Junior Seau dead?

[TRH]

...but the fact remains

It didn't even make it until it was dark out the day he commits suicide........and the groups pushing their "concussions" agenda's were already coming out of the woodwork. And oh yeah : they are attempting to extort tens, hundreds of millions of dollars from the NFL in coming future lawsuits. More attorneys are going to get rich because we all know what out-of-control juries and activists judges do nowadays.

Sad for his family, but if its a regular civilian that commits suicide, its called a shameful act. But because its a sports figure, the accolades and excuses are just pouring in right now. Its the society we live in.

I'm neutral as far as the guy goes, but listening to many of the news stories on TV and blogs so far is enough to make one sick. Its not even 24 hrs after the fact and agendas are being thrown around and pushed and so forth.

[Vis]

Originally Posted by TRH

...but the fact remains

It didn't even make it until it was dark out the day he commits suicide........and the groups pushing their "concussions" agenda's were already coming out of the woodwork. And oh yeah : they are attempting to extort tens, hundreds of millions of dollars from the NFL in coming future lawsuits. More attorneys are going to get rich because we all know what out-of-control juries and activists judges do nowadays.

Sad for his family, but if its a regular civilian that commits suicide, its called a shameful act. But because its a sports figure, the accolades and excuses are just pouring in right now. Its the society we live in.

I'm neutral as far as the guy goes, but listening to many of the news stories on TV and blogs so far is enough to make one sick. Its not even 24 hrs after the fact and agendas are being thrown around and pushed and so forth.

Just about everything you posted is bullshit. There is no reason you should know anything about traumatic brain injuries. But you should recognize that you don't. The agenda is the search for knowledge. People are fond of saying that players know what they're getting into when they play. Players don't know. The understanding of the dangers is growing. Those searching for this greater understanding should not be shouted down for their efforts.

Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy was found in the autopsied brains of Mike Webster, Terry Long and Justin Strzelczyk, all Steelers. Don't you think they should look at Junior's brain?

[ebsteelers]

Originally Posted by Vis

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/03/sp...rson.html?_r=1

If you're going to be dismissive about the problem, make some effort to educate yourself first.

http://www.bu.edu/cste/

good links you posted, would like to read up on this more..


curious, i never played football at the professional level
but played from age 5 up until i was 22 , obviously the hitting isnt as hard as at a professional level, but wonder the long term effects of playing for so long

[TRH]

Originally Posted by Vis

Just about everything you posted is bullshit. There is no reason you should know anything about traumatic brain injuries. But you should recognize that you don't. The agenda is the search for knowledge. People are fond of saying that players know what they're getting into when they play. Players don't know. The understanding of the dangers is growing. Those searching for this greater understanding should not be shouted down for their efforts.

Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy was found in the autopsied brains of Mike Webster, Terry Long and Justin Strzelczyk, all Steelers. Don't you think they should look at Junior's brain?

false. It wasn't even 4 in the afternoon and there were already people coming out pushing "brain injury fault"...... way, way before any facts of the suicide were even remotely available. You can't tell me money-hungry attorney's in their efforts to extract money from the NFL weren't already leaking stories.
No one said anything about there not being concussion-related injuries in the game or that they shouldn't "look at his brain".
Even so, unless there's a conclusive note left by him, no one will every know "why" his did it, other than be a troubled human being. Injury or no injury, we'll likely never know why.

[Vis]

Originally Posted by TRH

false. It wasn't even 4 in the afternoon and there were already people coming out pushing "brain injury fault"...... way, way before any facts of the suicide were even remotely available. You can't tell me money-hungry attorney's in their efforts to extract money from the NFL weren't already leaking stories.
No one said anything about there not being concussion-related injuries in the game or that they shouldn't "look at his brain".
Even so, unless there's a conclusive note left by him, no one will every know "why" his did it, other than be a troubled human being. Injury or no injury, we'll likely never know why.

It is impossible to make a decision independent of the realities of the brain's structure and chemicals. Junior's decision came from somewhere.

And money hungry attorneys (thanks for the right wing meme about my profession) can't get money unless the science says they're right. then they have to prove the league bears some responsibility.

[DG94]

According to Adam Schefter, he was never listed on an injury report for concussion.

RIP

[Vis]

Originally Posted by DG94

According to Adam Schefter, he was never listed on an injury report for concussion.

RIP

Was Mike Webster? He missed 4 games in 16 years.

http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/loc...cc4c002e0.html

Not long after he died, Mike Webster's brain wound up in a plastic tub that was sitting on a table in the living room of a Pittsburgh man named Bennet Omalu.

Omalu, a forensic pathologist originally from Nigeria, was obsessed with Webster's brain. When he couldn't work on it enough in his office at the Allegheny County coroner's office, he took it home.

What Omalu found then has the nation's attention now.

Mike Webster was one of the greatest football players of his generation, a center for the Wisconsin Badgers and then the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Born in Tomahawk, Webster was all-Big Ten with the Badgers and helped the Steelers win four Super Bowls during a pro career that landed him in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

But in the past week, both Webster's former wife, Pam Webster, and his son, Garrett Webster, told me separately that his greatness on the field will not be his true legacy. His real legacy involves what Bennet Omalu found while working in his living room back in 2002.

And although neither Pam nor Garrett said it, that aspect of Webster's legacy is assured in part because of how hard his family fought for justice for themselves and for Mike's memory after his death.

The subject of brain injuries in football has been in the spotlight in recent weeks, and Webster, who was 50 when he died in 2002, is again in the news.

He figures prominently in a riveting article, "Brain Game," in the October issue of GQ magazine. That piece, by Jeanne Marie Laskas, details how Omalu discovered and named a disease, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), that has been found in the brains of eight deceased former NFL players aged 36 to 52. Webster was the first.

Last Friday, Garrett Webster was interviewed on the ABC News program "Nightline" in a segment on football brain injuries that also included interviews with Omalu and Julian Bailes, a former Steelers team doctor who is now chair of the Department of Neurosurgery at West Virginia University.

That school is home to the Brain Injury Research Institute, where Garrett Webster, who is 25, now works as a liaison to NFL players and their families.

He's uniquely qualified for the position. In 2000, Garrett was living with his mom and siblings and attending Lodi High School as a freshman. But when the school year was over, Garrett moved to Pittsburgh, in large part to try to take care of his dad, who was separated from Pam.

"We all knew he was in a downward spiral," Garrett told me this week.

Back when Garrett had turned 10, Mike came home to Wisconsin to attend the party, but he never made it to Lodi. Instead, he was in the Budgetel Inn in Madison, too sick and disoriented to come out of his dark room.

In 1997, Mike had contacted a West Virginia attorney, Bob Fitzsimmons, who eventually sent Webster to four doctors, all of whom diagnosed brain injury due to multiple blows to the head. Yet the NFL fought paying Webster - and, after his death, his estate - what a football-related total disability should have yielded.

A court case went on for years. Finally, in December 2006, the U.S. Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling that football injuries permanently disabled Mike Webster, resulting in an award of around $1.5 million for Pam and her four kids.

Lately, there have been a few tentative signs that the NFL is ready to remove its head from the sand on this issue, even commissioning a study of its own.

"We're not a group that points fingers," Garrett told me. "That's not going to accomplish anything. I think the NFL is treading very carefully. We're trying to grow our relationship with the league. Our goal is not to ban football."

He thinks new equipment, perhaps better helmets, may be a part of the answer. The important thing right now is acknowledging a real issue exists, and no one who hears Mike Webster's story can doubt that.

"His legacy," Garrett said, "is going to be how he helped people when he passed away."

[DG94]

Originally Posted by Vis

Was Mike Webster?

I don't know. Then again during that era (and Seau's) a concussion was little more than 'getting your bell rung', so I doubt they would put it on.

[Atlanta Dan]

Originally Posted by Vis

It is impossible to make a decision independent of the realities of the brain's structure and chemicals. Junior's decision came from somewhere.

And money hungry attorneys (thanks for the right wing meme about my profession) can't get money unless the science says they're right. then they have to prove the league bears some responsibility.

Agree with TRH that while it could be CTE it could also be that Seau had a history of severe depression unrelated to CTE or for all we know might have financial problems or a severe drug habit (2 other not uncommon occurences among retired professional athletes) - if anyone tossed out that Seau's suicide could be due to drugs, money problems or untreated depression with no facts to back it up they justifiably would be blasted.

For the doctor i quoted to throw out speculation as to causation while admitting he did not have a clue about Seau's personal condition was extraordinarily
unprofessional unless the goal was to contend everytime a pro foootball player takes his own life it must be presumned to be CTE relatied unless proven definitively to the contrary.

NFL induced CTE is a major problem but the talking heads attributing a suicide to CTE with no proof to support it is not a proper means of advancing the goal of having CTE among pro football players being taken more seriously

[Fire Arians]

i dont think he had any history of concussions. i would look at drug use though, i always thought the guy was on steroids or HGH because who the hell is able to play linebacker at age 40?