Peter King wrote in today’s MMQB in SI a little about Seau’s interview with Jim Trotter (also at SI) a couple of months ago. Specifically, his article included this quote from Seau, which I found more than a little chilling:
[QUOTE=Junior Seau]
“Those who are saying the game is changing for the worse, well, they don’t have a father who can’t remember his name because of the game. I’m pretty sure if everybody had to wake with their dad not knowing his name, not knowing his kids’ name, not being able to function at a normal rate after football, they would understand that the game needs to change. If it doesn’t there are going to be more players, more great players, being affected by the things that we know of and aren’t changing. That’s not right.”
[/QUOTE]
I can easily see how it’s possible here that Seau is referring to himself here as being the father who can’t remember his name or the names of his children. What I’ve read indicates that he was a doting, involved father, so it’s pretty easy to presume that the sort of brain damage he’s referring to could easily lead to major depression.
The medical examiner’s autopsy did not examine Seau’s brain for CTE, which is microscopic and requires more precise testing that will be done at a later date.
I still don’t see how this is the NFL’s fault, to be honest. I am sure most if not all of these guys played college and high school football. I am sure a lot of them played even younger than that…tackle football. How much damage was caused before they even got to the NFL? It just seems very simplistic to say the NFL is to blame for the sport itself being inherently dangerous.
It’s not just a problem with concussions, it’s sub-concussive hits also. You don’t need a concussion to damage your brain through repeated blows.
That said, I’m still waiting for more information on the whole “NFL knew, but we didn’t, and they didn’t tell us” evidence. It’s not like people didn’t know banging your head was bad for you. While it’s certainly not great what happened, I’m not sure I’ve seen any evidence that the NFL covered something up.
The problem is this: we’re not just talking about concussions. Those might be more common in the NFL for the reason you gave, although I don’t know for a fact that that’s true But the big issue seems to be cumulative damage brought on by years of playing football at (in most cases) in the pros, college, high school and earlier. That could add up to hundreds of games and thousands of practices and who knows how many plays and hits. That’s the root of the damage. You might be surprised at how much energy gets released even in hits that aren’t especially powerful. Malcolm Gladwell wrote about this a couple of years ago.
Isn’t that the purpose of litigation for damages, anyway? The determination is made as to how much the defendant is responsible for the issue? I imagine that even if the NFL is only found to be 40-50% responsible for what is going on with these former players, it will still be a hefty amount in damages.
So, playing Devil’s advocate. . . Why now? Pro football has been going on for a long time. Allowing that probably no one analyzed brain tissue of dead footballers until relatively recently, surely the symptoms would have bee noticed in players who would have retired in the 60s and 70s?
Pro football may have been going on for a long time. Understanding of neurological damage from concussions and cumulative sub-concussive hits is relatively recent. I would even say the study of such injuries has expanded dramatically through treatment of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan within the last ten years.
Missed the edit window, but 70yo ex-NFL-player Otis Taylorfiled against the NFL and Roger Goodell within the last two weeks. He was playing in the era you cite.
This is an unexpected turn of events… given that Seau was never diagnosed with a concussion, I am not sure what they are suing for… going after the helmet manufacturer (“negligent in their design, testing, assembly, manufacture, marketing, and engineering of the helmets”) is equally crazy since helmets are designed to prevent skull fractures…