Posted with the express consent of Evan Weiner:
THE BUSINESS AND POLITICS OF SPORTS
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Wednesday, 2 May 2011
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BY EVAN WEINER
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
COMMENTARY
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I didn’t know Junior Seau although I met him on the day he was drafted into the National Football League in 1990 and probably interviewed him after a football game a few times more. From all accounts, he was a fearsome presence on the football field; a killer who at times could control a game defensively.
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But Junior Seau didn’t live to be a ripe old age and until an autopsy is performed and a police investigation is complete, there is no need to speculate about the circumstances surrounding Seau’s death other than he was found dead of a shotgun wound on the morning of May 2, 2012 about 22 years after the San Diego Chargers football team called his name at the annual National Football League event.
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The gun wound should strike a nerve among former players. It seems that is becoming a way of life and death among NFL alum suffering from life altering injuries that probably came from years and years of absorbing hits on the football field. People do hear about former NFL players but there seems to be no tracking of high school and college players who years after their football careers ended killed themselves.
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Following All the Concussion Stories
Amen Clinics: Head Trauma / Drug Abuse
Our heads are hurting from following the growing coverage on concussions in the mainstream media just as the NFL season kicks off.
The Effects of Too Many Concussions
Wow! You’d think that it was the NFL that’s suffering from one too many concussions with as many hits as they’ve been taking on the issue of concussions lately. This past week, another series of news stories have been hitting the wires, covering everything from brain injuries in general to football concussions in particular. This recent run started off with Evan Weiner‘s piece from the New Jersey Newsroom on how football players are discarded in retirement (click HERE to read that earlier post) as well as Alan Schwarz‘s continuing series on the NFL’s history of dodgy mishandling of concussions over the years (click HERE for the last round of recent coverage).
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Dr. No Resigns!
Dr. NO!
THIS JUST IN: The NFL’s Dr. No – Dr. Ira Casson – has just resigned along with his co-chair from their MTBI Committee. Following the release of a leaked memo sent out to all the teams, NFL Commissioner made his usual non-statement about making “progress.”
More from Frank Deford on NPR
Frank Deford continues to point out the long-running imbalance between current and retired disabled players’ benefits (or lack thereof) in the NFL. Deford discussed the intricacies of the NFLPA/Players Inc. trial on HBO’s Real Sports in January (click HERE read about that show).
In his latest piece, There’s No Love in the NFL, Deford discusses the callous indifference of the NFL and most of its current players to its old warriors.
The Three-Week GLA Trial in 15 Minutes
HBO Real Sports ran its Disunity episode on the retired players GLA trial last night. In under 15 minutes, they managed to present the major highlights of the entire 3-week trial, covering the points and counterpoints between the retired players and the NFLPA/Players Inc. and how the trial was won.
Joe DeLamielleure, Bruce Laird and Herb Adderley on HBO Real Sports