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Jay Mariotti

Brain Damage? Players Unwisely Ignore Dangers

Posted Jan 28, 2009 10:50PM By Jay Mariotti (RSS feed)

Filed Under: NFL, Super Bowl

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TAMPA, Fla. -- When his world went numb last month, when his head slammed wickedly against the ground as he was flattened by two Cleveland defenders, Ben Roethlisberger recalls being scared, sure. He couldn't feel anything in his arms. A team doctor stuck him with a pin, and he couldn't feel that, either. He lay there for 15 minutes and was hauled away on a stretcher, the victim of his third concussion in three years.

He would have headaches. Next time he tried putting on his helmet, he had trouble squeezing into it because his skull had swelled. They made him take a computer exam days later to determine if he was lucid. "They show you a bunch of words and you have to remember what they were," he said. "You have to remember shapes and colors and things like that."

So it was only right to wonder if Roethlisberger, his cap flipped backwards during another Super Bowl media session, had heard about the latest alarming news linking concussions and head trauma with degenerative brain damage. The study, conducted by doctors at Boston University's School of Medicine, concluded that six deceased ex-NFL players -- none older than 50 -- were plagued by a condition known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

Did the findings not give the Pittsburgh quarterback pause? Does it concern him that three of the players were former Steelers -- Mike Webster, Terry Long and Justin Strzelczyk -- and that each had died as tortured souls who'd fought deep depression? Did he know that Long committed suicide by drinking anti-freeze? That Strzelczyk was driving his pickup truck at 90 mph when he died in a head-on crash, striking a tanker truck that was hauling corrosive acid after leading police on a 40-mile chase? That Webster died of a heart attack after taking so many football-related blows to the head, one doctor said he had experienced the equivalent of 25,000 auto wrecks? That Andre Waters, a former Philadelphia Eagle, committed suicide while battling the same issues?

It isn't my intent to ruin the greatest moment of a football player's life, the days and nights leading up to a Super Bowl. But we only live once, and the dangers of playing football are more pronounced and researched than ever. Isn't it human nature, Big Ben, to worry about the long-term effects of head injuries in a violent sport? Especially when you've suffered multiple concussions and survived a serious motorcycle accident before your 27th birthday? Have you seen the study and does it worry you?



"No,'' Roethlisberger shot back. "I don't go out there and ever worry about getting hurt or being hurt in the past. I'm playing this game and living this life to the fullest. I've had that question asked a couple of times because of what I've been through, but I don't go out there and worry about it. When the Lord decides to take me, he's going to take me.''

He's either a brave man or the world's biggest fool, probably both. And just so you know, he has much company in a profession that arrogantly denies the frightening risks. It's hard not to notice the eerie juxtaposition at Super Bowl Central -- the party plans of the host city, the physical nature of the competing teams and a news conference where it was said former Tampa Bay Buccaneer Tom McHale, who died last year at 45, also suffered from CTE.

Bring on Bruce Springsteen today at the media center, where he and the E Street Band will explain why they're performing (selling out?) during the halftime show. Keep asking Mike Tomlin, Ken Whisenhunt and their players about the hard-hitting identities of the Steelers and Arizona Cardinals. But never, ever forget the sobs of Lisa McHale, a grieving widow who was told last spring that her husband had died of an accidental drug overdose and now wonders if brain damage played a more invasive role. Along with the oxycodone and cocaine that apparently caused his death, wasn't he dealing with depression, memory loss and unpredictable behavior, like the other victims?

"Eight months ago, I lost my best friend, my college sweetheart and my husband of 18 years," she told the Associated Press. "He was working as hard as he could to do the right thing. It was most crushing to him that he couldn't be who he was trying to be. He was very frustrated and very confused by what was happening to him."

And still, each morning at the team hotels, the Super Bowl participants speak with immense pride about their ability and willingness to fend off potentially life-altering injuries. People forget that Arizona receiver Anquan Boldin, best known for his sideline tantrum over playing time in the NFC title game, was torpedoed by New York Jets safety Eric Smith in a helmet-to-helmet collision and suffered a fractured sinus membrane. It was a scary scene, much like Roethlisberger's, and doctors originally suggested he might miss the rest of the season. But a football player must march on, lest he be called a wimp or worse, and Boldin returned to help the Cardinals reach the playoffs. Never mind the new hardware lodged in his grill.

"I have seven plates and forty screws,'' he said.

Does he set off metal detectors at the airport?

"Nah, they're titanium,'' he said.

And he has no qualms about persevering as the NFL's most physical and fearless wide receiver? "That has always been a part of me,'' Boldin said. "It has always been the way that I have played football, always the way that I have approached the game, and that is just a part of my makeup.''

He has a young son. Apparently, the lad wasn't too concerned about Dad. "It was about a week after the surgery,'' he said, "and we were playing around and he headbutted me pretty good.'' That's when Boldin knew he was fine.

"For me, it feels like it's not there,'' he said. "I don't feel anything from it. I mean, I know it's there, but for me, I have moved on from that incident.''

They all think they're moving on -- but most are not. Ask Ted Johnson, the former New England Patriots linebacker who retired from football convinced that concussions have created his depression, headaches, drug problems and marital issues. At his lowest point, Johnson's life was so dark, he'd leave the house for a few minutes to see his kids, then return to flick off the lights and sleep for several days. He knows why players resist reality.

"I kind of liken it to NASCAR racers who don't like going to funerals or the hospital because they don't like being reminded what could happen to them," Johnson said at the news conference. "It's the same thing with football players. We don't want to know what could potentially happen to us down the road."

Or at the start of the road, if you consider the disturbing case of an 18-year-old football player who was found to have CTE after several concussions.

Yet try telling that to Hines Ward, maybe the toughest pound-for-pound player in the sport. Despite spraining his right medial collateral ligament in the AFC title game, he will strap on a black knee brace in the big game.

"Hines is playing," Tomlin said. "I'm not worried about him." Of course he isn't. Ward literally might give his life to the Steelers if necessary, as he suggested when asked about the dangers of football.

"It's just a violent game," he said. "If you run into someone full speed with a head-to-head hit, something's bound to give. Unfortunately, it's your brain."

What, we're supposed to admire the bravado? Troy Polamalu throws around his body with such intensity in the Pittsburgh secondary, as one of the best who ever played his position, he has suffered eight career concussions. And yet, he doesn't dwell on the perils, somehow drawing parallels between football and his family.

"In my personal life, it's my wife and my son, and I try to be very passionate with how I deal with them. I'm very passionate with my family, and to me, football is no different,'' he said. "I play football with a passion. If it was ballet, I would do the same thing. Football is a contact sport. I would try to play baseball and basketball the same way with the same passion. I would try to do Ultimate Fighting and (Mixed Martial Arts) the same way. The brutality of the sport is not what drives you; it's the passion that drives your motivation.''



The NFL isn't hiding from the crisis. But as we've heard for years, there's a general skepticism about whether the league and NFL Players Association are paying enough attention in the big picture of wealth and mass popularity. Commissioner Roger Goodell is investing millions in research and has cracked the whip on vicious hitting, yet that hasn't stopped players from celebrating the big hits and even issuing bounties against opponents.

"Concussions are serious injuries, and our focus is on prevention, treatment and ongoing research,'' NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said in a release.

As Roethlisberger says, a football player can't take the field and worry about injuries. If he performs tentatively, that's when someone will knock his eyeballs out of their sockets. But I do appreciate NFL players who at least give serious thought to the inherent dangers.

"It's the sad part of this game,'' said Larry Fitzgerald, Arizona's supersonic receiver. "Football is a physical game, and I think every player who steps on the field understands that risk. But I don't think any one of us would change anything. This is football. This is a man's game, and I know that every time I go up for a pass, there's a possibility I could be knocked out. I'm willing to take that risk because I love what I do.

"You play for the love of the game.''

Twenty-five years from now, you just hope they remember the games.

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Jay Mariotti

Jay MariottiJay Mariotti is a national columnist and commentator for FanHouse.com. He is a daily panelist on ESPN's sports-debate show, "Around The Horn,'' seen Monday through Friday at 5 p.m. ET. Mariotti spent 17 years as a lead sports columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times and has covered every major sporting event -- national and worldwide -- on multiple occasions.