without the promise of riches and fame, football would be consigned to the same area in our culture as fight clubs.
you have “bad” info. Studies, as far back as the 1960’s, have shown that Soccer causes more head injuries and later in life “punch drunkenness”than either boxing or football. They not only use the head on the ball but constantly bang heads going for a ball,without head gear. A note- leather balls, after getting wet(grass, rain, dew,etc), are extremely dense
you have “bad” info. Studies, as far back as the 1960’s, have shown that Soccer causes more head injuries and later in life “punch drunkenness”than either boxing or football. They not only use the head on the ball but constantly bang heads going for a ball,without head gear. A note- leather balls, after getting wet(grass, rain, dew,etc), are extremely dense
Flag football ... is that where this is going?
I've been a NFL season ticket holder for 35 years ... it's a rough game & players that make it to the NFL are handsomely rewarded. Some players walk away disabled ... that's the risk they take going in ... and given the opportunity to start their football career over again most would follow that same path.
Give me a break. He had been divorced TEN YEARS.
Some of the folks on this thread, insisting football can't possibly have been a factor because They Believe™, willfully ignore the physical brain studies.
I've seen what brain injury can do to a person and can understand why these players would take their lives before they full lost control and became unrecognizable as themselves.
Some of the folks on this thread, insisting football can't possibly have been a factor because They Believe™, willfully ignore the physical brain studies.
I've seen what brain injury can do to a person and can understand why these players would take their lives before they full lost control and became unrecognizable as themselves.
I have no clue if his suicide was related to his years of playing football or not, but I do know playing that video of his mother over & over again is unnecessary and cruel. I can understand airing it once, maybe twice. Other than that, over the top.
May he rest in peace. By all accounts he was a good man who helped others, but could not reach out for his own help.
When you play rugby, you have to be very careful where you put your head when tackling people. There is another caution about dirty play in rugby. You are on the field for 80 minutes. That is a long time for your opponents and their mates to get even!
It ain't just you. And I'm certainly glad to learn it ain't just me.
Every single NFL game is shown on regular network television. But unless you pay $50+ a month you don't get to watch baseball games other than sat. afternoons and the post-season. We get fewer games on satellite than we used to get on cable.
The MLB channel is a joke. The ESPN stations show a lot of games only for the first couple weeks. Then it's a trickle. And we've gone from getting to follow the Braves, Cardinals, and Reds to just the Braves. Even WGN doesn't show as many Cubs games as it used to.
I'd like to see how NFL fans would react if they were denied their games like we baseball fans are.
As I said above, the hypothesis that football-related brain damage is a factor in the suicides (and other neurological problems) is reasonable. It should be studied further. It’s possible - practically certain, in fact - that there are also other factors in each individual case.
“That is not accurate. According to NIMH, the highest rate (14.3 per 100,000) is for people 65 and older. The next highest is ages 20-24, followed by 15-19.
The author’s logic is correct, as far as it goes. If men from age groups that are less likely to commit suicide are doing so in unexpected numbers, then perhaps they have a significant factor in common: a factor such as head trauma. This reasoning doesn’t prove the causation, but the article says physical studies and other research are being done on the subject.”
I have to say, this display of knowledge, logic, and scientific discipline may have turned me on a little. I see it so rarely, and when I do, the reaction is nearly physical.
Congratulations.
You sure you want to go there? (Sorry. Couldn't resist.)
I apologize for the off-topic posts. I don't follow football but it sounds as if this Junior Seau was a relatively nice fellow, and of course suicide is always tragic. Condolences to his family, friends, and fans.
You can't possibly mean that. The gladiators fought to the death. Please tell us you aren't really that "libertarian."
I laughed at that, too!
And yes, it’s a very sad event, regardless of the immediate cause of his suicide.
The fact that they can't handle life afterwards due to personal weakness is not the fault of the game...
That's not likely. Limbaugh once said that the only reason to attend a soccer game is to watch the fans of the losing team riot.
Why, thank you! I sometimes have a similar reaction to a particularly brilliant Thomas Sowell column ;-).
It’s amazing that a simple application of the scientific method - make an observation, form a hypothesis of the cause, TEST the hypothesis, repeat as necessary - could be so unusual, but it seems that many of the comments go from “form a hypothesis” to “declare the hypothesis correct” with no concept of intermediate steps.
Jr's entire career was when Steroid use was rampant at all levels, even in High School. So besides the naturally occurring brain trauma from playing what about an added connection like 'Steroid withdrawal'?
You can just tell by looking at these ex-players that they were 'juiced' while playing as a couple years after retiring they're body mass is like 40% of what it was. That just doesn't happen and just isn't normal.
And I mean a connection to all Pro players who commit suicide, not just in the NFL. That connection should be looked at too. Not just the knocks to the head causing depression. After all we do know that 'Roid Rage' exists. That can't be the only effect it has on the brain.
(I just looked at Wiki. Depression can, or MAY, be caused by Steroid use, but the study was 'inconclusive'.)
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