You have to feel bad for anyone with an illness regradless of occupation or how they got it. With that said  there is truth that NFL players know the risks and yet still play. Is it a fair analogy that coal miners can get lung cnacer from coal dust? Or cigarette smokers get cancer from cigarette smoking? Yet they still do it?

The league trys to implement saftey for the players, but then you'll here a commentator or Defensive player whine because they can't be more physical. It can't be both ways.

You want to fix the problem have a cut off of anyone over 5'10", 150lbs and runs faster than a 5.0 forty can't play. It would be a much safer sport. I'm just kidding. But these athletes today are  "beasts".

So in the end they choose the reward over the risk.But I still have sympathy.

 

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These players were being told that they were running little to no risk (in terms of brain damage) continually subjecting themselves to what are essentially low-grade car crashes. 

Were these players aware that they were playing a violent game? Absolutely. Did many of them expect to have trouble walking, moving, and getting out of bed in the morning (due to knee, hip, joint issues)? Absolutely.

Did many of them expect to face severe depression, anxiety, loss of motor function, and other awful symptoms due to complications from concussions and other brain injuries? Absolutely not, as the NFL had never presented it as plausible possibility.

If I was Rodney, I'd be scared too. I feel awful for these players and can only hope that research can help these guys reclaim their lives. Very, very sad. Shame on the NFL.

Don't know for certain if Rodney is being sincere or melodramatic.  What I do know is that our knowledge of concussions and their near term and long term effects has increased significantly in recent years.  We also know that the NFL's view of concussions has undergone a sea change in recent years as well.  We've gone from a player 'getting his bell rung', sitting out a couple of plays and then going back in to use his body as a battering ram for the rest of the game to stoppage of play, the player removed from the game and a structured regimen being applied.  This change is not without reason.  Although the players always have the option of simply not playing I think it's unrealistic and rather cynical to lay the responsibility at their feet.  This is not a trivial matter by any stretch whether litigation is involved or not.

Those are my thoughts; they are directed at no one and are expressed here for the sole purpose of sharing my views.

Maybe if the players would fill their helmets with the proper amount of air and tighten the chin straps the way they should be, some of these concussions could be avoided. It seems like every game we see on tv, a helmet flies off someone because the head gear is not set up properly.

Just sayin.....

In response to dreighver's comment:

It's called the superman complex. The military actually tries to ensure it coming out of training. It's a feeling young people get when they feel like they are invicible and on top of the world. They feel that it won't happen to them, that it only happens to other people. You listen to these athletes early in their careers and not one of them expect to have crimpling pain later on in life. Most think they will be the ones to come out unscathed and injury free. That why it takes most players a while to recover from a major injury, mentally. Because that superman complex gets shattered quickly. That's not for the NFL to pound it through the players heads because the players won't listen to the NFL anyways. It should be up to former players and the union to show the players the results of using your body as a weapon. Lets face it everyone knew football lead to long term health concerns since the 70's. Why then do players coming out of college think they can treat their and other players bodies like rag dolls and not suffer any side affects? Is it because in their youth they see the guys on TV complaining about issues and saying, not me? If so then it's up to the NFLPA to smack some sense into these kids and not target people heads

In response to LittleTimmy31's comment:

Just take away the helmets, they're the main problem. I have to say I feel bad for Harrison in fact I feel bad for anyone who thinks they may become a vegetable but at the end of the day they did do it to themselves, you think he didn't feel every single hit he laid on? it would be silly to think otherwise, there had to be some level of suspicion that he was damaging himself at the time. I mean if you smash a helmet off your arm or leg it's going to hurt! Anyway I feel the helmets are the problem, i'd like to see if there are still head to head hits without helmets....I some how doubt it. No more helmet to joint hits either. I mean think about it, what are the helmets protecting against? To me it seems like they're there to protect against helmet to helmet hits. Think about that!  

In response to PATSthebest's comment:

That is the better analogy. The coal miners have no choice most of the time and are forced into the line of work to support their families on small wages. NFL players have the choice whether or not to play football and more so if they play football whether to lead with their heads or not. Players who knowingly target heads or use their heads as weapons are like smokers. It's always, I won't happen to me, and then when it does they blame the cause without realizing they chose the cause to begin with

The culture of sports is what it is.  The league likes tough guys, the coaches like tough guys, the fans like tough guys, the players like tough guys.  We're all to blame for that culture.  The players aren't just doing it themselves.  We're all egging them on and they're egging themselves on. 

What we all need to do now is pause and ask whether we go on tolerating it or whether we find it intolerable.  It's really easy to just say the players know what they're getting into and they get paid well enough and therefore I have no responsibility.  But that's a coward's approach.  It's not that the players aren't in part responsible.  They are.  But so is every one of us fans who enjoys watching big hits and wants an "enforcer" in our secondary.  We're all part of the culture.

I'm not saying hits should be taken out of football . . . far from it.  But now that we all know the damage that's occurring it's up to all of us (players included, but not just the players) to figure out what we do about it.

 

In response to RockScully's comment:

Say something intelligent and there will be no need to argue with you.

Saying concussions aren't "proven" to do this or that isn't intelligent. Obviously repeated blows to the head are a bad thing genius.

In response to PATSthebest's comment:

That straw man suffers from the fact that nobody is enticing persons to smoke by offering them millions to do it.

For a long time, all we've heard from NFLPA and players concerning their apparent overly large pay checks, is the standard: "We have a short career, and have to make the money while we can." While I can appreciate this thought due to the physicallity of the game, I also weigh in that the players KNOW what they are up against, and are taking the risk for the money, fame, glory (potential SB champ), and, dare we say, "legacy". Yet, while they say this, they cry about injuries, and being able to functon as a human being 25 years after they retire. My questions is basic: which side of the bread do they want the cheese on?

If they're smart and intelligent (??) enuf to make the claim of a short career, why aren't they smart enuf to understand that boo boo owies WILL happen to them, some career shortening, when they accept the risk? It's as if they want to walk into a guaranteed "I'll be taken care of for the rest of my life, and if seriously injured, I'll sue the bejeesus out of thise greedy owners for doing this to me!" life.

Players ARE getting bigger, faster, and stronger, many with "pharmacutical assistance" at some point in their lives. So, if these bigger, faster, stronger players are careening around hitting the other bigger, faster, stronger players, where is their understanding that they are doing it to themselves? I'll assume that the players themselves really don't care about the potential impacts, as they still do it, showing a callous disregard to other athletes on the same field. If they did, they'd make adjustments in how they play.

Why not sue that DB that gave the OLman the crackback clock that tore his ACL? Or, the DL who's facemask the RB stuck his hand into while trying to go around the end, caused 4 broken fingers? How about suing the groundskeeping supervisior, when a WR makes a cut in his route, and tears up his knee when the turf has no "give"? A class-action suit against the helmet manufacturer, when the starting All Pro QB hits breaks his hand on an obviously too hard helmet?

These guys know, or SHOULD know and understand what risks they are running while seeking their fame, fortune, glory, and legacy at $2.5MM per year. Yet, they slough this off.

"Yes, officer. I know that driving without functioning brakes in a car is a bad thing to do, but no one told me that the brakes in THIS car were that bad, or were going to fail!"

OR

"Yes, yiour honor. I realize that being involved in a bar room fight with three obvious Hells Angels  is probably not the prudent thing to do, but none of them told me that if I didn't stop fighting back I'd get this knife in my ribs."

AW, COME ON, MAN!!!

In response to BabeParilli's comment:

They are enticing them by chemical highs. People just don't smoke for no reason it's because of a chemical high they enjoy. Same as players don't beat their bodies to a pulp because they enjoy it they do it because they enjoy the money that comes with it.

In response to prolate0spheroid's comment:

Sorry Pro but I'm not buying it. My mother use to say, if everyone jumped off a bridge would you? Yes cultural pressure is high but people have to overcome it. I never did drugs growing up and in my school/town drugs were part of the culture of teenagers. It was everywhere and worst yet we had a high priced prep school down the street so there were designer drugs. Heck one kid a month from graduating high school got busted for growing shrooms in his bathroom. It's called personal responsibility and we see it even in the NFL. Certain players are know as head hunters while others are known as clean tackling technicians. Why in the same culture does one player take the dirty road while the other takes the safe road? Do we as fans feed into the culture, of course, but I don't think blaming the player for giving into the culture is the cowards way. I think the cowards way is someone not taking personal responsibility and giving into that culture then blaming it. It takes real courage to stand against the culture and say things need to change, it takes a coward to blame the culture instead of the person.

Sometimes saying other people are responsible for their own actions is a convenient way to avoid taking any responsibility yourself.  One of the most profound ethical statements ever made was this in Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov: 

For know, dear ones, that every one of us is undoubtedly responsible for all

men—and everything on earth, not merely through the general

sinfulness of creation, but each one personally for all mankind and

every individual man. This knowledge is the crown of life for the

monk and for every man.

 

It takes a brave soul indeed to take responsibility personally for all mankind and every individual man.  Few of us can live up to that (me the least).  But it's something to think about everytime you're tempted to say "I'm not responsible . . ." 

 

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Part of me says they signed up for it. Just want to point out that CT scans and MRIs weren't widespread until around 1985 (when the Bears and Duerson were demolishing players). The dementia and chronic encepholopathy can be diagnosed with CT Scans. Seems likely that the NFL did not necessarily know about this until fairly recently. Now we here about players getting MRIs all the time. Might wanna add CT scans too. Just my two cents.

Granted, there is no doubt players like Harrison worry about their future well being given the rigors of their NFL careers.  Even if, as many here have said, the NFL minimized the impact of concussions as having long term effects, what about the decision of the players to play in spite of their injuries?  How many times have we heard a player would not be truthful about the way they are feeling so they can stay in the game and keep playing? 

I honestly don't think it matters if a player knew what he was getting into or not. Plenty of people make choices for good or bad reasons that leave them in bad situations later. This isn't a reason however to suspend compassion or concern for their fate or to reject any responsibility for trying to mitigate their pain or prevent others from sufferring a similar fate in the future. As sports fans we have a moral obligation to ensure that we don't uncaringly take pleasure in something that leaves others debilitated. 

In response to RockScully's comment:

I completly believe you here Rusty I havn't read the book so obviously i have no idea. I just don't get it though was it more to do with under handed tactics back then i.e. were people using more than their bodies to play the game? I brought this up under my Ridley fumble thread but it's as close to football as I can see as a sport....maybe hockey in terms of collisions. In Rugby union they play without pads and helmets and they are fine no one dies (obviously the occasion freak accident) when I say this I understand that football players are the elite of the elite and they come much bigger and faster than the majority of rugby players but they're still bigger than players would have been in the early 20th and late 19th century another point about rugby is that they MUST wrap up, shoulder hits like in football are illegal it has to be a 2 arm tackle. Possibly the fundamentals of the tackle are the main problem?  

In response to RockScully's comment:

 

This is ridiculous.  Here is my question:   Why aren''t more players from older eras victimized by concussions? WHy is this really only about players who have recently retired? Sure, Alex Karras was affected, but how many others feel the way Karras did? 

It smells sort of like a proactive strike backed by lawsuits to me more than anything else.

I am not making light of this, but could it be these guys made a ton of money, loved the game, and are using this concussion thing as an excuse?

Can't the depression or suicidal thoughts be due to the fact you aren't in control, aren't making millions anymore and maybe are struggling financially?

I have more sympathy for Marc Savard from the Bruins. The guy was absolutely cold cocked on a dirty hit from the blind side, to the point he hasn't played since. His ONLY concussion.  He's depressed, his career is over, he can't skate, can't do physical things, etc, but that was ONE dirty hit.

Why is it that it's about multiple concussions these guys shook off as players and are now looking to almost grasp for excuses as to why they're depressed?

I would suggest having a post career plan, realizing you were lucky enough to play a game at a high level and were lucky enough it paid so well for so long.

Some of these millionaire players need to realize there are millions of people hurting from an economic disaster that has destroyed people's retirements, for example. Or careers.   For the general public to fall for this as some slam dunk excuse for former players' depression is ridiculous.

There is no proof having sustained concussions drives former players to automatic depression and suicide.

 

 

 

You are so far off base a pick off is inevitable!!!

 

300 pound men are now running sub 4.6 40's 

Steriods and other Legal and Illegal substances over the last few decades has seen an increase in size and speed across the board.

Last but MOST importantly..THE EQUIPMENT!!! Rugby players suffer astronomically lower rates of brain trauma(reported) even tho they wear little to no head gear. As someone who played Pop Warner from the late 70 to my one and only tryout in 93, I've seen how the "advancements" in "Protection" have created a sense of invisiblitly in our modern players. We didn't lead with our heads much like rugby players back then because IT HURT!!!

I remember the 1st year we switched from the then tradional removable foam padding in our helmets to the blow up air pads you fit to size by pumping up the pads with a ball pump. Our 1st reaction as kids was to slam our heads into anything we could because it barely hurt at all....(the brain still collides with the inside of the skull which is the cause of the long term damage) 

To compare todays player to even 1990 is absurd and only shows your complete lack of knowledge on the situation. Everyone thought Bernard Pollard was overstating his views but as someone who understands the random piercing pain that comes with more frequency, I agree that something has to drastically change or it will get way worse!!!

In response to RockScully's comment:

Hey, its in a book so it has to be real.. What was the national mortality rate back then.  

This is real, having a messed up brain must really be terrible.

Always wondered how these guys deserved the big money they are getting. Now I know.

In response to JohnHannahrulz's comment:

+100 Very important point, MRI machines have been astronomically expensive up until recently as well. To the point where not every hospital had one. I don't know if anyone remembers but in the film version of Friday Night Lights Boobey Miles had to travel to Midland from Odessa for his MRI. Odessa had become a big city at that point as well so bear that in mind