Dave Duerson: Why the NCAA and NFL Needs to Heed the Message Sent By His Death
Published by Ian Hanford on February 28, 2011
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Chicago Bears
Roger Goodell has made helmet-to-helmet hits and the overall safety of NFL players the paramount issue in the NFL today.
An increased emphasis on fines and suspensions to those responsible for questionable hits to players’ neck and head areas has raised awareness of the potential for debilitating effects on the rest of players’ lives due to shots to the head.
Debilitating effects such as CTE, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a disease frequently associated with dementia and depression, have come to the forefront of today’s gridiron culture.
The death of Dave Duerson, who suffered from CTE, on February 17th sent shockwaves through the ranks of professional and collegiate athletes all over the country.
Shockwaves not from the death itself or even from the method of suicide Duerson chose, but from the telling instructions left by Duerson in reference to his brain’s destination, post-mortem.
According to Sean Gregory’s article written for Time, Duerson left instructions for his brain to be left to the “NFL’s Brain Bank”. Duerson wanted his brain to be researched and to be used to figure out how football can in fact cause players their lives without proper treatment.
I, for one, have stood on the side of the players during Goodell’s hunt for overly-aggressive players, but Duerson’s message still rings clear in my head.
While football is a violent collision sport and hits to the head will happen, necessary precautions can still be taken to ensure the safety of the thoroughbred athletes fans around the world love to watch take the field as modern-day gladiators.
I understand that with elite athletes running at top speed and looking for contact, unfortunate injuries are bound to happen. I also understand that not every helmet-to-helmet hit is a “dirty” hit, once again full-speed brickhouse athletes will do their share of damage, some of it not avoidable in the least.
However, this does not mean the awareness shouldn’t be escalated. As 4.3 forty times and thirty rep’s on the bench press at the NFL Combine become more frequent mainstays in today’s game, injuries of the Duerson variety will continue to rise.
Brain injuries have caused recent players like Chris Henry to lose their lives far too early, and have caused early retirement in the case of Steven Threet. Threet, a former University of Michigan quarterback, transferred to Arizone State University and suffered four concussions last season, forcing him to walk away from the sport he loved.
No fan, player or coach likes to think of the game they know and love as potentially life-altering, but the bottom line is, head injuries and the long-term effects are no joke.
So here is an idea for the NFL, instead of extending the season to eighteen games and furthering risk for the players that already put their necks on the line every Sunday, let’s forget the extra revenue and stick to sixteen games of the greatest sports season of the year.
Will Duerson’s message be left in vain, or will the NFL and NCAA do what is required to see proper treatment for these special athletes we spend our weekends watching do what they do best?
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