died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest. this is just speculation, but I think the fact that he shot himself in the chest rather than the head is a bit of a big deal and points to some of the possible causes for his suicide - i.e. he wanted his brain to be intact for examination into football-related head trauma. between bountygate, all the former players' law suits against the NFL, and now this, I think the NFL has a real problem on its hand. Goodell has been trying like hell to curb concussion-causing hits, with fines and suspensions, but it just hasn't been enough. the game is too fast, and the payers too strong. the human body just isn't made for such collisions. things have already been progressing in this direction under Goodell, but I think with this series of events, we may not recognize the NFL in 30 years. much as we look back at Roman gladiators, people may well look back at us in 50 years and wonder how we could watch and enjoy such a spectacle of human brutality. the NFL is changing...
From the 1994 Chargers Super Bowl losing team: — Junior Seau, LB, 43, on Wednesday, from apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to police. — Lew Bush, LB, 42, December 2011, apparent heart attack. — Shawn Lee, DT, 44, February 2011, heart attack. — Chris Mims, DE, 38, October 2008, enlarged heart. — Curtis Whitley, C, 39, May 2008, drug overdose. — Doug Miller, LB, 28, July 1998, lightning strike. — Rodney Culver, RB, 26, May 1996, in ValuJet crash, with his wife, Karen. — David Griggs, LB, 28, July 1995, automobile accident.
that's crazy! seems like the causes of the deaths are pretty varied (except for the hear attack thing, but I don't think that's related to playing football necessarily), but that's a pretty incredible stat.
makes you wonder how long the NFL can survive these kinds of events and the negative press that comes with it and still maintain its popularity. I know Goodell has been trying to curb concussion-causing hits, but I don't think the nature of the sports really allows you to do much about it. there's only so much you can do without significantly changing the very nature of the sport.
That is what Dave Duerson did, shot himself in the chest and wanted his brain submitted for testing to see the effects that the head trauma had on the brain. And it isn't only the NFL that is changing, the NHL is starting to make strides with protecting the players and being more aware of concussions and head injuries.
1. I don't think this is the end of the NFL. Until bigger names start to drop (and let's face it, the guys who are at the most risk are the "grunt" players - linemen, linebackers, while the glamor players are relatively sheltered from the worst and repeated trauma), these are "sad news of the week" items at best. We were sad about Dave Duerson for a couple of weeks, then we went back to not caring. For every Junior Seau, there are going to be dozens, if not hundreds, of players who suffer and die in anonymity. 2. Which isn't to say I'm discounting the possibility of NFL somehow going down the same road as boxing. Then again, the death of boxing has less to do with talent and bad press than pure organizational clusterf***. Which is to say, as long as NFL remains as business savvy as it is, there will be enough poor, desperate athletes willing to destroy their bodies to play in the NFL. Right now, severe poverty in the Deep South is feeding NFL with world class talent, and I don't expect that to stop, even if a few upper-middle class white parents decide their kids shouldn't play Pop Warner. And sports fans don't care about ex-players dying. They just need something to gamble on and drink beer to. 3. The San Diego Chargers connection is, at first glance, shocking, then I'm surprised it's not happening to more teams. Plus, you look at the deaths one by one and you just have to chalk it up to coincidence. Three of the 8 deaths are accidents that have nothing to do with football (btw, Doug Miller died on his second lightning strike - that's both amazingly good luck and bad luck). Three more are heart attacks, and professional athletes are more predisposed to cardiac arrests because of their enlarged hearts, so it's hard to say if, say, performance enhancing drugs had any part. There's also the possibility that Seau was depressed, period. It happens to professional athletes who suddenly have nothing to fill their days and fewer adoring fans. Or just anyone. But of course, I get the argument that the NFL has lost the benefit of the doubt by denying that it's a problem.
I don't think it's the end of the NFL either. just the end of the NFL as we know it. which is to say it will change significantly over the coming decades. you can't get much bigger when it comes to NFL stars than Seau. he might have been on the decline in the last 3 years or so before he retired, but in his prime, he was hard to beat. also, I think this kind of thing will start happening more to the glamour players as well. maybe not QBs, but probably receivers and running backs who also take a real pounding. I don't think this by itself will have a significant impact. but I think when you combine it with bounty gate and the ex-NFLer lawsuits, it could have a significant effect.
The NFL has some serious problems. Lawsuits or the threat of lawsuits are forcing the NFL to take drastic measures. The NFL knows it is in serious trouble. If you are a parent, do you want your kids playing football? The big name football stars who are dying or have deblitating injuries are making the front page. However, what about college and high school football players? I bet when they start studying high school football players brains, they will find damage as well. At some point, the medical community is going to speak up about the dangers of football. It is one thing having a messed up knee. Having a scrambled brains is another thing entirely. BTW, RIP Junior Seau. If you want to see a tragic video. Watch his mother's reaction. Truly heartbreaking.
Besides the whole head injury thing, there is definitely a whole PTSD thing once players leave football. They've been Gods since they were in high school. There are clearly psychological issues that players need to address once they stop playing. That, and some f**king counseling on why you MUST have a gun at all times.
a few weeks ago I was listening to the local sports station here in Denver, and one of the co-hosts is Chad Brown - a former line backer for the Steelers. he was going in for some follow-up testing (brain) and the guy sounded pretty spooked about his long-term prospects. it was pretty strange listening to him on the radio speak so openly about it. I guess he had already had some tests, and his brain looked like the brain of a persona about 30 years his senior. but he also said that back in his playing days, if he didn't have a ringing head-ache by the start of the 2nd quarter, he didn't feel like he was playing hard enough. getting his "bell rung" was just part of getting into the game.
Lee and Mims both had severe weight problems at the time they died. Both were a part of SD's defensive line, which was nicknamed "Two Tons of Fun". So their failing health conditions were somewhat related to playing football. Although if they didn't play football they still probably would have been obese, so it's hard to pin that explicitly on football.
I'm pessimistic about people giving a shit about head trauma in the NFL. The problem is that we can't directly connect the cause and the effect - Chris Henry's autopsy revealed he was suffering dementia at 26, but he was just one of the troublemakers on the Bengals. People who made the case that Ben Roethlisberger's anti-social behavior may have been linked to the multiple concussions he's suffered were laughed off. We'll see how Hines Ward turns out - he's pretty famous, right?
I don't think the active players realize it or care about it too much. they're too busy making their money. however, it's the commissioner, the medical community, the media,the former players who are now suffering the effects of their football days, and the people at large who are going to change the way the game is being played. the NFL has a great thing going. but as more and more of this comes out, it will force the NFL to change direction. they have to walk a fine line between sticking with what made the NFL king in the first place, and the growing realization by society of the effects of the brutality of the game. the medical evidence against football-induced head trauma will only continue to grow.
You're right, I fear. It would take a sea change in American society for head trauma to make a dent in the football culture. When it comes to sport and spectacle, we're still looking for bigger and badder, so humans will continue to pay the price.
I do at least 15 or 20 disability cases for people with TBIs a year. It's difficult to form direct causal relationships between these things, but it wouldn't be difficult for an organization with the resources of the NFL to mandate periodic neuropsych testing. Even as a case study, the value would be enormous to see how these things develop over time. FWIW, I have won a case for a former NFL player, though I haven't noticed his name in any of the discussions about the issue.
Sad, sad, day. Even though I wasn't a Chargers fan, I was always a Junior fan. Until we have more details, I think that we have to be careful to correlate his death to head trauma. There are many reasons for depresssion - one of which is head injuries. Others could include drug or alcohol use or personal issues. I vaguely remember a police issue (domestic dispute) a couple years ago. Does anyone remember the incident? As someone stated, he could have just been struggling with the transition from the life as a pro football player to joe average...
I have to say that the physical effects of the game are a big part of the reason I'm not much of an NFL fan anymore. I remember seeing the 25th anniversary of the Chiefs Super Bowl win around 1994. So, a lot of the guys that walked out were in their late 40s to mid-fifties. It was hard to watch. A lot of them had difficulty walking. I'm not making any kind of statement and I'm not on a mission, but as I see more and more of these guys die young or suffer from the effects of the game, I just can't be that entertained by it anymore. I still like college football. Because I figured that most of those guys are still relatively healthy when they quit the game at 22 or 23 years old. Of course, as we learn more about brain injury and the sport, that might be a naive position. We will see. As something of a non-fan, I am fascinated by how huge the NFL has become and how passionate people are for it. It wasn't that way 30 years ago.
the NFL is presented really well on television. it's easy, heck, even better, to watch on tv than in person. I think that's one of the big reasons for the rise in popularity of the NFL. I love football, and I'll keep watching it, despite the head trauma. many occupations come with inherent hazards. people who decide to go into those career fields are making a conscious choice to do so. yes, there needs to be more research done so that they can be aware of the long-term consequences, but in the end, it's their choice. and if they make the choice to play, I will make the choice to watch.
That's fine with me and you are certainly not alone. I wasn't making any value judgments. Just explaining why I lost my zest for the game.
He played 20 seasons at Mike Linebacker. A human brain cannot take that abuse. Which leads to how to curve this affect of playing the sport. ESPN had Bob Ley on today with various folks from the NFL, doctors and Taylor Twellman, who it turns out was Seau's next door neighbor in Boston, and who had his career cut short from a concussion. I was at the bar so I didn't hear the talk but this topic was on PTI a few months back and they spoke of where the three sports of gridiron, hockey and soccer will need to go to solve this very serious issue. I for one would like to hear from the rugby folks and where that sport has gone with bigger and faster players, with no gear, few wearing head helmets and tackling just like gridiron. There would be the idea of going back to iron man ball, players playing both side of the ball which perhaps leads players to ease up a bit as the demand on fitness over size is up, perhaps take the facemasks off to force the player to be on his own accord not leading with his head ever, or like rugby just don't wear so much kevlar like helmets. I don't know, but there are options to follow for NFL HQ and gridiron leaders in the U.S. and Canada.
I think the key difference between rugby and football is that contact in rugby is much more controlled - they happen at slower speeds and players go to the ground, rather than try to eke out another yard. The problem with helmets and pads is that, although they're obviously necessary, they result in a superman effect for both the tackler and the tackled. Rugby players are much more fatalistic - they brace for contact and try to go down hip first.
This. Junior Seau simply played too long. If he'd cut it short 5 years ago, he'd probably have lived another 10-15 before the damage either drove him to suicide or dementia. I love the NFL, but the simple fact of the matter is that these are literally the biggest, fastest, and most powerful athletes on the planet. They hit each other really really really ********ing hard, week in a week out. Over 5 or 10 years, the effects are certainly going to shorten your life. Over much longer and... well... one of the greatest LBs to ever play the game just took his life. You do the math. We have officially reached the limits of the human body in most sports. This just happens to be how it manifests itself in football.
SI (IIRC) did a story a few years ago about football-related injuries, talked about Johnny U's hand and how he had to wrap an ACE bandage around it and his club every time he took a swing on the golf course. They mentioned how Earl Campbell had to drag himself up the stairs of his own home (I'd have bought a one-story house if I'd been him). I don't recall whether or not they talked about brain trauma, but that might just be part of the issue here- even I focused on the arm, leg and knee injuries. Ray Easterling was one of several players who was suing the NFL "over its handling of concussion-related injuries", so Wiki says, and killed himself on April 19. He got a short blurb on ESPN and no threads started in Football. I thought about starting one there about the issue that day, but I didn't. No one else did, either, and no other discussion took place about brain trauma that I saw. Ray Easterling played in the NFL for seven years and was reasonably well-known. His death didn't make any real news, and Dave Duerson's and Shane Dronett's made only a bit more. I can't imagine that there aren't a bunch of former college (and maybe HS) players out there dealing with the same crap but doing it in anonymity. It took the suicide of a 20-year veteran and future HoFer for this to get back to the front page and maybe stay there. Ever heard of Terry Beasley? Played for the Niners for three years. Has had 19 concussions. He'd suffered most of them by the time he left Auburn. There are only about 1600 athletes who suit up for an NFL game in any given season. That number equates to maybe 18 college teams or so if you add walk-ons- a conference and a half worth of athletes. I'm not saying you ought not like the college game, but I think it's likely that the number of affected NFL players pales in comparison to the number of affected college players (who, BTW, didn't get to earn any real money for their trouble). We just don't know who the college guys are. It probably was- people just didn't have the Internet and 24-hour cable to be able to see that passion in other folks on the other side of the country.