I wrote a more detailed post about Rashaan Salaam and his recent death a few weeks ago, but I wanted to write a brief follow up in response to new information on the situation. The Boulder County coroner's office formally ruled former running back Salaam's death a suicide earlier today. The autopsy revealed that Salaam shot himself in the head, and was under the influence of alcohol and marijuana at the time of death.
In observance of Salaam and his family's Muslim faith, his family declined to have his brain examined for the degenerative disease CTE. Nevertheless, his brother stated that Rashaan had "all the symptoms" of the disease, including memory loss, problems with vision, and depression.
Thursday, December 29, 2016
Wednesday, December 21, 2016
Why Ladarius Green needs to Retire
Pittsburgh Steelers tight end Ladarius Green is currently in the NFL concussion protocol after sustaining a concussion in last week's game against the Cincinnati Bengals. He's officially listed as "questionable" on the Steelers injury report, and there's a lot of speculation as to whether he'll be good to go for Sunday's rivalry matchup against the Baltimore Ravens on Christmas Day.
He won't be.
I promise you.
See, this shows how disconnected the media and even a lot of coaches are from the concussion crisis. Looking at this situation in a vacuum, then maybe I could see how you'd think that Green could be back in a week. But any research at all of Green's concussion history reveals that this situation is much more complex than the media is making it out to be.
I actually thought about writing an article on Green a few months ago, because I saw this coming from a mile away. It's easy to make that claim in hindsight, but as a Chargers fan I knew that Green was walking thin ice and would be for the rest of his football career. Green, who spent the first four years of his NFL career in San Diego before signing with Pittsburgh this offseason, suffered a concussion in 2014, and two concussion in 2015. The two concussions he suffered last season occurred within one month of each other, and I noticed a visible difference Green's play style after returning from his second. He was primarily used as a receiver instead of as a a blocker, and he rarely tried to break tackles after the catch or sell out for contested passes. I'm not criticizing his play, and it was pretty apparent that he was playing with hesitation on the field.
If that's not enough evidence that Green never really recovered enough to be back on the field, his rocky off season should have drawn much more concern. He underwent ankle surgery in March of this year, and signed with the Steelers in the same month. But come optional team activities (OTAs), Green was absent. Green also missed Steelers training camp practices. When different sources within the Steelers organization and close to Green were asked about his absences, different answers arose. Green was reportedly complaining of recurring headaches, a common symptom of Post-concussion Syndrome (PCS), but the Steelers organization officially commented that Green was being held out of practice to continue his recovery from his ankle surgery. Later, Green's agent told NFL.com that Green's ankle was fine, but he wouldn't comment on why Green was being held out of camp.
As a I wrote about with De'Anthony Thomas' situation last season, NFL teams will often designate concussions as other injuries on official reports, especially if symptoms are long-lasting. Obviously I can't say with certainty that this is what happened with Green early on in the season, but the evidence in indisputably there.
Green missed the entire preseason and was placed on the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list to start the regular season. He missed the first nine weeks of this season, and played only five full games this year before sustaining another concussion. He won't return this Sunday, we won't return this season, and to be honest, I don't think he should ever return to football. It's an extremely unfortunate situation and my heart goes out to him and his family, but at this point he needs to look out for his long term health. The ice he's walking is only getting thinner.
He won't be.
I promise you.
See, this shows how disconnected the media and even a lot of coaches are from the concussion crisis. Looking at this situation in a vacuum, then maybe I could see how you'd think that Green could be back in a week. But any research at all of Green's concussion history reveals that this situation is much more complex than the media is making it out to be.
I actually thought about writing an article on Green a few months ago, because I saw this coming from a mile away. It's easy to make that claim in hindsight, but as a Chargers fan I knew that Green was walking thin ice and would be for the rest of his football career. Green, who spent the first four years of his NFL career in San Diego before signing with Pittsburgh this offseason, suffered a concussion in 2014, and two concussion in 2015. The two concussions he suffered last season occurred within one month of each other, and I noticed a visible difference Green's play style after returning from his second. He was primarily used as a receiver instead of as a a blocker, and he rarely tried to break tackles after the catch or sell out for contested passes. I'm not criticizing his play, and it was pretty apparent that he was playing with hesitation on the field.
If that's not enough evidence that Green never really recovered enough to be back on the field, his rocky off season should have drawn much more concern. He underwent ankle surgery in March of this year, and signed with the Steelers in the same month. But come optional team activities (OTAs), Green was absent. Green also missed Steelers training camp practices. When different sources within the Steelers organization and close to Green were asked about his absences, different answers arose. Green was reportedly complaining of recurring headaches, a common symptom of Post-concussion Syndrome (PCS), but the Steelers organization officially commented that Green was being held out of practice to continue his recovery from his ankle surgery. Later, Green's agent told NFL.com that Green's ankle was fine, but he wouldn't comment on why Green was being held out of camp.
As a I wrote about with De'Anthony Thomas' situation last season, NFL teams will often designate concussions as other injuries on official reports, especially if symptoms are long-lasting. Obviously I can't say with certainty that this is what happened with Green early on in the season, but the evidence in indisputably there.
Green missed the entire preseason and was placed on the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list to start the regular season. He missed the first nine weeks of this season, and played only five full games this year before sustaining another concussion. He won't return this Sunday, we won't return this season, and to be honest, I don't think he should ever return to football. It's an extremely unfortunate situation and my heart goes out to him and his family, but at this point he needs to look out for his long term health. The ice he's walking is only getting thinner.
Tuesday, December 20, 2016
Cam Newton Continues to Get Targeted
On Monday night against the Washington Redskins, Cam Newton took a shot to the head while sliding at the end of a short run play near the sideline. The hit, put on by Redskins linebacker Trent Murphy, was not penalized during the game, a decision that was lamented by the announcers of the game and has since been criticized by many analysts, coaches, and even former officials.
Walt Coleman, the head official for the Monday night matchup, denied any wrongdoing after the game. It's an eerily similar situation to that of week 8, where Cam Newton expressed discontentment with the officiating in a game against the Cardinals, where Newton took a hit late in the knees that went unpenalized. Coleman and his crew were also the officials for that game, and the NFL's post-game review of the hit determined that it should have been penalized.
I understand the difficulty of this situation on NFL officials. For the most part, penalties inherently only benefit one side of the ball, so there will always be anger and criticism coming from the other side. When it comes to player safety, however, we're all on the same team in understanding the value of penalizing unnecessary blows to the head, especially to defenseless players. Hopefully the national attention of this ongoing story of Cam vs the Officials will create an atmosphere of more equal treatment off all players by officials.
Friday, December 16, 2016
Seau Foundation Donates to UCSD
On Wednesday, the Junior Seau Foundation and the University of California, San Diego announced that the foundation will be donating 250 thousand dollars in an endowment fund to support UC San Diego's research of traumatic brain injury. The donation will be used to finance a faculty fellowship, as well as the Junior Seau Foundation Lecture Series, which will bring groups of K-12 students to campus to learn about TBI and its risks.
After committing suicide at the age of 43 back in 2012, the hall of fame linebacker and San Diego native was discovered to have the degenerative brain disease CTE. His neurological decline and death were heavily discussed in League of Denial and other popular books on football and TBI, and the discovery of CTE in Seau's brain really brought the disease into the national spotlight.
I think it's great that UC San Diego is using the donation for research and education alike. Obviously there's a lot of problems that exist as a result as a result of the concussion crisis in football, but the silver lining is that there are many solutions, too. An epidemic of this proportion can only be solved by a multi-front approach, consisting of awareness, education, prevention, research, and treatment. Having programs like what the Seau Foundation and UC San Diego are putting in place can accomplish all five of those methods.
After committing suicide at the age of 43 back in 2012, the hall of fame linebacker and San Diego native was discovered to have the degenerative brain disease CTE. His neurological decline and death were heavily discussed in League of Denial and other popular books on football and TBI, and the discovery of CTE in Seau's brain really brought the disease into the national spotlight.
I think it's great that UC San Diego is using the donation for research and education alike. Obviously there's a lot of problems that exist as a result as a result of the concussion crisis in football, but the silver lining is that there are many solutions, too. An epidemic of this proportion can only be solved by a multi-front approach, consisting of awareness, education, prevention, research, and treatment. Having programs like what the Seau Foundation and UC San Diego are putting in place can accomplish all five of those methods.
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
RIP Rashaan Salaam
On December 5th just before 9pm, Rashaan Salaam was found dead in the parking lot of Eben G. Fine Park in Boulder, Colorado. The public park is located less than two miles away from Folsom Field, where Salaam starred as a running back for the CU Boulder Buffaloes football team around 20 years earlier. No foul play was suspected in his death, and Salaam's mother told USA Today that the Boulder Police department had found a suicide note. He was 42.
Salaam was awarded Heisman Trophy in 1994 and rushed for a school-record 2,055 yards while leading the Buffs to an 11-1 record and a victory in the Fiesta Bowl against Notre Dame. His professional career never lived up to expectations, as he battled injuries and drug use while bouncing from team to team in the NFL, XFL, and CFL.
As a former high school player from San Diego, I'd heard of Salaam well before the tragic news of his passing hit the national spotlight. He actually played for one of my school's main rivals, and it's inspiring to know that a player could go from a small high school to being named the best college football player in the entire country. It was an incredibly sad moment to hear of Salaam's passing, and one of the first thoughts that popped into my head was how similar this situation was to that of Junior Seau.
Both Seau and Salaam were born in San Diego and grew up in rougher areas of the county (Salaam in Skyline and Seau in Oceanside), and both were outstanding high school players in San Diego (Salaam actually still holds the county's record for career rushing touchdowns with 105). They both went on to have incredible college careers and made it to the NFL, and both unfortunately committed suicide in their early 40s. As is one of the most well-documented cases of the disease, Seau was diagnosed post-mortum with Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease caused by repeated blows to the head and discovered in many other former NFL players (I'll be writing a blog post or two on CTE in the near future). A major symptom of CTE is depression, and the nature of Salaam's death makes me fear that he may have had the disease, too. I'm sure Chris Nowinski and other folks over at the Boston University CTE center are already in the process of contacting Salaam's family to have the brain examined.
Unfortunately, CTE can only be diagnosed by looking at the brain post-mortum, and without his family's consent we'll never know if Salaam suffered from the disease. But as ugly a reality as it is, I think the diagnosis might give his family some solace in knowing what he was going through in the later years of his life, and it would increase the public's understanding and familiarity with the disease.
My condolences go out to Rashaan Salaam and his family. He was a true San Diego legend and one of the best running backs to ever play the college game. He won't be forgotten.
Salaam was awarded Heisman Trophy in 1994 and rushed for a school-record 2,055 yards while leading the Buffs to an 11-1 record and a victory in the Fiesta Bowl against Notre Dame. His professional career never lived up to expectations, as he battled injuries and drug use while bouncing from team to team in the NFL, XFL, and CFL.
As a former high school player from San Diego, I'd heard of Salaam well before the tragic news of his passing hit the national spotlight. He actually played for one of my school's main rivals, and it's inspiring to know that a player could go from a small high school to being named the best college football player in the entire country. It was an incredibly sad moment to hear of Salaam's passing, and one of the first thoughts that popped into my head was how similar this situation was to that of Junior Seau.
Both Seau and Salaam were born in San Diego and grew up in rougher areas of the county (Salaam in Skyline and Seau in Oceanside), and both were outstanding high school players in San Diego (Salaam actually still holds the county's record for career rushing touchdowns with 105). They both went on to have incredible college careers and made it to the NFL, and both unfortunately committed suicide in their early 40s. As is one of the most well-documented cases of the disease, Seau was diagnosed post-mortum with Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease caused by repeated blows to the head and discovered in many other former NFL players (I'll be writing a blog post or two on CTE in the near future). A major symptom of CTE is depression, and the nature of Salaam's death makes me fear that he may have had the disease, too. I'm sure Chris Nowinski and other folks over at the Boston University CTE center are already in the process of contacting Salaam's family to have the brain examined.
Unfortunately, CTE can only be diagnosed by looking at the brain post-mortum, and without his family's consent we'll never know if Salaam suffered from the disease. But as ugly a reality as it is, I think the diagnosis might give his family some solace in knowing what he was going through in the later years of his life, and it would increase the public's understanding and familiarity with the disease.
My condolences go out to Rashaan Salaam and his family. He was a true San Diego legend and one of the best running backs to ever play the college game. He won't be forgotten.
Sunday, December 4, 2016
NFL: Not For Long
It’s a commonly known fact that many pro athletes go broke in just few short years after retiring from their respective sports. In fact, Sports Illustrated Magazine has estimated that 80% of NFL players go bankrupt in their first three years of retirement. That’s right: in three years, four out of five retired NFL players are bankrupt.
A couple years ago, Forbes Magazine published an article giving some explanations as to why this trend occurs. To summarize the article, they essentially argue that widespread bankruptcy of retired NFL players can be attributed to five main factors:
- Lack of experience with financial planning
- The need to financially support family members and friends
- Divorce and associated legal fees
- Not understanding how quickly careers can end
- Lack of preparation for a second career
The article also provides some recommendations to players should do to prepare for the transition to post-football life, and I agree with the majority of the article. What I disagree with, however, is that players don’t understand that any given play can be career-ending. In fact, I think the fact that so many players are aware of this fact is a key problem in the NFL’s concussion crisis. It incentivizes them to play through concussions, literally risking their lives, in order to maintain financial stability.
In her book Throwaway Players, Gay Culverhouse, former president of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Culverhouse mentions that the average career of an NFL player lasts only four seasons (I will be writing a review on Throwaway Players soon). It’s a common adage that NFL really stands for “not for long,” and for every player that has a career that last a decade or longer, there is another player that got cut as a rookie. Because of these short careers, Culverhouse argues, even when ignoring the passion that players have for the game or the commitment they have to their teams, it makes economical sense that a player will continue to play through injuries, such as concussions, because he knows that he only has a limited amount of time to earn money for himself and his family before his career is over.
Of course, it’s easy to point out problems and much harder to find solutions to them. As the Forbes article mentions, the NFL Player’s Association (NFLPA, essentially the players’ labor union), has programs for NFL players on financial education and has referrals to recommended financial planners. These efforts are valuable, and hopefully will only grow as awareness of NFL player bankruptcy increases. I think what is also important is strengthening the health insurance that the NFL provides retired players.
Much of Culverhouse book centers around what can be done to help former players dealing with injuries, especially TBI, who are unable to reenter the workforce after retiring from the NFL. As I said earlier, I will be writing a review of this book soon, so stay tuned.
Link to Forbes article:
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