When I first blogged about quitting football, I figured I'd say my piece and be done. But after two weekends of real games, there are already two stories (probably more I haven't seen) that reinforce my decision. As I find these in the future, I'll tack them to the bottom of my posts - I don't want to let myself out of too many writing days with this issue.
1) http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=5569329 A Penn football player committed suicide last spring. His autopsy revealed early-stage chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disease believed to be caused by repeated blows to the head, and which has been tied to depression. Experts had thought this was limited to NFL-level play.
2) http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=5568272 The Philadelphia Eagles had 2 players who suffered concussions, but were sent back on the field temporarily. The team wasn't being malicious or (probably) negligent, but it demonstrates how little we know about head injuries, and how ill-prepared even the top level of football is to deal with them.
Yet another story: http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/09/14/thomas.football.brain/index.html?hpt=C1
ReplyDelete