What you are discounting though is what percentage of outcomes like Seau's are even related to traumatic injury and what percentage are simply the result of untreated depression, the kind 1 in 5 of us non concussed folks are apparently likely to experience. Junior's restaurant closed last week, 2 weeks after his death. King wondered aloud in MMQB if Junior wasn't experiencing financial difficulties.
And coupled with just inability to adapt to life after football, as John Lynch spoke at length about demands not rushing to judgement leaping to the conclusion that Junior's suicide was precipitated by anything more than the kind of depression he and many other players who do love the game experience when forced to walk away. Lynch is dealing with it well, but he knows lots of guys aren't. He's just sad Junior appears to him in hindsight to have been one of them.
The trauma related consequences tend to impact them later on down the road if at all, with preliminary studies hinting at tripling their chances of suffering from TCE, Alzheimer's, ALS as compared to the general population. In the first 4 years the depression appears to be more of a mental health problem (related to loss of self worth due to their inability to continue to do what they are driven to past a relatively young age) that many don't want to admit to suffering from and therefore don't seek treatment or counseling for. Drug and alcohol abuse also factor in in some cases, as potentially does abuse of PED's. It's more often a decade or two later that the cumulative effects of earlier brain injury or even injuries in general really begin to manifest themselves as these guys approach 50.
Forcing guys out early pits their short term emotional welfare and long term financial position against potential long term health consequnces they may not face. They aren't all going to potentially end up in an assisted living or a dementia unit let alone due to the length of their career. More of them percentage wise than the rest of us may end up in a fix, but they should also be in far better position to pay for care than most of us will be. I say this from experience. Health insurance doesn't cover that care. Expensive long term care plans and/or private funds do.
Matt never loved the game. Hell, he didn't even really like it. You didn't note those comments. It was merely a means to an end that he found himself with an opportunity to persue. You can't mandate those who do love it not to and to do what he chose to do. He assumed a greater risk earlier on than many of them might have. He could have died persuing a lineman's career with Crone's. But then it could have killed him anyway so he rolled the dice and made tens of millions along the way doing something he wasn't particularly driven to do. Choices, life is all about them.
Light does seems to be down with the knowing what I do I'd do it all again for what it provided me and my family mentality though. And that is their right. All you can do is encourage those who struggle either with the transition or the potential consequences to seek counseling and treatment if necessary all along the way.
Thanks for the thoughtful response, Mo. You make several good points. I'll take them paragraph by paragraph
One and Two.
I wasn't even thinking of Seau, as I would 100% agree with you that other psychological or environmental factors were likely to play a significant role in a tragic outcome like this at so young an age. And, indeed, people who leave a lifetime's work in any field often describe the experience as hitting a brick wall at 100MPH. But, there too, as extreme an outcome as suicide usually implies other complicating emotional and environmental factors. So, we're in agreement there.
Three
Agreed and thanks for the data. If you re-read my posts on this topic over the last couple of weeks you can see that they all refer to the impact of trauma in middle age and later.
Four
Here we do disagree. Your use of the phrase "forcing guys out" introduces an element that I never brought into play. I only spoke of what advice might be good to give to someone as they weigh their options, not of "forcing" them to make one decision or another.
Our disagreement centers on how each of us interprets what we both have to admit is limited information.
You argue that "short term emotional" and "long term financial" benefits and issues should be brought into play and that, ironically, enhanced wealth would enable a player to pay for the "aftercare" that his trauma might require.
I think that would be the worst possible reason to continue playing. Instead of thinking along those lines, players, the NFLPA and the NFL should be thinking of including a far more robust long-term care program among NFL players retirement benefits. Saying that a factor in a player's decision to continue making money by playing in the NFL even if he is uncertain about the damage to his health might be that he can take care of himself after that damage is done is a logic that I do not care to follow and would break new ground in the definition of The Prisoner's Dilemma.
Five
I can neither agree nor disagree with most of this paragraph, as I just don't know Mr. Light. I do agree with your final sentence, which leads into your final paragraph: "Choices, life is all about them."
Six
I agree with what you say here and find it inconsistent with the view you take in Paragraph Four.
I feel that any player who has managed to be playing in his mid-thirties (defined for the sake of discussion as 33--37) should sit down with a support team, including medical and mental health professionals, coaches who can take an honest view on his long-term prospects at his position, fellow players who can give him honest feedback about his play and affect, close friends and, of course, family. Over a period of time, they should assess with the player the risks and benefits of continuing to play, taking into account not just his NFL experience but his College, High School and Pop Warner days. These people would form the nucleus of a support group as he transitions out of the NFL either right away or down the line.
I think that what Mr. Brady's father is doing is probably going to prove to be a case study for this kind of intervention. From all that is reported and from everything he says, no one knows Tom Brady better than his Dad. (I'll reply to your specific posts on that topic in the thread you started, so no need to get distracted here. I have a day job, so it might take me until this evening to get around to it.)
