Concussions in the NFL

With all the bustle this offseason in the NFL, I think something that is extremely important to players and their safety is still being overlooked, concussions and brain damage are still issues that plague players, their teams, and their families.

Junior Seau’s tragic death at the age of 43 back on May 2^nd is just another warning of what can come to be if there is brain damage, and this is not just a thought that he had concussions, his ex-wife said he had suffered concussions during his career.  This death should have created a whirl wind in the NFL office, but there was nothing, and this is absurd.

There have been concussion issues in the NFL for years now, and now that a former player, and all-time great is dead something should have been done, or at least started, and it is not like teams are always aware of players situations.  Last year in the Cleveland-Pittsburgh game when McCoy was hit hard he still went out and played with a concussion, yet this was not reported until after the game was over.  I don’t understand why he was allowed back in to the game.  McCoy even stated he does not remember anything after the concussion, which is scary.  How is somebody that is such rough condition allowed back into a game?  I really have no clue, and frankly this is inexcusable.

I say this not only from a stand point for player safety, but also as someone who has suffered numerous concussions, sometimes even going back to work the day after, or participating in dangerous sports soon after suffering a concussion.  I was young and naïve then, but now that these concussions have taken their toll on me I am trying to figure out why anyone else would want to be suffer like I do, or even be put in a situation to do so.

To clarify as to my setbacks that I am working on here is a short list of what they were: Depression, anxiety, feeling of loneliness, anger, memory loss, hearing problems, and sight issues.

So I am speaking out against the lack of help for players with concussion and brain damage, because these players need help, otherwise we could see a spike in deaths, or even arrests from outburst of anger.  We don’t need another tragic loss like Seau, because that was one to many, nobody deserved to be alone in this battle.

I ask that those who read this write to the NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and tell him that the NFL needs to do a better job with concussions NOW, and not later. 

Please do not stop there, if you know anyone that has suffered from a concussion, or ends up suffering one, be there for them, help them.  We all need to help them out, they need to know they cannot go out and do the same thing twice, or even three times, or even more like myself.  Brain damage is an awful thing, and it leads some down dark roads and paths to sometimes the point of no return.

This needs to be done, just imagine if Junior had help, he may not have killed himself.  Life is a gift and is to short to die so young, I think he had so much potential and so much left, but sadly died.  As stated brain damage is a terrible thing, speak out against the lack of concussion knowledge in the NFL, and help those in need.  It is all I ask, because being someone that still deals with side affects of concussions, it is scary, and it hurts sometimes.  There is help though....