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| Photo Credit: Orlando Sentinel |
By Joe Schackman
We may never know if Junior Seau suffered from CTE but the NFL has to get serious regardless
There were plenty of signs of trouble for Junior Seau. Within the last three years he has gone through a divorce, a domestic violence dispute with his girlfriend and a car-accident that now is seen as an obvious suicide attempt. It all culminated last week when Seau fired a bullet into his chest, cutting his own life short at 43.
Seau was not the first NFL veteran to choose to end his life in that fashion.
Seau was not the first NFL veteran to choose to end his life in that fashion.
In February 2011, former Chicago Bears safety Dave Duerson rattled the sports world when he turned a gun on himself. But Duerson made it abundantly clear why he shot himself in the chest as opposed to the head. He wanted his brain sent to the Boston University Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy to determine whether or not his years in the league had left him ravaged with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). A few months later it was revealed that Duerson was morbidly correct, tragically predicting he was suffering from the ailment.
Seau left no such request before ending his life and now the difficult decision has been left to his family. At first it appeared they had decided to allow researchers access but now they are backing off that original plan.
It is hard to imagine that Seau’s wasn’t suffering from CTE. He played football at such a bone-rattling and violent speed for almost 20 years in the National Football League. The amount of hits and abuse his brain absorbed is astronomical without even factoring in his years in high school ball or as a Trojan at the University of Southern California.
Regardless of whether or not Junior’s brain is analyzed the NFL cannot ignore what is happening to their former players. No ex-baseball or basketball stars are turning handguns on themselves and whether or not the assumptions of Seau’s positive CTE diagnosis is confirmed the NFL has to get serious about protecting and helping their former players.
Joe Schackman is an editor and co-founder of Began in '96
2 comments:
I don't think the NFL just "has to get serious about protecting and helping their former players." The problem is more endemic. Football is a brutal sport. If the public is horrified by what happens to these athletes then we must demand changes. But with those changes come the end of the sport as we know it. Here's to hoping the MLS makes it to the big time.
Well obviously. But for players like Seau you can't go back in time and tell them the game is dangerous. The hits have been absorbed so the NFL needs to get serious now.
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