Bradshaw: Concussions Have Caught Up With Him

Ktbs ^ | 4.13.11

[InvisibleChurch]

CHOUDRANT -- Terry Bradshaw, the Shreveport native and Hall of Fame quarterback, said Monday he is feeling the mental effects of numerous concussions he suffered during his NFL career. Bradshaw, 62, said he has been having short-term memory loss as well as loss of hand-eye coordination. He said he is undergoing rehabilitation for those ailments. Bradshaw said he believes the condition is a direct result of numerous concussions he suffered during his playing days with the Pittsburgh Steelers. "I forgot the numbers. It's pretty staggering; if you play in the NFL and start for 10 years, it's not good. It is not good," Bradshaw said at Squire Creek Country Club in Choudrant, where he was in town for a fundraiser for his alma mater, Louisiana Tech University. The normally animated Bradshaw was sober as he told reporters of his condition...

[Sopater]

And he’s sure that it was the concussions that caused it?

[adorno]

The problem is, how do you prevent it?

Airbags inside the helmets. ;)

[fso301]

He said that they should make the quarterback wear a dress.

I thought that was Steeler's linebacker Jack Lambert?

[TStro]

I agree with the turf argument. I have a piece of the Texas Stadium field I got before it was demolished, it is a piece of concrete about 1 1/2” thick, with some glue/carpet attached. Can’t be good for your head, even wearing a helmet and not getting a concussion.

[Alberta's Child]

Very interesting.

I believe there is at least one state up here in the Northeast that has prohibited helmets for girls' high school lacrosse players. They've done a number of studies over the years and determined that adding protection like this actually encourages athletes to be more careless or even reckless in the course of play.

[Jonty30]

You can make the best helmets possible, but that isn’t going ti stop the brain from bouncing around inside the skull, while bits of it are torn off from the natural bone fragments that sit along the edges of the skull plates.

[rochester_veteran]

Eliminating the facemask would go a long way towards reducing helmet to helmet contact. Shoulder pads about like what hockey players wear would reduce players using their bodies as pile drivers.

We can't turn back the clock and revert back to the 1940's. Things weren't so great injury-wise before face masks and improved shoulder pads. My Dad played in the early 40's and most football players suffered facial and dental injuries in the leather helmet days as well as shoulder injuries because of the flimsy shoulder pads.

We should be improving the equipment, not eliminating it.

[grapeape]

I came up with a system that is much safer for the head and the neck. It’s a great invention and the people in power seem to be pissed about it. crazy..

[Donald Rumsfeld Fan]

Hall of famer Deacon Jones lives in my neighborhood. I see him occasionally at the local shopping mall. He walks with a cane.

[TxAg1981]

Then they can't play, the money dries up, the pain from playing starts to set

Here is the clue as to why nothing is done to "fix" the problem. The guys who cannot walk or carry on an extended conversation are NEVER asked to speak at a middle school athletic awards banquet or anything else.
The folks running the show want the show to continue. Their livelihoods depend on it.
No middle school or high school athlete is going to be told of the multiple hairline fractures (not known until in their 30's), destroyed joints, and diminished mental capacity.
Unfortunately, I think that watching the National Felons League resembled what the Romans saw back in the day. I suspect its the same motivation.

Add to the certainty of crippling injuries, the MILLIONS of local tax dollars that go into HIGH SCHOOL football stadium construction. In Texas, most, MOST of those stadiums rival college and pro stadiums that existed when I was a kid.

The most disturbing thing is that companies make huge profits off the disfigured bodies and confused minds of these guys. The behavior of these felons is held up as a model for our kids to emulate. To some kids, I'm just a stupid old fat man. That's OK because I'm hoping that some of the kids remember what I told them...while they still have a brain that functions some of the time.

[discostu]

That footage is from the time when Bradshaw was taking his concussions. The average NFL QB holds on to the ball for just under 2.5 seconds. NFL football is violent because the players are big and fast and the game as a whole moves fast. It’s a matter of simple math, you have guys in excess of 200 pounds moving around so fast that the QB has to get rid of the ball in under 2.5 seconds impacts are going to involve a lot of force, force causes injuries.

[discostu]

Articles like this have been appearing a lot in the last couple of years largely because we’re finding out just how much brain damage players are suffering in football. A lot of new data has come to light the last couple of years, and it’s all really scary.

[fso301]

We can't turn back the clock and revert back to the 1940's. Things weren't so great injury-wise before face masks and improved shoulder pads.

I think lack of fan acceptance would prevent such rollback.

My Dad played in the early 40's and most football players suffered facial and dental injuries in the leather helmet days as well as shoulder injuries because of the flimsy shoulder pads.

Sounds similar to present day hockey players. The dislocated shoulder and broken nose are self limiting factors which serve to prevent more serious spinal injuries and long term debilitating conditions.

We should be improving the equipment, not eliminating it.

I don't know to what extent any equipment improvements will lessen the risk of long term conditions. As equipment improves, the game will probably evolve towards even bigger, stronger and faster athletes. While equipment and athletes change, the laws of physics do not. If the equipment is safe enough that a quarterback can withstand being blindsided by a 300 pound defensive end, the game will start seeing 350+ pound defensive ends running 4.8 40's.

[rochester_veteran]

I don't know to what extent any equipment improvements will lessen the risk of long term conditions. As equipment improves, the game will probably evolve towards even bigger, stronger and faster athletes. While equipment and athletes change, the laws of physics do not. If the equipment is safe enough that a quarterback can withstand being blindsided by a 300 pound defensive end, the game will start seeing 350+ pound defensive ends running 4.8 40's.

You made some good points.

We're a football family. My Dad and his brothers played, my brother and I played, my nephew and sons played and my youngest is still playing at the collegiate level as a defensive end, BTW. :-)

He's not 300 pounds though (plays at 240 and runs a 4.62 40), but he is of the "Bigger, Faster, Stronger" school of power lifting. You're correct about players getting bigger and faster and I do think that more efforts need to be made to eliminate steroids and HGH from the equation to help prevent injuries. My son didn't do steroids and he's pretty much reached his size limit.

Everyone that played football in my family did it voluntarily and we understood the risks, however; my youngest son is the first to go on to play college ball and has 2 years of eligibility left, so we'll see how he comes out of it. He's had a few concussions over the years and had his ACL torn in his first college game. He's come back from that just fine and is still motivated to play and the 1/2 scholarship he got is certainly helping him through college. He knows he's not going to play in the NFL and is becoming a teacher and yes, a football coach. It's the choice he made as well as the rest of us that played in the family. We're not victims.

[fso301]

Everyone that played football in my family did it voluntarily and we understood the risks, however; my youngest son is the first to go on to play college ball and has 2 years of eligibility left, so we'll see how he comes out of it. He's had a few concussions over the years and had his ACL torn in his first college game. He's come back from that just fine and is still motivated to play and the 1/2 scholarship he got is certainly helping him through college. He knows he's not going to play in the NFL and is becoming a teacher and yes, a football coach. It's the choice he made as well as the rest of us that played in the family. We're not victims.

Among the best memories of my life is time spent playing high school football. My advice to anyone would to be to give it their best and see where it will take them but to heed warning signs. Should they be injured and require knee surgery go ahead and try to mount a full recovery but should they reinjure the same knee, do everything to fully rehabilitate the knee but hang up the cleats. The guys who get repeated surgeries on the same joint are destined to be wheelchair bound. Once chronic pain sets in, no amount of memories will make their day go any better. I would actually enforce some sort of multiple injury rule at the college and professional level.

[rochester_veteran]

Among the best memories of my life is time spent playing high school football.

Same here! I love that song, "The Boys of Fall".

My advice to anyone would to be to give it their best and see where it will take them but to heed warning signs. Should they be injured and require knee surgery go ahead and try to mount a full recovery but should they reinjure the same knee, do everything to fully rehabilitate the knee but hang up the cleats.

Good advice! I had to hang up the cleats after getting a neck injury.

[skimask]

Did you know that, at the time of his death, Steve Courson was on the waiting list for a heart tramsplant due to steroid use?

[Joe 6-pack]

I think I recall something about that. I do know he was one of the first NFL players to speak out about ‘roids, and took a lot of flack for doing so.

[skimask]

Do you remember the hit Staubach took in Super Bowl XIII 1/2?

In January of 1979, the Steelers beat the cowboys in Super Bowl XIII 35/31. In the fall of 1979 the Steelers and Cowboys were the top teams of both conferences with identical records of 8/0. On a cold, overcast, misty Sunday, they met at Three Rivers Stadium for the ninth game of the season, billed by the media as Super Bowl XIII 1/2. The game was hard fought with the Steelers leading 7/3 at halftime. About midway through the third quarter, the Cowboys had put together their best drive of the day. Driving crisply and looking to sieze the lead from the Champs, the Cowboys had crossed mid field for the first time that day. On a third and long play from the Steeler 48, Staubach got flushed from the pocket by a delayed double linebacker blitz from Jack Lambert and Jack Ham. Staubach eluded the sack but L.C. Greenwood grabbed him by the shoulder and spun him around right into the path of hard charging Joe Green. Mean Joe plastered Staubach with a textbook tackle, pinning Roger's arms to his side as he drove him to the turf knocking Roger unconscious. Staubach fumbled and all you could see was 7 black shirts diving for the ball. Lambert recovered, but the image that stuck with me was Roger Staubach laying on his back unconscious, with his arms just about at his chest twitching violently. Danny White was in effective as he replaced Roger for the rest of that game. The first play after Roger's fumble, aided by picture perfect trap blocking by the Steeler offensive line and a clean out block from Rocky Blier, Franco Harris broke through the middle of the line untouched, for a 52 yard TD run making the score 14/3, sealing the victory and final score for Pittsburgh. Staubach's play for the rest of the season was mediocre at best and he retired at the end of that season.

Putting aside the hit on Joe Theismans leg by Lawrence Taylor causing a compound double fracture, that sack by the Steelers defense on Roger was the most violent one I have ever seen.

[skimask]

Your correct about Bradshaw being against the “In the grasp rule” but it was Hall Of Fame Pittsburgh Steeler middle linebacker Jack Lambert who said QB’s should be made to wear a dress.