Posted on 05/03/2012 1:34:22 PM PDT by Kaslin
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RUSH: Junior Seau. Junior Seau's suicide. I met Junior Seau just one time. It was one year at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic Golf Tournament. Dean Spanos, the Chargers owner, was playing in the tournament and I was playing with Fuzzy Zoeller and his crew that year. And we all had dinner one night after that day's round. And Junior Seau was everything everybody is saying about him. He was uplifting, he was funny, he was in a great mood. He was kind of in my face humorously over politics.
He was a big believer in the government doing as much it could to help the poor and this kind of thing. He was just one of these people you like being around. So, now, how to explain the suicide? I have to tell you, I am amazed. Every channel I go to there's either a sports doctor or a psychiatrist or somebody explaining, "It has to have been all the concussions from playing in the NFL! It just had to be. There can't be any other reason." Well, I did hear one other reason, that he just couldn't adjust to not being in the spotlight, to not being on stage.
The football field's a huge stage and he was a big star. He just could not adjust to being a comparative nobody. He didn't leave a note so nobody knows. Here's Sanjay Gupta. He was on CNN so nobody heard it. That's why I want to play you this one. He was on Anderson Cooper 210 last night, which nobody saw. So I have to play the sound bite here for you. Anderson Cooper said, "Sanjay, several NFL players have committed suicide in recent years. Brain-related injuries they sustain while playing have been blamed.
"It's impossible to know what was going on in Junior Seau's mind at this point..." So, "impossible to know." It's impossible to know, but still: What was going on in his mind? It's impossible to know, Sanjay! We all know it's impossible to know, but is it possible? Even though it's impossible to know, "is it possible that past head traumas could have played a role in Seau's taking his own life?" It's "impossible to know what was going on in his mind," but nevertheless I want you to answer the question of why he did it.
GUPTA: We have enough evidence to say, "Yes," because you're starting to see, uh, a pattern of exactly what you're describing here, Anderson. This idea that the previous blows to the head -- uh, trauma, for example, sustained on a football field -- can accumulate over time and lead to something known as Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, CTE. Dave Duerson. You remember, you and I talked about him in 2011. He shot himself in the chest as well. It's a very unusual way -- uh, a rare way -- for one to commit suicide and just hard to talk about. But in Duerson's case he had left that note that Paul was sort of alluding to saying, "I shot myself in the chest. I'd like my brain to be studied." Duerson's brain was studied and in fact he did have exactly what he was concerned about: CTE. That was confirmed, you know, when they studied his brain.
RUSH: Now, Seau did not leave a note asking for his brain to be studied. Already doctors are asking for the brain of Seau to study it. But how many of you laughed at me when I told you some months ago that maybe not in our lifetimes (but it's gonna be close) somebody is seriously going to suggest banning the game of football. You can see we're heading in that direction. Now, every suicide is due to the game. "The game is killing people!" That's already been established here. So what's next, folks, with liberals in charge?
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They’ll ban the kick-offs and punts soon enough...
For those that think banning football is the solution: Just how many people do you think would’ve heard of Junior Seau without football, what do you think he would’ve done instead, and do you have proof he wouldn’t have killed himself if he had been a bricklayer?
I would propose weight limits on players, you now have guys approaching 300 pounds who actually have speed....F=ma.
And there are thousands of retired players who had concussions who are leading normal, happy lives. And there are thousands of people who never had concussions who commit suicide.
Coming soon. The New NFL. National FLAG Football League. Complete with shorts and T-shirts with names and numbers on them.
Was watching espn this morning, and everyone has espoused one theory or another for Seau’s death. No one knows why he took his own life; please stop with the baseless conjecture. We may never know why he did it; it’s just a sad, tragic ending to a human life.
That head-hunter coach should be banned for life instead of just suspended.
It’s not necessarily about banning it. But the league has screwed up. Right around Seau’s rookie season the NFL released a report that concussions cause no permanent damage, a report that was pretty silly given the medical knowledge we had at the time and has now been completely refuted. But during all the time players have been taking a beating, the league has only recently decided to take player health seriously, but of course they have decades of a violent culture they built to overcome. Then you get scary things like Chris Henry’s autopsy showing massive brain trauma and he was a wide receiver (probably the least impacted position on the team besides kicker) who had never missed a game due to head injury as a pro or college player. If Seau’s autopsy is similar something dramatic is going to have to change in the game, because if his brain looks like Henry’s then we’ve got good evidence that the game is beating players to death, probably starting with their first tackle in peewee.
I’ve had a couple concussions way back when and I never considered ending my life.
And what about hockey players? They get concussions and all other manner of beat up even worse than foolball players.
Huh?!?!? Tell that to Darryl Stingley (oh wait, you can't)
If there is ever a concerted effort to ban American football, soccer should immediately connected with it, since it requires players to hit the ball with their HEAD. There are obvious symptoms of trauma from these repeated blows to the head, such as the belief that soccer is superior to football and the overwhelming tendency to vote Democrat.
Hockey’s summer of tragedy turns debate towards whether to keep fighting in the game
bfl
Chris Henry’s autopsy showing massive brain trauma and he was a wide receiver...
Not to nitpick, but I believe Chris Henrey’s massive brain trauma was a result of flying out of the back of a speeding truck, which was being driven by a ex-girlfirend in an attempt to avoid a beating. Doubt that the coroner is able to distinguish between injuries sustained from playing footbal versus hitting the pavement after falling out of a moving truck...
Receivers really do take less of a pounding than almost everybody. They’re generally only involved in 10 or 12 plays a game, probably only catch 2/3 of those, and frequently get to pop out of bounds without even getting tackled. When you actually look at their stat lines to see their level of involvement it’s amazing how much attention they get. Good blocking WRs like Hines Ward get more of course, but most WRs won’t block an artery. Yeah they’ll take a beating on a post route, but how many of those do they run in a game.
Football is a brutal sport, especially in the NFL. The players know the risks going in, so they bear a large part of the responsibility. If Seau’s brain show massive trauma, as a linebacker you have to think the majority of it was inflicted by himself.
No, his brain trauma was long term damage, CTE damage.
No they don’t know the risk going in. The league lied to them and told them there was no long term risk. That’s part of why they’re being sued, and they’re going to lose those suits. And when you look at the Henry situation with ZERO reported head injuries in college or the pros you have to start to think some of this damage is happening in high school or even peewee, when they’re kids and WAY know know the risk.
“That head-hunter coach should be banned for life instead of just suspended.”
That being the case then all NFL coaches would have to be fired along with all of the players.
There are unspoken policies similar to the Saints on all teams in the NFL. The Saints were just unlucky enough to be caught.
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