Very interesting and sad story: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/jul/19/nfl-star-brain-injuries-destroyed Dave Duerson had so much going for him. A former professional American football player, he still carried himself with the bearing of a star. In Chicago, he was feted as a member of the legendary 1985 Bears that won the Super Bowl, thrashing the New England Patriots 46-10. In New York, too, he was fondly remembered as a member of the Giants team that took the Super Bowl championship five years later, squeaking to victory over the Buffalo Bills by just one point. He had friends throughout the sport, acquired over an 11-year career with the National Football League (NFL) and many years subsequently helping younger and less fortunate players find their way. He had a loving family with three sons and a daughter and a former wife, Alicia, who kept in regular touch, as well as a girlfriend to whom he had recently become engaged. He lived in a condominium that he owned on Sunny Isles Beach in Florida, a barrier island close to Miami dubbed the Venice of America. He was smart, charming, as kind and gentle off the field as he had been aggressive and ruthless on it. But he knew that he had a problem. There were the outward signs of difficulties – the collapse of his business, the breakup of his marriage, the debts. But there were also the internal changes. The lapses in memory, the mood swings, the piercing headaches on the left side of his head, the difficulty spelling simple words, the blurred eyesight. And hanging over it all was his fear that both his material and physical decline might not be coincidental, that they might have been caused by injuries to his brain suffered playing the game he loved so much – football. On 17 February 2011, aged 50, Duerson killed himself inside his Florida apartment. He did so in a manner that was in keeping with his unimpaired earlier self – meticulously, neatly, and with a thought to others. He had placed his NFL Man of the Year trophy, awarded in 1987, on a table beside the spot at which he fell, along with several notes setting out his financial and other arrangements. One of the notes carried a request that he repeated in a text message earlier that day to his ex-wife, Alicia. "Please, see that my brain is given to the NFL's brain bank," he said. The request might have been deemed a quirk had it not tallied with the unusual method of Duerson's suicide. He shot himself in the heart. * * * The Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy – a research facility so clunkily named that it's unsurprising Duerson used a semi-accurate abbreviation, "the NFL's brain bank" – sits in the pleasantly green and airy grounds of the Bedford VA medical centre in Massachusetts, about an hour's drive outside Boston. It was set up three years ago by concerned former athletes who joined forces with Boston University scientists to grapple with the long-term effects of concussions on sportsmen and women, soldiers and other people subjected to brain injuries. More at the link
If you haven't caught on to the harmful side effects yet, maybe you should not only play football, but leave the house much, you could be a liability to us intelligent people. I'll even give them this, that they're talking about more advance diagnosis, it's 2011, these players ld have ban together and easily funded their own researchers.
If you read what I posted, they have banded together with some Boston based scientists to do just that. The problem is that right now, a solid diagnosis can only be made post-mortem by dissecting the brain.
hell yeah. I dont feel totally sorry for them. I mean really they running into each other and fist pumps when they give a good hit. then pray when a man is carried off the field and thirty seconds later they are doing it again. Wouldnt they have figured out its bad for their health and they are getting paid for it. Im sorry but my heart bleeds kool aid
Wow I just read what I wrote, not coherent at all, but you guys got my point...yea, I heard just recently about some players signing up for the donation of their brain....and who knows, if they all gave a small percentage of their huge pay checks, some more research could be done and lead to techniques that could be study on live patients/recently injured...
This is right up there with that case w that woman that sued Mc Donalds for getting burned by their coffee... The courts get tied up w nonsense cases by these sue happy, money grubbing mofos. Sheesh,
Exactly, if you can't handle the heat get the fuck out of the kitchen. You chose to play the sport, deal with the fucken consequences.
this is a legitimate case, again organizations have covered up information that have affected ppl's descions, at times putting ppl's lives at risk. btw this is the real story of the mcdonald's coffee case- http://www.slip-and-sue.com/the-famous-infamous-mcdonalds-coffee-spill-lawsuit-revisited/
Im in extreme ambivalence about the issue: you dont have to be a brain surgeon (no joke intended) to figure out that this sport would lead to something like this. its like a 20 year old saying I didnt know playing on the free way was dangerous to my health. Im suing the state for not warning me. on the other hand they ( the league) should have stated hey longterm injury is suspect here or there is lT injury to your brain. be warned. Its merky for both
