This guy is making a bad mistake. He’s trained himself for 7 years (counting high school and college) to play professionally.
All the NFL cases of severe brain trauma that I’ve seen; were for Veteran players with more than ten years of playing experience. Guys like Tony Dorsett and Jim Mcmahon. Most of the bad cases had 13 and more pro seasons. They played under the old rules when coaches told players to shake it off.
There’s no reason a player today should worry about getting that type of long term injury. Especially if they only play six or seven seasons. Be smart. Don’t waste those million dollar checks. Invest in blue chip stocks. Live modestly. Even six seasons will bankroll someone for the rest of their life. I’d do that and walk away after six seasons. That cuts my risk in half.
UNLESS I got several severe concussions in college or in my pro career. Then, I’d rethink even playing pro.
Borland hasn’t said anything about concussions in college or even the one pro year he played.
Shit we take risks every day of our lives. Just driving a car has a higher risk than getting a severe brain injury. Thousands of guys have played pro ball. Only a few dozen* long, term veteran players* got this brain wasting disease. I fully understand walking away after 7 seasons. You’re stupid to keep playing 12 years. Thats too many orthopedic injuries and possible brain injuries.
Show me even one case of a player with that documented brain wasting disease that played a short career. There isn’t one that I’m aware of. There are former players with brain injuries from hard hits. Just like there are players with spinal injuries. Anybody can get hurt. Thats true of any sport.
That brain wasting injury they’re seeing is from years and years and years of head trauma. Imagine how many head shots Jim Mcmahon took in his long career.
Regular neurological damage isn’t new. This brain wasting disease they are finding in autopsies is much different and devastating.
A smart player should quit after seven seasons. Don’t risk playing any longer than that. Remember Barry Sanders Detroit RB? He was smart and quit early.
I don’t mean to disagree and then not back it up. I have a file with relevant materials on this in my office from the recent NFL class action settlement hearing, but I won’t be there for a few days. I was talking, however, about “regular” neurological damage. Even one concussion can raise the risk of early dementia. I don’t think it’s unreasonable for a player to give up a NLF career in the face of the new information becoming available.
I’ll try to poke around the internet for more information.
The most famous hard hit in the NFL was Frank Gifford. They actually thought he’d die on the field. He was totally out for quite a few minutes. Missed an entire year of football. He came back and played several seasons. He’s in his mid eighties now and fine. Still banging Kathy Lee anytime he finds a blue pill.
I read his autobiography and he had really bad symptoms for months after that hit. We know now that he should have quit then. But it does show even one bad hit doesn’t automatically mean a death sentence.
I don’t dispute the chance of a player getting brain injury. But I think the risks are being blown way out of proportion. The NFL should consider a concussion limit. Three really severe ones and you’re done. Or even some gets several dings in a season they have to take a year off.
For the second, he’s doing this proactively, before he gets irreversible injury. He’s at greater risk because he is less than average NFL size for his position and he has to therefore move and play in a way that makes his head vulnerable.
So why not play just a few more years? Shouldn’t that be safe enough?
Who knows when a lasting, dangerous concussion will come? Borland has other lingering injury concerns that aren’t getting as much attention. He has ongoing shoulder problems in both shoulders that caused some teams to mark him undraftable coming out of college. Even though he hardly played for the first four games, he missed the last two games of his rookie year on the injured reserve list with an ankle sprain, and was generally beat to shit.
The NFL can wreck your body even if you retain a clear head.
Have you read your own posts? They explain why Chris Borland would want a short career rather than a long one. He’s getting out while he’s still healthy.
One season is practically no career at all. He hasn’t even bankrolled money for his future. He’ll have to take some shit job to even eat and pay the bills.
Theres nothing wrong with minimum wage. But I sure wouldn’t walk away from a multi million dollar contract after one season. They’ve scared these guys so badly that they are making bad decisions. Sure, be smart limit your career. No one should play more than ten seasons period. I’d walk away after six.
Brett Favre and Payton Manning were foolish for extending their careers.
He had 2 diagnosed in high school. And one he suspected but did not verify in training camp last year.
What’s with the judgmental attitude?
Other people decide to take risks every day pursuing different careers, and we often laud them for it.
The guy has a college degree and will probably make a decent living. It’s not like most linebackers end up super rich. Especially undersized guys like Borland. Most end up having to find work after they retire anyway.
Most NFL players don’t make it past 4 years. Borland was a bit undersized for inside linebacker anyway and a constant injury risk, even if he was very talented. He was most likely going to end up looking for a post-football job in a few years anyway. He’s just doing it a bit earlier and with a tad less money in his pocket.
As it is, he’s already got more money than all but a few 24 year olds, so he’s way ahead of the curve financially.
Between his signing bonus and first year salary, he’s made $1M. You don’t know how much he’s bankrolled for his future. He certainly won’t have to take a “shit job” to eat or pay bills, at least for a while.
His rookie contract topped out at $2M more for the next 3 years. That’s $2M he can no longer expect, but it’s not the millions and millions you seem to think it is.
He’s got a college degree and almost certainly plenty of contacts, including most likely the alumni and athletics offices at his alma mater. He’s going to get a reasonable middle class job and support himself just fine.
You say that like you would have a choice. Most players are out of the league in less than 4. It’s a small and rather select group who even have the opportunity to play 10.
Another way to look at is, he
“He’s trained himself for 7 years (counting high school and college) to…” get a free education, and a degree in a field he loves ( History), and before he started his career in his chosen field, he took a year off to work part time at a job he excels in and earn a million dollars.
All athletes take hits. I took a few playing basketball in high school and college. Thankfully never any bad concussions. I did get dinged and that was bad enough.
Concussions aren’t new. Every athlete, soldier, or manual laborer risks injury. How you manage those risks is what matters. A guy with multiple back injuries needs to give up construction work. Bad knees and you have to end a b-ball career early. Its just part of life. What matters is knowing when to quit before the injury is too severe.
When you get past the “name” players at the top of the roster, you have the “rest” whose names you probably don’t remember.
Be honest - if Borland didn’t shock you by retiring, would you even know his name? Would you be familiar with his work otherwise, especially if you didn’t follow Wisconsin or maybe Big 10 football (and even among Big 10 fans, how many really would know a random player from Wisconwin?)?
How many of the 53 players on any given roster do you know? How many of them were out in under a year? Under 2 years? Or otherwise didn’t play out their rookie contracts for various reasons? You’re acting like he had a guaranteed long term career playing in the NFL. Far from it.
Concussions aren’t new, but we know more about subconcussive hits and the cumulative damage of concussions than ever before. And we’re learning more every day.
Borland opted to manage his risks in conjunction with all this new knowledge in a way you disapprove. Well, that’s tough. People decide things differently than I do every day. This time, it wasn’t even a dumb decision. It was the very definition of an educated decision.
The dream of playing professional sports is so powerful. Especially for the majority of us that never played beyond college. Its such a rare privilege to play professionally. A gift. Just like being a professional musician with top ten chart hits. Its a combination of talent and luck to be among the very best in your sport or music.
Its difficult seeing someone walk away. I hope he doesn’t second guess this decision for the rest of his life.
Yet, that didn’t really stop a snap judgment about his decision, including bizarre bits about having to take a “minimum wage job” and high-fiving him there.
Fortunately, the general social media response has been positive and supportive.
Yet, I get the feeling there wouldn’t have been any thought experiments about any lifelong second-guessing he should do for not retiring early if he suffered a career ending injury in camp this summer. Most likely a “oh, that’s too bad, but football is a violent sport. At least he got a shot”.
And that’s kind of the point. It’s not about Borland’s decision. It’s about a romantic notion of playing professional sports, one divorced from an honest evaluation of the risks and rewards and focused mainly on potential (not even real) money and transitory glory.
The man made his decision, and it clearly was one based on the best information available, not lightly taken, and not based on the idea he was some kind of lottery winner who “owed” it to people who didn’t have the same chance.
Here and here. there are plenty of similar examples and there are plenty of studies that have documented that increased risk of CTE in players is largely a function of time played including time before the professional level.
A smart person should probably never play football. The reality is that the roughly $3mm this guy would have made over his first 4 years is not really THAT much money to play a sport that has a strong probability of giving you a debilitating condition. After his agent takes his/her cut, Borland would make around $600k/year. There are 1st year corporate lawyers making $200k in many major cities, and they can work for 30+ years.
More importantly, who are we to tell this guy what he should do with his life?
As little as maybe five years ago, this would have been the majority opinion among sports fans by a fairly comfortable margin. It might be a minority opinion now as public perceptions are changing, much as we’ve seen them change on other issues. I’ve stopped seeing being a professional athlete as a “privilege” and I don’t begrudge their own changing perceptions even a little bit.
It is getting better. I think especially when coaches begin to respect player’s safety and pull guys from playing quicker. Its something the NFL and college football will have to do to survive.
Rules alone won’t fix it. Its going to require reeducating coaches. Give them more job security so they don’t feel pressured to egg on injured players. Coaches telling guys to make bone crunching hits. That will have to change or football won’t be around thirty years from now. If kids stop playing at high school then that means the end of college and pro ball.
Somehow they got to get all the coaches to be more responsible in how aggressively they play. Yes lets win. But injuring somebody should never be a defensive goal.
