87 Deceased NFL Players Test Positive for Brain Disease

[kneeblock]

Football is just dumb when you take an earnest look at it. Catch a ball and try to elude several men who are diving headfirst into your body and legs. If you want to show your ability to be elusive or tough, just fight. It's much more pragmatic.

The only way to really protect a player through helmet innovation would probably be to give them all Juggernaut style helmets.

 

[Darqnezz]

You can get a concussion from a hit to the body as well.

 

[Hired Gun]

Former NHL Enforcer Todd Ewen killed himself yesterday. He was 49 and had Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) from years of playing. I had met him a few times when he rehabbed with the Peoria Rivermen (St Louis's farm team in my home town of Peoria Il). He always came off as a good guy. I've never heard a bad word spoken about him. It's sad what happens to former players and dealing with head injuries but they have to assume some of the blame because they know the risk. I can understand how they feel because I thought I was Superman until I got in a serious car wreck several years ago and broke two vertabre. I went from someone who felt he could walk through walls into a man that took 20 minutes to put on his own underwear. There is allot of research being done on head injuries. Let's just hope they can find an answer sooner better than later.

 

[GJdeux]

a professor of mine did research on brain TBIs. He found, and others, that the brain continues to heal for about 90 days after the TBI. So you should rest for 90 days. Anything before that and you are going to add to the original damage. Pretty scary. I don't know anyone that would wait that long. No, he doesn't let his son play football, but he does let him play hockey under a very watchful eye.

 

[BeardOfKnowledge]

Former NHL Enforcer Todd Ewen killed himself yesterday. He was 49 and had Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) from years of playing. I had met him a few times when he rehabbed with the Peoria Rivermen (St Louis's farm team in my home town of Peoria Il). He always came off as a good guy. I've never heard a bad word spoken about him. It's sad what happens to former players and dealing with head injuries but they have to assume some of the blame because they know the risk. I can understand how they feel because I thought I was Superman until I got in a serious car wreck several years ago and broke two vertabre. I went from someone who felt he could walk through walls into a man that took 20 minutes to put on his own underwear. There is allot of research being done on head injuries. Let's just hope they can find an answer sooner better than later.

They're at a point they'll soon be able to diagnose concussions with a blood test, or a smart phone app that scans the brain.

 

[Sweets]

Football is just dumb when you take an earnest look at it. Catch a ball and try to elude several men who are diving headfirst into your body and legs. If you want to show your ability to be elusive or tough, just fight. It's much more pragmatic.

The only way to really protect a player through helmet innovation would probably be to give them all Juggernaut style helmets.

You could take the helmets off.. Rugby has a fairly serious problem with concussion but nothing like NFL and that is down to the head first tackle. The majority of concussions I've seen in Rugby come from huge body hits, there is no constant head to head contact.
The only way to protect players is to remove the helmet all together, don't worry you'll still get big hits all the time the technique is the difference.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3QDOWk1qIo

 

[Goldie Wilson III]

Excellent in depth article for anyone who cares about 49ers LB Chris Borland who walked away from the NFL at 24 after one year where he . Knowing he have to return his signing bonus, forgoing almost 3million from his rookie contract and future earnings.

On aside note there is a very controversial situation where the NFL approached him a month after retiring for a "Random Drug Test." He feels this might have not been so random and a way to discredit him and have other nefarious motives to save their asses in the future.

How former San Francisco 49ers Chris Borland's retirement could change NFL forever

Why former 49er Chris Borland is the most dangerous man in football

ONE DAY IN April, the NFL asked Chris Borland to take a random drug test. The timing of this request was, in a word, bizarre, since Borland, a San Francisco 49ers linebacker, had retired a month earlier after a remarkable rookie season. He said he feared getting brain damage if he continued to play.


Borland had been amazed at the reaction to his decision, the implications of which many saw as a direct threat to the NFL. And now here was an email demanding that he pee in a cup before a league proctor within 24 hours or fail the test. "I figured if I said no, people would think I was on drugs," he said recently. That, he believed, "would ruin my life." As he thought about how to respond, Borland began to wonder how random this drug test really was.

What did the NFL still want with him? Nobody could have held out much hope that he'd change his mind. On Friday, March 13, when Borland retired via email, he attached a suggested press release, then reaffirmed his intentions in conversations with 49ers officials. Instead of announcing Borland's retirement, the team sent him a bill -- an unsubtle reminder that he'd have to return most of his $617,436 signing bonus if he followed through. That Monday, Borland, knowing he was forgoing at least $2.35 million, not to mention a promising career, made the announcement himself to Outside the Lines. He has since elaborated on the decision to everyone from Face the Nation to Charlie Rose to undergraduates at Wisconsin, where he was an All-American.

 

[lookoutawhale]

Reminds me the Junior Seau situation a little over a month ago. He killed himself after a traumatic brain injury suffered from him playing football. He was inducted into the Football Hall of Fame and the NFL didnt allow his family to speak there.

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Junior Seau’s Family Will Not Be Allowed to Speak at His Hall of Fame Induction

By KEN BELSONJULY 24, 2015


SAN DIEGO — Junior Seau’s induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame was always going to be awkward, a chance to celebrate a marquee player known for his bone-crushing career while not dwelling on the injuries that might have precipitated his death.

When his induction was announced at the Super Bowl, his family rejoiced and started thinking about what to say at the ceremony in Canton, Ohio, on Aug. 8. Seau had told them that if he ever made it, he wanted his daughter, Sydney, to introduce him.

But the Hall of Fame does not plan to let Sydney or anyone else speak on Seau’s behalf. Instead, it will show a video commemorating his career, while avoiding questions about his suicide in 2012 at age 43 and the subsequent diagnosis of traumatic brain injury that doctors said they believed was brought on by hits to his head.

Nor will the video mention the lawsuit that Seau’s family has filed against the N.F.L., which is trying to curb injuries in active players and address brain disease among its almost 20,000 retired players.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/25/s...speak-at-his-hall-of-fame-induction.html?_r=0

 

[Goldie Wilson III]

As a reminder to anyone who doesn't know I am a huge football fan on all levels but the realities are becoming more and more apparent every passing year. Not sure what the solution is here but it seems as though the NFL is taking steps to rectify this situation. How much this has to do with the Law suits and pad publicity rather than caring about the players best interests is debatable. This is on remember of the insane number of players who wind up broke after a few years after retiring due to poor financial decisions.

Here is a little write up about a legend form my area committed suicide at 44. The doctor who studied his said the damage he discovered was consistent with that of 80- to 90-year-olds suffering from dementia which has been the case with others similar incidents. Waters said he "stopped counting concussions after 15."

RIP Andre Waters........Pahokee HS and Palm Beach County Legend. Football is one of the only ways out of Poverty in this region near Lake Okeechobee and no area in the country has produced as many D1 and NFL players per capita. @I Wild Each It might appreciate these two stories when he gets a minute from being awesome somewhere in Lousiville.

'Football killed him': The legacy of Pahokee's Andre Waters | www.palmbeachpost.com

The Pahokee native, undersized as an NFL safety at only 185 pounds, paid a price for using his head as a battering ram. Although he put one opponent out of the league permanently, the collisions also took a toll on Waters, who stopped counting concussions after his 15th.

Nearly four years ago, Waters stepped onto the pool deck of his Tampa home in the middle of the night clutching a .32-caliber Smith & Wesson pistol. He ended his life after only 44 years.

After Waters' suicide, Bennet Omalu, the doctor who studied his brain - and that of other NFL players who died young - said the damage he discovered was consistent with that of 80- to 90-year-olds suffering from dementia.

 

[Goldie Wilson III]

Excellent information @lookoutawhale. I was actually going to bring him up as well being that he is probably this most high profile player that this has affected like this. One of the all time greats and most passionate players to ever step on the field. Another in a series of bad PR moves by the NFL the past couple years.

His daughter says she would have not mentioned the ongoing law suits/situations that led to his death but rather spoke about the Junior the player and the man. Who knows what the truth is there but the NFL should have repsected Junior Seau's wishing of having his daughter introduce him and taken their chances out of respect for his contributions to the game and his tragic early death.[/QUOTE]