Football Related Behavior Problems – Should Children be Added to this List?

Football Related Behavior Problems – Should Children be Added to this List?

Daunting List of Football Related Behavior Problems

Attorney Gordon Johnson

It is a daunting list, those with severe behavioral issues after years of football.

Most famous of the bad actors?

O.J. Simpson

Why does no one ask whether he had CTE? Could it be more obvious? He had 2,400 career carries, not counting high school, college and pre-season games.

Ray Rice

Played the same position as O.J., for almost as many years. He has already had more than 1,600 career carries in the NFL.

Adrian Peterson

Adrian Peterson’s problems were undoubtedly related to poor judgment, probably made worse by the stress of being around noisy kids. Those two problems say “brain injury” more clearly than memory loss. Adrian Peterson was also famous for running over people, absorbing and giving out the most punishment. Think the behavior issues and the violence with which he played the game are coincidences? Peterson has already exceed 2,400 career carries in the NFL.

Why do I cite the number of carries as relevant? It is the number of hits, not the number of concussions that predict CTE severity. CTE is caused by total trauma absorbed, even if all of that trauma is caused by sub-concussive hits.  See the Marchi study at http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0056805

Jovan Belcher

We seem to leave him off the list. Murder/suicide should get more attention than one blow in an elevator.

Darren Sharper

Rape anyone? Am I really saying that football related behavior problems include the long list of felonies that Darren Sharper has been charged with? It should certainly be part of the differential. Safeties have as many violent collisions as any position in football. He had more than 700 tackles, most high speed collisions.

Are all of these problems related to brain damage from playing football? Presumptively yes. The actuaries in the NFL case this year estimated a 30% rate for clinically manifesting brain damage in former NFL players. High probability that the bizarre behavior of this group, fits within that category.

Momma’s don’t let your children grow up to be football players. Football related behavior problems are not a thing of the past. Unless something is done, more and more children will play at younger and younger ages. The allure of the sport is too large, the illusion of safety from helmets and pads too deceptive.

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