Junior Seau dead

[Spotcheck Billy]

so is this another reason to be thankful that Marquette doesn't have a football program?

[Canned Goods n Ammo]

The dismissal of possible brain injuries playing a part is naive and/or disingenuous.

That's like saying cancer killed somebody, not smoking 2 packs per day for 30 years. Or a heart attack killed a 500lb man, not being extremely obese for many years.

Brain injuries aren't causing these guys to pick up a gun... but it's part of the cocktail that is being created where these guys are having some serious issues later in life. Some guys do fine (some people smoke for 30 years), but football isn't good for you.

[Henry Sugar]

John Welbourn wrote something about this topic a few months ago.  John was an offensive lineman for 9+ years in the NFL with the Eagles and Chiefs.

http://talktomejohnnie.com/aggressive/ave-caesar-morituri-te-salutant

There's also a few links within that post, including to a New Yorker article on this topic.

[Lennys Tap]

The dismissal of possible brain injuries playing a part is naive and/or disingenuous.

That's like saying cancer killed somebody, not smoking 2 packs per day for 30 years. Or a heart attack killed a 500lb man, not being extremely obese for many years.

Brain injuries aren't causing these guys to pick up a gun... but it's part of the cocktail that is being created where these guys are having some serious issues later in life. Some guys do fine (some people smoke for 30 years), but football isn't good for you.

Common sense told people that smoking (cough, cough), excessive drinking or weighing 500 lbs wasn't good for you. Studies proved that all of them could be in and of themselves lethal. And if they result in severe depression due to ill health they can be said to be PART of a cocktail that led to suicide.
I think common sense also tells us that taking blows to the head for a living isn't good for you. Rarely in and of itself lethal, but it sure wouldn't surprise me if it's found, in some cases, to be part of a lethal cocktail that ended in suicide.

[Canned Goods n Ammo]

Common sense told people that smoking (cough, cough), excessive drinking or weighing 500 lbs wasn't good for you. Studies proved that all of them could be in and of themselves lethal. And if they result in severe depression due to ill health they can be said to be PART of a cocktail that led to suicide.
I think common sense also tells us that taking blows to the head for a living isn't good for you. Rarely in and of itself lethal, but it sure wouldn't surprise me if it's found, in some cases, to be part of a lethal cocktail that ended in suicide.

The only thing I'll add is that smoking wasn't always seen as bad, and neither were concussions until more recently.

When people first started hearing smoking was bad for you, nobody knew exactly how bad. Now it's pretty well known.

Now we are learning concussions (especially multiples) are really bad for you... how bad, we don't know yet.

Gotta wear helmets:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgOUgrOHuFc

[RawdogDX]

There is a rush to judgement about this. There is not, and will never be,1 proof that concussion syndrome leads to suicide. Who is going to tell us that it wasn't depression, brought on by a deteriorating personal life? Financial difficulties? Personal demons?

I believe too much weight was placed on the alleged intent of Dave Duerson, who seems to have claimed to have killed himself because of damage to his brain. What about his financial difficulties? His personal problems? The fact he was arrested for beating his wife? That he was asked to leave the ND BOTs? 2I understand that some of these other problems may have been brought on by previous football injuries, but there are plenty of people who've had concussions that are not suicidal.

Perhaps many of these players have an inability to cope with real life. Has anybody done a study on suicide rates? I'd be interested in seeing that before this rush to judgement.

1: Never will be?!?! How the hell do you know that?
2: Nice list of things that could be caused by brain damage....
3: Yes, nfl players have a suicide rate 6 times the national average.

[WI inferiority Complexes]

Don't know, but I do know one of the first foul balls I caught was off the bat of Lloyd Moseby, who had gotten a piece of a Donnie Moore pitch.  http://articles.latimes.com/1989-07-19/sports/sp-3894_1_donnie-moore

Maybe Moore played some football in HS.

Flanagan this past summer, too.  

Last season, there were 15 official concussions in MLB, including Chase Utley, Brian Roberts, David Freese, and Morneau.  Five other players are questionable, including Marlon Byrd getting beaned in Boston.  Between 2001-2010, MLB averaged 3.3/season, but with increased awareness, the numbers have gone up considerably. http://theconcussionblog.com/2011/10/03/mlb-concussion-wrap-up-2011/#more-4752

The number of MLB suicides is considerable, with 7 players (at least) since 2004, including Flanagan and Hidecki Irabu.  Strangely, there are no reports of a former MLB player committing suicide between 1990-2004.  I haven't heard--nor been able to quickly find--any connection between these victims and previous concussions.  http://www.baseball-almanac.com/legendary/suicides_baseball.shtml

I don't really watch football, so I can't speak to its injuries and untimely deaths, but I do know MLB has received some praise for the way it has addressed head injuries. http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-03-30/sports/29994293_1_concussions-neuropsychological-football-players

[Jay Bee]

Wait, so a career in which you're colliding your head with other men for millions of dollars carries with it some significant health risks?  I'm shocked.

Shut up or ban it. 

[PuertoRicanNightmare]

1: Never will be?!?! How the hell do you know that?
2: Nice list of things that could be caused by brain damage....
3: Yes, nfl players have a suicide rate 6 times the national average.

1. The "cause" of suicide cannot be proven. If you think it can, I'm all ears. It just can't, unless you believe all people with brain damage commit suicide. They don't. Why did Dave Duerson commit suicide? It's an unanswerable question and I don't care what he put in his note.
2. You're asking people to believe that all proble,s experienced by former NFL players are the result of brain injuries. I don't think they are.
3. What is the suicide rate among cops? Are those related to brain injuries?

All I'm saying is that this rush to judgement on concussions and their cause/effect relationship to suicides has a "flavor of the day" feel to it.

[RawdogDX]

1. The "cause" of suicide cannot be proven. If you think it can, I'm all ears. It just can't, unless you believe all people with brain damage commit suicide. They don't. Why did Dave Duerson commit suicide? It's an unanswerable question and I don't care what he put in his note.
2. You're asking people to believe that all proble,s experienced by former NFL players are the result of brain injuries. I don't think they are.
3. What is the suicide rate among cops? Are those related to brain injuries?

All I'm saying is that this rush to judgement on concussions and their cause/effect relationship to suicides has a "flavor of the day" feel to it.

1. You said: "There is not, and will never be, proof that concussion syndrome leads to suicide." You are now changing that to be about a specific individual?  Something can 'Lead to' something without being proven for a given individual.  If you are this against statistics being used to show cause and effect and then applying it to an individual case then fine but be consistent. (ie 420 isn't a gateway drug since it's impossible to prove that someone wouldn't have done meth if they had never smoked herb)
2. No, I'm saying that listing serious problems and then claiming they are unrelated to brain injuries can't be proven.  Plenty of people have financial problems, they don't have suicide rates like the nfl.  If they have other problems(like what you listed) in far greater numbers than other jobs then you have a point but i haven't seen you provide a shred of research.
3.  Cops are twice the normal rate, not close to that of NFL players.  Do you not know how to use google? 

[Canned Goods n Ammo]

1. The "cause" of suicide cannot be proven. If you think it can, I'm all ears. It just can't, unless you believe all people with brain damage commit suicide. They don't. Why did Dave Duerson commit suicide? It's an unanswerable question and I don't care what he put in his note.

C'mon.

Using this logic nothing causes anything. If I get wasted and go crash my car, there is not "proof" that alcohol caused me to crash. Maybe I was putting in another REO Speedwagon tape and lost control of the vehicle. A lot of people drive fine when they are impaired. It's not like basic driving takes cat-like reflexes. Therefore, being drunk doesn't cause car accidents.

Concussions don't cause suicide, but pretending like its not part of what is going on is naive.

Repeatedly being smashed in the head has some long term negative effects that we don't fully understand, yet.

That's not a hard conclusion to come up with (unless you've repeatedly been smashed in the head).