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At the beginning of each season, he said, he would brace himself for that familiar, warm sensation that he knew would come with the first hit of the spring.
‘‘Looking back, it was stupid not to tell anyone,’’ Johnson said. ‘‘But I didn’t know then that every time you have a concussion, you are four to six times more susceptible the next time. I had no idea the damage I was causing myself.’’
Dr. Cantu said that he was convinced Mr. Johnson’s cognitive impairment and depression “are related to his previous head injuries, as they are all rather classic postconcussion symptoms.” He added, “They are most likely permanent.”
Asked for a prognosis of Mr. Johnson’s future, Dr. Cantu, the chief of neurosurgery and director of sports medicine at Emerson Hospital in Concord, Mass., said: “Ted already shows the mild cognitive impairment that is characteristic of early Alzheimer’s disease.
“I am afraid of somebody else being the next Andre Waters,” said Mr. Johnson, who spent two weeks in February at a psychiatric hospital outside Boston with, he said, no appreciable results. “People are going to question me: ‘Are you a whistleblower, what are you doing this for?’ You can call it whatever you want about what happened to me. I didn’t know the long-term ramifications. You can say that my coach didn’t know the long-term, or else he wouldn’t have done it. It is going to be hard for me to believe that my trainer didn’t know the long-term ramifications, but I am doing this to protect the players from themselves.”
“I’m sitting there going, ‘God, do I put this thing on?’ ” Mr. Johnson said. “I put the blue on. I was scared for my job.”
Regarding the intimidation he felt at that moment, Mr. Johnson added, “This kind of thing happens all the time in football. That day it was Bill Belichick and Ted Johnson. But it happens all the time.”
“It’s as clear as a bell — ‘I had to see if you could play,’ ” Mr. Johnson recalled Mr. Belichick saying. Minutes later, Mr. Johnson said, Mr. Belichick admitted he had made a mistake by making him wear the blue jersey. “It was a real kind of admittance, but it was only him and I in the room,” Mr. Johnson said.
There is a lot of stuff in the article, I would read the whole thing.Sitting in his apartment this week, Mr. Johnson said that he had not considered a lawsuit against Mr. Belichick, any Patriots personnel or the N.F.L. He said that his sole motivation was to raise awareness of the dangers that football players can face regarding concussions.
Asked who was to blame for his condition — Mr. Belichick, Mr. Whalen, himself or the entire culture of the N.F.L. — Mr. Johnson thought for 30 seconds and said he could not decide.
I feel sorry for Ted Johnson. But, I also feel disdain.
He blames Belichick for all of the problems he's currently facing.
His amphetamine addiction.
His memory loss.
His emotional issues.
1) While Belichick may have "prodded" Johnson back on the field, Johnson had the right, at any time, to just say NO.
2) Johnson kept his concussions a secret and did not seek help at the time they occurred. Which also explains how BB and Pioli were unprepared for Ted Johnson's sudden retirement prior to the start of training camp in 2005.
3) Bill Belichick didn't tie Johnson down and shove amphetamines down the guy's throat day in and day out. And its as likely that the amphetamines are as much a cause for the memory loss and emotional issues as Johnson's concussions were.
I give Johnson credit, he DID take responsibility for his not telling about 5 of his concussions. But he still blamed the concussions on Belichick.
I agree that the entire NFL needs to change. However, as ESPN the Magazine pointed out, the NFL and NFLPA has some stooges in place that only tell the NFL what they want to hear. Their "concussion team" has had their veracity questioned quite severely by ESPN, to the point that, if I remember correctly, the NFL had a cease and desist injunction slapped on them regarding the topic.
Certainly a sad story. But a couple of things don't add up :
- Just a couple of months ago, Johnson hinted that he would consider playing again.
- He's blaming Belichick so much for that incident in training camp of 2002 - and then played 3 more season (including 2002). If he was so upset at getting the "blue jersey", maybe he shouldn't have played three more years.
I'm not trying to pick on the guy but he seems so intent on blaming Belichick when Johnson could have retired any time he liked.
Reading that article, it's Belichick who's getting thrown under the bus.
Maybe somebody's memory is better than mine, but didn't Ted's father write a letter to the Globe after his retirement thanking everybody in the Patriots' organization for the way they treated his son throughout his career?????
Did the Globe pull the story? The link is dead.
I hate the Globe.