This league is not going to make it another 20 years. Not with the way society is going.
Joe Montana might be the very best player to ever play in this league and if he's this broken down, it just sets a terrible precedent.
I mean what type of argument do you present in front of a judge: ' Your honor, of course the 100% injury rate, 90% CTE percentage, chronic dependence on pain medication, obesity epidemic for linemen and a lifetime of health expenses are ok. All the players *KNEW* beforehand, wink wink'
Would we accept something like this in a hazard profession like mining? No, the american population would eviscerate just about any profession with these types of statistics.
I love football, but this can't go on as it stands.
Troy Aikman retired at 34. I think we're going to see more and more early retirements. It's not just the hits in the pros, but it's years and years of hits from youth football to high school and college as well. The movie "Concussion" has a couple of memorable scenes about that.
Bradshaw retired at 35. For years people have explained some of the mind-boggling things he comes out with on TV by saying he wasn't that smart (didn't someone once say that "Terry Bradshaw couldn't spell 'cat' if you spotted him the 'c' and the 't'?"), but now I wonder if it isn't some form of cognitive impairment that leads to many of his non-sequiturs. He also seems to "zone out" a lot during the broadcasts.
Some stats:
The average retirement age of an SB Era HOF QB is 37.5.
Those who retired at or below the average age, i.e., at age 37 or younger, were Aikman (34), Bradshaw (35), Namath (34), Bob Griese (35), Fouts (36), J. Kelly (36), Starr (37) and Staubach (37).
The average is pulled up by Dawson, Unitas and Jurgensen, all of whom retired at 40. Warren Moon retired at 44.
Elway, Marino, Montana, Tarkenton and Young all retired at 38.
The average number of Regular Season games played by an SB Era HOF QB is 190.2; average games started is 171.8.
For reference, Tom Brady turns 39 in August and has played in 225 Regular Season games, starting 223 of them. He has also played and started in 31 Playoff Games, for total Games Played of 256 and Games Started of 254. His physical durability is remarkable. I hope and pray that he has family, close friends and doctors who are, very privately, helping him evaluate the toll the game has taken on his overall health, as none of us are in a position to do so. He has accomplished all that a player can reasonably hope to accomplish and has a lot to live for and a lot to enjoy in the decades ahead.
EDIT: When Favre (41) goes into the HOF, he'll raise the average to 37.7.
But I am very suspicious when pretty much every NFL player has this disorder, and we don't have baselines from the general population.
