Junior Seau dead at 43

[MartyConlonOnTheRun]

Post-football life

Webster was proven to have been disabled before retiring from the NFL. After retirement Webster suffered from amnesia, dementia, depression, and acute bone and muscle pain. He lived out of his pickup truck or train stations between Wisconsin and Pittsburgh, even though his friends and former teammates were willing to rent apartments for him. In his last years Webster lived with his youngest son, Garrett, who though only a teenager at the time, had to act as the parent to his own father. Webster's wife divorced him six months before his death in 2002. He was only 50 years old.
Webster is seen as an example of the difficulties American football players suffer when their careers are over. Other players who retired because of the effects of concussion or other head injuries include Johnny Unitas, Roger Staubach, Merril Hoge, Troy Aikman, Steve Young, Dave Pear, Wayne Chrebet, and Al Toon.
Webster was cremated after his death, and his ashes split among his wife and their four children.
[edit]Ailments
After death, Mike Webster was diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a neurodegenerative disease.[3] Bennet Omalu, a forensic neuropathologist, examined tissue from Webster and eight other NFL players and determined they all showed the kind of brain damage previously seen in people with Alzheimer's disease or dementia, as well as in some retired boxers. Omalu's findings were largely ignored by the NFL until Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chris Henry was diagnosed with CTE shortly after his death in 2009.[4]
It has been speculated that Webster's ailments were due to wear and tear sustained over his playing career; some doctors estimated he had been in the equivalent of "25,000 automobile crashes" in over 25 years of playing football at the high school, college and professional levels.
Nicknamed "Iron Mike", Webster's reputation for durability led him to play even though injured. Despite rumors, Webster never admitted to using anabolic steroids at points during his career. He did state, however, that if he did take steroids, "they were legal at the time".

From his wiki

[MartyConlonOnTheRun]

Post-football life
Omalu's findings were largely ignored by the NFL until Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chris Henry was diagnosed with CTE shortly after his death in 2009.[4]


From his wiki

I also find it interesting how no one cared until some punk like Chris Henry died in a reckless death that had nothing to do with the sport.

[ReasonablySober]

Andy Staples:

I hope football didn't do this.
Did the game Junior Seau loved help take his life? We don't know. We don't know why one of the greatest linebackers of his generation shot himself in the chest Wednesday and died at 43, leaving behind four children. It's entirely possible his demons came from other external factors. Maybe they were always there. We don't know. But given everything we've learned in the past few years about the brain damage caused by repeated head trauma, the immediate reaction is to point the finger at football.
That's the biggest problem the sport has right now. Not bounties. Not performance-enhancing drugs. It's the mounting evidence that repeated shots to the head could be slowly killing football players. Even if it had nothing to do with Seau's death, football has lost the benefit of the doubt. Every time a far-too-young ex-player dies after suffering some sort of mental distress, football will be the prime suspect.
Typically, we try not to dwell on the method of someone's suicide because we fear that might encourage copycats. In Seau's case, it could be important. In 2011, 50-year-old former NFL safety Dave Duerson shot himself in the chest and died. Only later did we learn why he chose the chest. Duerson had asked family members to donate his brain so doctors could study the long-term effects of multiple concussions. He had shot himself in the chest to leave his brain intact. Duerson's brain wound up in the possession of the Sports Legacy Institute, a foundation started by neurologist Robert Cantu and former Harvard football player Chris Nowinski to study the long-term effects of concussions. In May 2011, Boston University researchers working with the SLI announced that an examination of Duerson's brain showed Duerson had chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a trauma-induced disease the researchers had found in the brains of 20 other dead players.
Duerson's family has sued the NFL, claiming the league ignored the link between repeated head trauma and brain damage. Last week, former Cowboys Randy White, Bob Lilly and Rayfield Wright and other former players joined a class-action lawsuit against the NFL on similar grounds.
When an ex-player as young as Seau kills himself, we think of former Philadelphia Eagle Andre Waters, who died of a self-inflicted gunshot at 44 in 2006. Two months after Waters committed suicide, a forensic pathologist who had studied Waters' brain told The New York Times that the tissue resembled what one would expect in an 85-year-old man in the early stages of Alzheimer's. We also think of Owen Thomas, the University of Pennsylvania defensive end who hanged himself in 2010. When those Boston University researchers examined Thomas' brain, they found the early stages of CTE -- though Thomas was only 21 at the time of his death.
I spent a weekend with Seau in October 2009 filming an episode of his short-lived television show, "Sports Jobs." Junior followed me through the weekend of a Florida-Georgia football game. He could not have been more kind or gracious. He strummed on his ukulele and made fun of my illegible handwriting. Though he was the star of the show -- and though he was squeezing in the taping during an off week from the Patriots -- he never once pulled a diva move. He seemed to be enjoying himself. He certainly didn't seem like someone who would kill himself.
But I didn't know Seau, so I'm not qualified to judge that. He had documented issues. After he was arrested and accused of assaulting his girlfriend during an argument in October 2010, Seau drove his SUV off a cliff. He claimed afterward that he hadn't tried to kill himself. He said he had only fallen asleep at the wheel, but the incident raised red flags.
Did football cause all of that? We don't know. Maybe it's a convenient excuse. Or maybe almost 30 years (including high school, college and pro football) of repeated shots to the head did permanent damage. As a linebacker, he collided with a blocker or a ballcarrier on every down.
Seau came of age in an era when guys who "got dinged" in the head sucked it up and got back on the field. Only very recently have the leaders of the sport at all levels adopted better concussion protocols. Now, NFL and major college players receive baseline tests before each season. If they suffer head injuries, they must prove their brains have returned to that baseline state before they can return to the field.
Next week, web publication Slate will sponsor a debate between two teams. On one side, New Yorker writer Malcolm Gladwell and author Buzz Bissinger will argue that college football should be banned. FOXSports.com columnist Jason Whitlock and broadcaster -- and former Atlanta Falcon -- Tim Green will argue that college football remains a worthwhile endeavor. One of the main planks of Gladwell and Bissinger's platform is the link between football and mental illness later in life.
I'm inclined to take the side of Whitlock and Green. Like them, I played football. I could explain what football taught me, but I couldn't explain it better than late New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, who once told me this: "I learned as much at the line of scrimmage than I ever learned in the stacks of the library." I love the game, so much that I've made a career out of covering it.
But would I let my son play?
I've thought about this a lot since he was born in 2009. I'm hoping the game is safer by the time he reaches high school. I'm hoping I don't have to tell him he can't play because I fear for his brain when he turns 40. I'm hoping the people in charge have taken drastic steps to ensure the game goes on for generations. But if it remains as dangerous as it is today, I'm installing a basketball hoop.
The sport has faced such a crossroads before. When the "flying wedge" formation was killing players near the turn of the 20th century, U.S. president Teddy Roosevelt shouted down those who would ban the sport, gathered the leaders of the football-playing colleges and forced them to make rules to make the game safer.
If properly motivated, the leaders can change the rules and save the sport. It will require something drastic. Maybe they'll have to outlaw the three-point stance to slow the collisions on the line. Maybe they'll have to outlaw helmets, which tend to make players more fearless than they should be. Yes, the game will change. But remember one thing: In 1906, everyone thought the forward pass would destroy the integrity of the game, too.
Change won't come easy. When then-Rutgers coach Greg Schiano proposed eliminating kickoffs to cut down on catastrophic injuries such as the one that paralyzed Scarlet Knight Eric LeGrand -- whom Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Schiano symbolically signed on Wednesday -- Schiano was laughed at by his peers. Commissioners, coaches, college presidents and high school state associations will have to be equally bold and risk similar ridicule if they want to make meaningful changes.
Because something has to change. Football is too great a sport to continue under this cloud. Every time an ex-player dies too young, football will get blamed. That may not be fair, but it's the truth. Unfortunately, the sport has lost the presumption of innocence.

[Ayt]

There are plenty of guys that have chronic injuries from football but what are the percentages:

Boxing: 50-60% of guys leave with brain/head issues at some point in their life?

NFL: 1% serious...maybe up to 10% if you want to include minor stuff?

Source (not being a dick)? I just think your are off by an enormous degree.

[Ayt]

We also have Andre Waters.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andre_Waters

"Omalu determined that Waters' brain tissue had degenerated into that of an 85-year-old man with similar characteristics to those of early-stage Alzheimer's victims. Omalu said he believed that the damage was caused and/or hastened by the numerous concussions Waters sustained playing football. Additionally, Omalu said that Waters would have been fully incapacitated within ten years."

My brother is suffering from post-concussion syndrome from a brutal accident a year ago. He isn't the same person by any means. At this point, I doubt he'll ever be the same person. The change in his personality and his cognitive abilities (great enough to give him a free ride to the UW, which led to a job with a 6 figure income in the IT field right out of college) are gone. Anyone taking brain injuries lightly in a very violent sport like the NFL is fooling themselves. He's not an invalid by any means, but he's a shell of his former self.

Football players that start out in their early teens have no idea what they are getting into, and we do a horrific job of educating kids of the risks. We also have an entire culture encouraging them to "fight through" whatever injuries they may incur. And the sickest thing is we do all of this in the name of sport. As a student of history, I can at least understand cultures that treated young men in a similar way to prepare them for war, but we do it for entertainment. Football is ritualized warfare. I see no reason to pretend it is anything less (or more) than that.

We crush young brains for entertainment. Raise a drink for that, gentleman.

[humanrefutation]

Post-football life
Omalu's findings were largely ignored by the NFL until Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chris Henry was diagnosed with CTE shortly after his death in 2009.[4]


From his wiki

I also find it interesting how no one cared until some punk like Chris Henry died in a reckless death that had nothing to do with the sport.

If Chris Henry was diagnosed with CTE...is it not possible that his recklessness was related to his brain injuries? CTE "is associated with memory loss, confusion, impaired judgment, impulse control problems, aggression, depression, and, eventually, progressive dementia."

I don't know much about Henry's condition, but there are some who are speculating that his condition may have been a factor in his off-field issues.

[humanrefutation]

That article by Staples was spot on, DB.

[El Duderino]

Sure it is a violent sport and people are taking risks, but those are their risks to take, it shouldn't be your place or my place or anyone else's place to tell them they can't play football. Not that it is even realistic to think that will will ban the sport because it will never happen but that entire thought process makes no sense to me.

It's a tough issue that I vacillate on constantly. I agree with your philosophy in general - the idea that people should be able to make their own choices. But, I also feel that sometimes the community needs to step in to protect its own from harm. There are all sorts risk-taking activities that society has chosen to demonize and have been legally prohibited. Maybe football falls into that category...maybe it doesn't. But, admittedly, I'm pretty shaken by hearing about the suicides/deaths of football players, culminating Seau's death, so this is going to need more thought on my part.

Shouldn't we wait to see if Seau left a note or something that states a reason why he killed himself before just assuming it was concussion related? He could have chosen to kill himself for any number of reasons.

[MartyConlonOnTheRun]

If Chris Henry was diagnosed with CTE...is it not possible that his recklessness was related to his brain injuries? CTE "is associated with memory loss, confusion, impaired judgment, impulse control problems, aggression, depression, and, eventually, progressive dementia."

I don't know much about Henry's condition, but there are some who are speculating that his condition may have been a factor in his off-field issues.

I'm taking patterned history on this one. He was acting that way since he was a high schooler and his college coach called him a disgrace. Yeah, it could have been caused by CTE but I don't think it was likely.

[BigDee]

Just heard the news....what a shock. Can't believe it.

[emunney]

Sure it is a violent sport and people are taking risks, but those are their risks to take, it shouldn't be your place or my place or anyone else's place to tell them they can't play football. Not that it is even realistic to think that will will ban the sport because it will never happen but that entire thought process makes no sense to me.

It's a tough issue that I vacillate on constantly. I agree with your philosophy in general - the idea that people should be able to make their own choices. But, I also feel that sometimes the community needs to step in to protect its own from harm. There are all sorts risk-taking activities that society has chosen to demonize and have been legally prohibited. Maybe football falls into that category...maybe it doesn't. But, admittedly, I'm pretty shaken by hearing about the suicides/deaths of football players, culminating Seau's death, so this is going to need more thought on my part.

Shouldn't we wait to see if Seau left a note or something that states a reason why he killed himself before just assuming it was concussion related? He could have chosen to kill himself for any number of reasons.

Maybe a lot of suicides are shots to the chest, but purely anecdotally it seems unusual to me. I think that abnormal aspect of this compels people to look for answers, and then that it's just the similarity to Duerson combined with Seau's style of play that are causing people to jump to this conclusion.

[Kerb Hohl]

There are plenty of guys that have chronic injuries from football but what are the percentages:

Boxing: 50-60% of guys leave with brain/head issues at some point in their life?

NFL: 1% serious...maybe up to 10% if you want to include minor stuff?

Source (not being a dick)? I just think your are off by an enormous degree.

Yeah, probably way off but it seems that essentially high-profile boxer I see has these issues and maybe an even amount of NFL players have them...and there are like 50x more NFL players. Just a random, bad statement.

[Newz]

I think that one of the really hard helmet-to-helmet shots can do just as much, if not more, damage as an entire boxing matching.

[Ayt]

Sure it is a violent sport and people are taking risks, but those are their risks to take, it shouldn't be your place or my place or anyone else's place to tell them they can't play football. Not that it is even realistic to think that will will ban the sport because it will never happen but that entire thought process makes no sense to me.

It's a tough issue that I vacillate on constantly. I agree with your philosophy in general - the idea that people should be able to make their own choices. But, I also feel that sometimes the community needs to step in to protect its own from harm. There are all sorts risk-taking activities that society has chosen to demonize and have been legally prohibited. Maybe football falls into that category...maybe it doesn't. But, admittedly, I'm pretty shaken by hearing about the suicides/deaths of football players, culminating Seau's death, so this is going to need more thought on my part.

Shouldn't we wait to see if Seau left a note or something that states a reason why he killed himself before just assuming it was concussion related? He could have chosen to kill himself for any number of reasons.

The number of people who kill themselves by shooting themselves in the chest has to be miniscule. It would be surprising if Seau wasn't aware that Duerson killed himself by shooting himself in the chest.

Seriously, the chance you could survive the first shot is small, but you could still survive a blast to the chest, especially if you miss the heart and major arteries. I've read about people that survived blasts to the head and have needed to reload to finish the job. A botched chest or head shot would be brutal.

[MikeIsGood]

Agreed, Ayt. Shotgun to the chest is bizarre. Did he use a shotgun hoping that it would do more damage and he would go quicker? Not that suicide needs logic, but there's really nothing behind shooting yourself anyplace other than the head.

[Wilford Brimley]

Maybe he shot himself in the chest to keep his brain in tact for research.

[RiotPunch]

Maybe he shot himself in the chest to keep his brain in tact for research.

n00b

Wow, shotgun shot to the chest is how he did it. I wonder if he wanted to preserve his brain so studies can be done? That couldn't have been an instant death, what a way to go.

[Marley2Hendrix]

Few articles on the matter (first two are well done pieces from grantland, the last 3 are journals from scholarly publications [I could email the pdf's if anyone is particularly interested and is having trouble finding it on his own):

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/755 ... d-football

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/744 ... e-football

Mears, S., Shores, E.A., Taylor, A.J., Batchelor, J., Bryant, R.A., Baguley, I.J., Chapman, J.,
Gurka, J., and Maronsszeky, J.E. (2011). The prospective course of postconcussion
syndrome: The role of mild traumatic brain injury. Neurpsychology, 25 (4). 454 – 465.

Randolf, C. and Kirkwood, M.W. (2009). What are the real risks of sport-related concussion, and
are they modifiable? Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 15. 512 – 520.

Broglio, S.P., Sosnoff, J.J., Shin, S., He, X., Alcaraz, C., and Zimmerman, J. (2009). Head
impacts during High School football: A biomechanical assessment. Journal of athletic
training, 44 (4). 342 – 349.

from Broglio et al., 2009, Conclusion - We are the first to provide a biomechanical characterization of head impacts in an interscholastic football team across a season of play. The intensity of game play manifested with more frequent and intense impacts. The highest-magnitude variables were distributed across all player groups, but impacts to the top of the helmet yielded the highest values. These high school football athletes appeared to sustain greater accelerations after impact than their older counterparts did. How this finding relates to concussion occurrence has yet to be elucidated. (in essence, high school football has been found to be substantially more dangerous than collegiate football because of the lack of training, proper tackling technique, and often the quality of equipment that is being used.

Grendon, if anything we are severely underestimating the scope of the impact of concussions, not over. I wouldn't ever say that we need to ban football, but rather: 1) focus much more on proper tackling from an early age. If a player is caught taking improper tackling angles, suspensions are warranted. 2) much stricter, comprehensive tracking of an individual's concussion history. From day 1 of his (or her, yo-yo Deacon Jones) playing career, all concussions need to be tracked. 3) Akin to war vets and the litany of long term medical/psychological problems that they face, NFL players should get regular assessment of their functioning following the termination of their careers. 4) All kinds of outreach about the stigma of depression/mental illness is necessary for football players of seemingly all ages.

Also, Grendon, sorry you had to go through the hockey injury and being involved in that. Can't imagine what that would've been like.

[Bucksfans1and2]

If there's one thing we've learned from over a decade of concussion research, it's that no estimate is too conservative. Every number that's been thrown out, has been surpassed by the newest testing.

[Aaron It Out]

Maybe he shot himself in the chest to keep his brain in tact for research.

Not sure if you meant this sarcastically or not but I lol'd.