Posted on 04/13/2011 6:45:48 AM PDT by InvisibleChurch
CHOUDRANT -- Terry Bradshaw, the Shreveport native and Hall of Fame quarterback, said Monday he is feeling the mental effects of numerous concussions he suffered during his NFL career. Bradshaw, 62, said he has been having short-term memory loss as well as loss of hand-eye coordination. He said he is undergoing rehabilitation for those ailments. Bradshaw said he believes the condition is a direct result of numerous concussions he suffered during his playing days with the Pittsburgh Steelers. "I forgot the numbers. It's pretty staggering; if you play in the NFL and start for 10 years, it's not good. It is not good," Bradshaw said at Squire Creek Country Club in Choudrant, where he was in town for a fundraiser for his alma mater, Louisiana Tech University. The normally animated Bradshaw was sober as he told reporters of his condition...
(Excerpt) Read more at ktbs.com ...
The helmets slow the impact precisely so that doesn't happen.
It’s the kinetic force that causes it. Helmets can reduce it, but I don’t think we’re technologically advanced in this area where two 300 lb guys hitting full on can prevent significant damage over time.
QBs getting hit blindside by guys significantly heavier then themselves coming at full tilt while they (the QBs) hold the ball waiting for somebody to clear zones.
Receivers getting hit by more than one person as they concentrate on catches in zone coverage.
Runners getting hit by more than one person at points of attack, in part at least because QBs don't contribute anything to a running play in the pro system and it's 10 men versus eleven.
Again the wishbone teams didn't have any of that and the Naval Academy's offense doesn't experience any of that.
QBs don’t hold the ball waiting for guys to clear zones, not in the NFL anyway.
Most of the big hits receivers get are one on one, usually by a defender who’s moving in the opposite direction.
Most big hits on RBs come from LBs and guys in the secondary, largely because those are guys coming straight at the RB in the opposite direction as the RB with room to build up speed.
The Naval Academy plays college teams, the college game is slower and generally with smaller guys (the final growth burst comes between the ages of 21 and 25). Nothing about the wishbone is preventing it, it’s who they’re playing against. They’re playing opponents that are 25 to 50 pounds lighter and half a second to a second slower at the 40, everything about the impacts is lessened.
They say that for a national championship college team you need two great players on defense and everybody else be good. The Okie defensive unit in 74 featured nine you'd call great and the other two very good, including all three of those Selmon brothers, healthy, and Rod Choate. Nine of those guys were starting in the pros a year later. Nobody moved the ball on those guys at all that year with the single exception of their own offense in scrimmages.
My high school team played a wishbone offense in the early 70’s and our running back gained 1,476 yards in 8 games. We didn’t have State Championships back in the day but we finished high in the NYS polls.
Our star running went on to play at Wisconsin as a DB for a season, but blew his chance and flunked out. Our best linemen got a full ride to Notre Dame and started as a DE on the team that won 1977 NCAA National Championship and went on to play offensive tackle with the NY Giants. Last I heard he was hurting bodily-wise.
The longer a person plays the game, the more they’re exposed to the risks of injury. Does that mean football should be banned?
Hell no!
Football fulfills the warrior spirit that’s inherent in many men. Sure there’s risks involved, but it’s a great outlet, especially when played in the spirit of sportsmanship.
Half my family works in the automotive trade and you get a lot of ex football players in the car business, and no healthy 50-year-old would trade his body for one of theirs.
See your point, but believe it is misguided.
If we eliminate full coverage motorcycle helmets, would facial damage incidents drop?
Much of the equipment, if not all, has been designed to reduce the incidence most common in football: smacking into the ground or other players (inadvertently), with head, shoulder, whatever.
The player to player impact has indeed amplifies the protection they wear, and treated as armor. But you cannot deprive the player of protection from violent collisions with the ground, or other players in secondary impacts.
“He was never rocket scientist material.”
Football was his God given gift. He utilized that gift to the max.
If you want to question his mental facilities, I think you are a little off base. He’s one of the few who have had a very successful football career, that ended decades ago, and turned it into a very lucrative teevee career.
That’s not smart?
What would you do differently?
BTW, I am 60, and I have none of that.
I’m sorry to hear that you do...
Movies...I totally forgot the movies he’s made. The last one I saw was “Failure to Launch” with Sarah Jessica Parker, Matthew McConaughey and Kathy Baker. I loved his nekkid room! lol
Yes...we should all be so stupid...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Bradshaw
That being said, I do wish him well. He’s a great guy, and he doesn’t deserve such judgement on the choices he’s made in life...no matter how successful he’s been.
I never said he was stupid, only that he was not rocket scientist material. That’s a pretty wide gap. And no doubt the hits he took while in the NFL have had an effect. I agree he has done very well, but I am certain he has agents and attorneys to handle that stuff. (Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears have done well, too. Nuff said on intelligence requirements.)
Don't take that to mean I advocate a return to 1920's style equipment.
If we eliminate full coverage motorcycle helmets, would facial damage incidents drop?
No because in a crash, the rider doesn't deliberately lead with his head.
However, in football, the facemask does allow the player to lead with his head. At the end of a game, look at how scarred up the helmets of linemen and linebackers are. The energy transmitted through the helmets into the head is probably not a lot different from what a boxer receives in the ring.
No one is surprised at the 35 year old punch drunk fighter but over the course of a 10 year NFL career, 4 year NCAA, 3 high school and several years in Pop Warner, a lot of blows have been received to the head in practice and games. I'm not sure one can safely say there is no adverse accumulative effect over the long term from these blows.
Much of the equipment, if not all, has been designed to reduce the incidence most common in football: smacking into the ground or other players (inadvertently), with head, shoulder, whatever.
That's true. Take the equipment all away and the players will begin evolving toward the physiques of rugby and flag football players. I only played high school football and only on grass. At the time, we always thought artificial turf was a superior surface -- until I first stepped onto an artificial field and my initial though was how hard it felt under my foot. As I bend down to feel it, I can still remember thinking I would not want to play on such a hard surface. I'd have no problam with a ban on artificial turf regardless of how much stadium owners complain about the cost of maintaining a natural surface.
The player to player impact has indeed amplifies the protection they wear, and treated as armor. But you cannot deprive the player of protection from violent collisions with the ground, or other players in secondary impacts.
I really don't advocate equipment changes unless something really good comes along that protects knees and ankles.
My advise to any football player would be to give it their very best but to hang up the cleats following a serious repeat injury. If the player is already in the NFL, I might tell them to do what they have to do to make it to retirement age but once they've made it to retirement age, two incidents of post season surgery, or medication would signal that it's time to give serious consideration to hanging up the cleats.
My perception is that the NFL players who ultimately end up complete physical wrecks are those who had 10+ year careers.
“(Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears have done well, too. Nuff said on intelligence requirements.)”
That is a very bogus argument. Both of those young whatevers flamed out at a very early age.
Bradshaw has been around, and very successful, for many decades.
As far as rocket scientists are concerned, many of them don’t have the common sense to get out of the rain.
Bradshaw has had a very long, and very lucrative career.
He didn’t survive this long in that jungle without some smarts of his own.
Since you are passing judgement on him, why don’t you fill us in on your own successes?
They could end up protecting people on the outside of the helmet as well as the one inside the helmet.
If hitting with the helmet becomes an ineffective weapon they will stop doing it.
...and who can run the 40 yard dash in 4.7 or less!
And players back then were smaller than today’s heavier (and faster) players. I wonder if it was the additional protection in helmets and pads that actually made things worse.
How many Rugby players have similar problems? And players who played football back in the days of leather helmets?
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