According to TMZ Junior Seau involved in shooting

RIP

with the sport dying, blah, blah, blah. Ugh.

I'm sure that plays a role. Barring some kind of technological breakthrough in helmet design, I don't see how football as we know it survives in the long run. It's not going away any time soon, but with each year that passes fewer and fewer people will allow their sons to play high school football, leading to fewer playing college football, finally leading to a decline in talent in the NFL. Seems inevitable at this point.

I think I read somewhere that years of heroin abuse isn't good for the brain.

I might be wrong, though.

Referenced as a cursed team.

Just terrible.

my uninformed guess is that former players (and famous people, and anyone with access) are taking a lot more prescription pills for their pains and depressions, etc.

While I think prescription drugs can do a lot of good, the cocktails that people will access are taking, are incredibly dangerous.

I have no idea if Seau had been taking pills, but he wouldn't be the first former athlete with a lot of recurring pain from his playing days to do so.

I would think it would be breaking news material. Wow is an understatement.

SayOWWW!

yes...the even sadder part is that I bet most of those guys were late 20's early 30's

.

When Sean Lee died, he was the sixth.

Either that or we go straight up Roman Coliseum and damn the consequences.

with no foresight. It's no coincidence that the lifespan of a NFL player is shorter than the norm...Wake up genius.

has subsequently been confirmed. Seau dead.
Sucks - ( New Window )

Something in between contemporary tackle football and flag football.

Beginning to surface

the NFL and NFLPA are working to reach out to all ex-players to assess their condition and offer some assistance to those in need of it. This is horrific.

Really sad.

I have no idea just retweeted that but I'll try to figure it out

would be even more significant for amateur and professional boxers.

Is that an issue for them?

.
Link - ( New Window )

you would think if it was suicide...or maybe not

I bet they don't want to jump the gun

11:33 AM PDT -- Sources tell us ... Seau died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest.

Back in 2011, former NFL star Dave Duerson shot himself in the chest ... and explained in his suicide note that he wanted his brain donated to a research center because he believed the blows he took to the head during his football career caused him to become mentally impaired.

Seriously, that Chargers team is obscenely unlucky. Car wreck, plane crash, guy getting hit by lightning twice??

I think it is definetly an issue. Thing is that as a NFL player, especially linemen, you are getting big head shots 60+ times a game...plus practice, college and high school.

on the day all the players are complaining about bounty suspensions

terrible

for study.

major implication about preserving his brain to research CTE...

Ric posted.

if his problems stemmed from multiple concussions.

Two brothers in my building are fabulous multi-sport athletes. The older one is a junior. He had two football concussions, and is now barred from contact sports for the rest of his time in HS. He is becoming a tennis player.

up through high school - or even the deaths and catastrophic injuries tied directly to football at this point isnt enough to reduce participation in football -- I cant see this having an effect since he is at such an elite level that it would not seem relevant to Mom and Dad signing up their youngster.

Just because with his genes, I doubt he's very big....but my wife has already said she'll never allow him to play football.

ex-players shooting themselves in the chest because their brains still function well enough to know it's fucked up, but not well enough to stop them from doing it.

This is a huge fucking deal. Here's hoping that in his tragic death Seau becomes the poster boy for reforms that exceed the lip service the issue is being given now by the NFL and the NFLPA.

they said he shot himself in the chest.

+1

info.

and their after-effects deserve further study.

you get 8 guys out of one team dead already, it doesn't sound like CTE.

I love football, loved playing it, love watching it but it is sad to see the damage it can cause. Whether or not Seau's death relates to football through CTE, it definitely is another blaring signal about the physical toll the sport takes.

All that said, I still think allowing a youngster to play football is a good idea. What this should do though is make anyone with kids who play that much more aware of concussions. I definitely got dinged when I was younger, and probably should not have gone back out there when I did. Everyone has to be more vigilant.

I dont completely disagree, but wouldnt that imply that when Duerson shot himself in the chest, it should have been a watershed event at that point?

because of recency bias and maybe a little bit of cover up

Far from it - they've had guys die in a car wreck, a plane crash, getting hit by lightning, drug overdose, heart attacks and complications from diabetes. Just a horrible coincidence that they all played for the same team.

If Seau's brain is studied and found to have the same issues as Duerson's, then yeah I'd say Duerson's death should be a watershed event in the history of the sport.

diminish or pooh pooh "CTE" but have all active players and ex players been checked for this?

I mean is it only possible to test DEAD people? if so then there is that whole causation/correlation that people love to use.

while still a tragedy and I feel for anyone who know him, i can't help but wonder if they could just test all NFL players right now and see the statistics on that.

PEDs don't lead one to shoot himself in the chest, specifically.

I recommend you read up on the research being done. Funding has been a problem