augsnod

It's true that we don't know all the details, but you're just speculating here. What we DO know is that CTE results in progressive brain damage from glutamate toxicity. Among other changes, you suffer personality changes that can make you interpret situations in extremes. Glutamate toxicity also causes severe anxiety. You have a hard time with executive function, making things like planning, organizing, and decision-making very difficult. Even if you're not depressed, your baseline stress can be relentless. Major life challenges that are difficult for "normal" people to get through can push you over the edge.

There isn't a whole lot of empathy or sympathy. You appear to function pretty normally, so people assume your problem is purely psychological, which typically comes with less concern. People think you can just take a pill, think positively, and "pull yourself together".

In cases of people like Seau's, they also have to deal with all the people out there who dismiss the pain because it was Seau's choice to play and he made a lot of money. His choice and his money don't make him any less human.

Fencer

Sure gives context for how the concussion issue could be neglected for so long.

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"To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness." -- Oscar Wilde

ahmed

Are people surprised by these stories? What these players do and go through is not natural and would easily kill regular people. It is extremely brutal and nothing other than pain and injuries, short and long term, can result from them. So imagine doing this week in and week one for years?

I remember a few years ago when I first started watching football, I heard that players' life expectancy was around 57. That alone tells you how violent this sport is and its effects. In this day and age, people don't die in their 50s naturally.

Is this sad and painful? Yes. Is making rules to protect the game good? Yes. But let's not kid ourselves? How many people would walk away from watching football to avoid these players injuries and pain?

The most telling thing about this article? Taylor's last sentence. The fact is players, no matter how much pain they need to endure, no matter how much data they hear about the side effects of what they do, they will still play and we will still watch.

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“When you hang with a bunch of 300-pound linemen, you tend to find the places that are the greasiest and serve the most food.” Brady.

BPF

Study: NFL players living longer than general population - CBSSports.com

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"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit."
Aristotle

"I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance."
Socrates

STH since 1994....sec 236

Joker

well...there's an "ooops" for the sanctimonious know-it-alls- to ponder.

I have a B.S, from B.U. in engineering...I worked for different concerns until I retired when I was 58. I've made some prudent investments in real estate and I'm comfortable. Over the course of my work I had a number of six figure years as well as mid and high five figures.

That being said,my entire life's earnings to this point is about 1/50th of what Jason Taylor has made in his career. If I had a problem making everyday decisions, I, MYSELF, would hire someone to take care of these necessities. However, let's not even begin to use THAT to punch holes in this "tragic" story.

"Census 2000 counted 49.7 million people with some type of long lasting condition or disability. They represented 19.3 percent of the 257.2 million people who were aged 5 and older in the civilian non-institutionalized population -- or nearly one person in five..."

that figure has risen with the aging of the baby boomers. Jason Taylor is in pain?...uh....well....there's 99.999% of the people who are in pain that have never and will never have the funds to address THEIR disabilities in the fashion that Jason Taylor can.

You play football and play to get into the NFL, YOU KNOW the risks.You want my tears after it's over, sorry....I already gave in the form of supporting your league and your salary as a fan.Instead of playing "Undercover Mongoloid Commissioner" and running around trying to create straw man controversies, perhaps Doltdell can sit down with the owners and establish protocols for, and treatments of these players post game problems.

Leave ME out of it.

Claremonster

Football players know the bad side as do soldiers.

It comes with the territory.

And no, I don't equate football to a war.

Every job has it's dangers.

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grux

Amazing what NFL players will do to make sure they are on the field on Sunday's.

As America’s most popular sport encounters a liability problem … as gladiator Junior Seau kills himself with a shotgun blast to the chest and leaves his damaged brain to study … as awareness and penalties increase around an NFL commissioner confronting the oxymoronic task of making a violent game safe … and as the rules change but the culture really doesn’t … we think we know this forever-growing monster we are cheering on Sundays. But we don’t. We have no earthly idea.

Read more here: Dan Le Batard: Jason Taylor’s pain shows NFL’s world of hurt - Dan Le Batard - MiamiHerald.com

chris_in_sunnyvale

That Taylor suffered routine pain and complications off the field doesn't surprise me; The human body wasn't meant to absorb the punishment these guys do. What surprised me was the degree he suffered and still played. Seriously, a concealed catheter? So close to having a leg amputated? Good God.

Regards,
Chris