Let us be very clear about this. It is impossible to play professional football for any length of time and not suffer brain damage. There will never be a helmet sturdy enough to spare you. There is no tweaking of the rulebook that will eliminate it. There is no fine, no penalty, severe enough to stop it. Play in the NFL and you will damage your brain. Period. The extent of it is up to you. On every snap, you are rolling the dice with your cognitive future. Ever seen anyone die of Alzheimer's. I have. It ain't pretty.

Anyone who doubts this can take it up with the family of Chris Henry, the late wide receiver for the Cincinnati Bengals. This week, it was revealed that an autopsy showed that, at the time he died from falling off a truck, Henry was already suffering from chronic traumatic encephalopathy. When he died, Chris Henry was 26 freaking years old.

Playing professional football is intrinsically unhealthy. Every player knows it. Every coach knows it. Every fan and pundit ought to know it, but too often, they all pretend they don't. The NFL is the great gravitational force at the center of the American sports industry. And it trafficks in the destruction of the human body. In this case, it trafficks also in the destruction of everything that makes someone an individual unique to himself. And that's not even getting into what caregiving for a cognitively crippled individual does to the family and friends around him. Which often ain't pretty, either.

There is nothing they can do about this, no matter how well-intentioned the league is about improving its workplace safety. The players are too strong, too big, and too fast for any rule changes, or improved safety equipment, ever to be fully adequate. It's about inertia and momentum, and not even Roger Goodell can suspend Isaac Newton.

26 years old.

If this were boxing, the weeping would be deafening.