Antwaan Randle El wishes he had never played football

All the fans that whine about the "National P***y League" need to read this sad piece - at age 36 this former Super Bowl champion now he has to go down the stairs sideways and also has frequent memory lapses:

Super Bowl champion Antwaan Randle El wishes he had never played football

Better helmets might help a bit, but some of the NFL rules also need to change to reduce the need for players to play while injured or come back from injuries too soon. Bigger rosters (including bigger game day rosters) and more "designated to return" slots would help some. And I would force some of the current payments to players to be put into NFL-run long-term retirement plans.

Most Steelers fans probably wish he never played football too....

XLIX said:

Most Steelers fans probably wish he never played football too....

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Your compassion is overwhelming.

Agree with the OP. I had one... ONE... concussion in my life... granted, it knocked me out cold for 15 minutes... and it still affects me to this day both physically and memory-wise. Can't imagine the toll an NFL career like his would take on the body, especially with the special teams hits he took. Makes me worry even more for guys like Jules and Danny, not to mention Wes.

Prayers for him and his family.

Hopefully technology eventually advances far enough to limit such cases. We also see people like Harrison, Bruschi, Willie, Troy Brown, Ty Law who are fairly healthy? So everyone I would guess is impacted differently?

Ray lewis on espn earlier this year should have made that grim reality clear to an who witnessed it.

That sucks. Hope he gets better somehow.

Double TE said:

Hopefully technology eventually advances far enough to limit such cases. We also see people like Harrison, Bruschi, Willie, Troy Brown, Ty Law who are fairly healthy? So everyone I would guess is impacted differently?

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Although those guys are older that Randle El, they're still pretty young and may not show signs of anything for a few years. Knowing what I know now about football, I'm glad that one of my sons never played and the one who did stopped after HS.

I agree with all of the points made so far, except the one about Steeler fans. Not sure what that means.

Let me start off by saying guys should be protected as much as possible and compensated much more fairly by the league.

The thing about this whole issue is that a lot of people like watching the game played the way it has been for a hundred or more years. It's a violent sport much in the way Boxing is a violent sport and that's why we watch. Now I have been going to Foxboro for over 20 years and I have never been under any illusion that the game does not cause long term damage to those who play it.

I'm glad more people are aware of the sacrifices these guys are making for those of us who enjoy watching because they deserve to be compensated more fairly than they are by these slime ball owners and now maybe they will but I'm not holding my breath for that.

This new found public awareness for what these guys go through will never change the fact that it's an extremely violent pursuit and if the violence is taken out it will no longer be football, it will be something else.

So there you have it. Watching football is kind of like eating a sausage. It tastes really good but you probably don't want to know how it's made.

And the NFL did lie when they denied trying to influence a NIH study:

NFL health officials confronted NIH about researcher selection
OTL: NFL tried to exert influence over brain study

SlowGettingUp said:

And the NFL did lie when they denied trying to influence a NIH study:

NFL health officials confronted NIH about researcher selection
OTL: NFL tried to exert influence over brain study

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It's OTL. Why should we believe it?

QuantumMechanic said:

It's OTL. Why should we believe it?

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I'm biased - I choose to believe OTL whenever they run an anti-NFL story.

XLIX said:

Most Steelers fans probably wish he never played football too....

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He made a pretty sweet throw in Super Bowl 40.

"Millionaire struggles to walk down the stairs"

Boo hoo

Because life changing injuries don't happen in normal lines of work where the employee isn't set up for life already.

Do MMA fighters and NHL players not suffer from the same type of problems?

They should make football voluntary.

patriot1136 said:

Do MMA fighters and NHL players not suffer from the same type of problems?

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Definitely MMA fighters but they are starting to smarten up about training - not going 100% in practice and avoiding head shots completely.

patriot1136 said:

Do MMA fighters and NHL players not suffer from the same type of problems?

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Rugby too, considering they dont wear helmets..

AzorianPats said:

Rugby too, considering they dont wear helmets..

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Which actually makes it a bit safer. Using a hard material helmet like in Football just means they get used as weapons. Rugby Union has a bit of a problem because the scrums are dumb (I mean cmon, charging head first at someone with a 2 yard run into it) but Rugby League has much less of a problem because the only head contact is either an illegal play or an accidental collision...but concussions still do happen.

But in reality, all combat & collision sports are going to cause a concussion from time to time no matter what you do about it. That's just the unfortunate nature of the sports.

Big-T said:

Which actually makes it a bit safer. Using a hard material helmet like in Football just means they get used as weapons. Rugby Union has a bit of a problem because the scrums are dumb (I mean cmon, charging head first at someone with a 2 yard run into it) but Rugby League has much less of a problem because the only head contact is either an illegal play or an accidental collision...but concussions still do happen.

But in reality, all combat & collision sports are going to cause a concussion from time to time no matter what you do about it. That's just the unfortunate nature of the sports.

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I agree! But ive seen some violent headshots in Rugby and Aussie Rules. Im just wondering if those guys are coming out with the same issues..