Antwaan Randle-el regrets ever playing football

[CommissarSpartacus]

Could we be seeing the beginning of the end of professional football?

How many ex-players turned basket cases do we have to see before someone demands something be done?

Or is there jusr too much money involved?

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/super-bowl-star-antwaan-randle-el-regrets-ever-playing-football?cid=sm_tw_msnbc

Super Bowl star Antwaan Randle El regrets ever playing football
01/20/16 11:23 AM—Updated 01/20/16 11:23 AM

By Adam Howard

Antwaan Randle El had a storied NFL career, which included a Super Bowl win 10 years ago with the Pittsburgh Steelers, but, in a recent interview, he says he wished none of it ever happened.

In a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette interview commemorating past Steeler championship teams, Randle El raises what have now become familiar concerns about the physical toll the game of football can take. He retired early at the age of 32 in 2012, in part because “The kids are getting bigger and faster, so the concussions, the severe spinal cord injuries, are only going to get worse.”

He added: “There’s no correcting it. There’s no helmet that’s going to correct it. There’s no teaching that’s going to correct it. It just comes down to it’s a physically violent game. Football players are in a car wreck every week.”

Randle El’s remarks come amid increased attention to the risks of severe, lasting injury in football. The big screen Will Smith film “Concussion,” which dramatizes the discovery of the neurological disorder CTE in deceased NFL players, has helped reignite interest in the issue, and even 2016 presidential candidates have weighed in. Republican front-runner Donald Trump complained recently at a campaign rally that “football has become soft like our country has become soft.” But Randle El would likely beg to differ.

The 36-year-old describes struggling to climb stairs and significant memory loss. “I ask my wife things over and over again, and she’s like, ‘I just told you that,’” Randle El told the Post-Gazette. “I’ll ask her three times the night before and get up in the morning and forget. Stuff like that.”

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[Dr. Lecter]

Re: Antwaan Randle-el regrets ever playing football

I don't know where the game will be in 20 or 30 years. Not only will there be increased pressure to do something to the pro game, there is the looming issue of fewer kids playing the game which will impact the quality of the game once these kids are adults. That might be the bigger long term issue for the game. Fewer JJ Watts, Cam Newton, Tom Brady, etc.

[Historian]

Re: Antwaan Randle-el regrets ever playing football

The evening news last night showed a design of a new helmet, that gives on the outside, then protects with a hard shell on the inside.

Ill try to find a link.

[Homegrown]

Re: Antwaan Randle-el regrets ever playing football

“I ask my wife things over and over again, and she’s like, ‘I just told you that,’” Randle El told the Post-Gazette. “I’ll ask her three times the night before and get up in the morning and forget. Stuff like that.”

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I'm the same .... "wifey, I could really use a blow job" , she's like "I just told you no" ....I feel your pain Mr El

[daryls61]

Re: Antwaan Randle-el regrets ever playing football

I'll bet he does not regret earning the money.

[OpIv37]

Re: Antwaan Randle-el regrets ever playing football

Pro football better not end in 20 years because I don't see any way the Bills pull their **** together and win a SB in that time frame.

[Joe Fo Sho]

Re: Antwaan Randle-el regrets ever playing football

There will always be people willing to risk their health for a chance to make 10's of millions of dollars. If it were me, and my options were between playing in the NFL or some job making $18 an hour, I would play in the NFL 10 times out of 10.

I did watch the movie Concussion, so I feel like I'm an expert on this subject already.

[OpIv37]

Re: Antwaan Randle-el regrets ever playing football

That's a good point- would be rather be a lower middle income guy barely getting by, or be set financially but have the health problems?

[gebobs]

Re: Antwaan Randle-el regrets ever playing football

It's going to be an issue for a lot of sports. Boxing, hockey, and rugby come to mind. Heck, the entire intent of boxing is to inflict concussions.

And concussions are not the whole story. Even the slight jarring hits that these guys take are going to result in chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) of varying degree. We've all gotten hits at some point or another. Our skulls are pretty good at protecting the brain. But over a period of 20 or 30 years, the duration of a pro athlete's career from first introduction to the sport to retirement, the skull isn't enough. Helmets help and improvements are nice, but this will never go away.

I read an article a few weeks ago that actually blamed helmets, saying that they enable players to use their heads as weapons. That's undoubtedly true, but they also protect the head to a certain degree and I'd be willing to bet that their benefits outweigh their costs. In discussing the article, someone wondered why then don't ruggers need helmets, why aren't they getting concussions, shouldn't football just do without them and learn to tackle like in rugby.

First of all, they are two different sports as we all know. Rugby is more lateral. Football is more vertical. This makes collisions far more violent.

Secondly, the premise that ruggers are less susceptible to traumatic brain injury due to chronic contact is completely false. One study in New Zealand found that ruggers sustain, on average, 70-75 hits to the head every game. Most of them are little dingers, the kind one wouldn't worry about. But that many over a game and over a season and over a career is not good.

And as the awareness of the issue has come to fore in other sports, mainly football, rugby leagues are beginning to realize that many of their retired players are suffering from CTE.

To their credit, football and hockey are taking actions to prevent the worst hits and to immediately take action when they occur. Rugby is just starting to think about it.

Rugby uncovered: Game still has head in sand over the risks of brain damage

[Joe Fo Sho]

Re: Antwaan Randle-el regrets ever playing football

That's a good point- would be rather be a lower middle income guy barely getting by, or be set financially but have the health problems?

Add the fact that some of these guys already have kids and a wife and the decision gets even more difficult. Would you rather give your kids/family everything they've ever wanted, or be around long enough for them make you a grandfather.

The decision is easier for guys that don't see a future for themselves and maybe they only have to choose between the NFL and poverty.

There is nothing stopping them from playing 2 or 3 years and saving enough to get a top education and earn a living that way. However, it's probably pretty difficult to give up an annual salary of $1 million or more and go back to school.

[Dr. Lecter]

Re: Antwaan Randle-el regrets ever playing football

Add the fact that some of these guys already have kids and a wife and the decision gets even more difficult. Would you rather give your kids/family everything they've ever wanted, or be around long enough for them make you a grandfather.

The decision is easier for guys that don't see a future for themselves and maybe they only have to choose between the NFL and poverty.

There is nothing stopping them from playing 2 or 3 years and saving enough to get a top education and earn a living that way. However, it's probably pretty difficult to give up an annual salary of $1 million or more and go back to school.

That's only taking into account players in the NFL. What it doesn't take into account are the ones in Pop Warner, High school and college where a vary small percentage of players make it into the NFL. Is it worth it to be a second string LB on UB who plays ST? Or even a high level DII player? Those players are not going to make it in the NFL, but can still have damage from their playing careers.

[Forward_Lateral]

Re: Antwaan Randle-el regrets ever playing football

The problem is some players have no respect for the safety of other players. Look at the morons launching themselves helmet first into other players. Is football a rough sport? Hell yes it is, it always has been, but there's a fine line between rough and reckless. When guys are getting bigger, stronger and faster, and becoming reckless, that's when things go bad.

What's the solution? I don't know if there is one. Take away the helmets and pads? I don't think that's the answer. Make tackling above a certain area of a player's body illegal? Slippery slope too.

The bottom line is, something has to be done, or there will be no long term NFL.

[Victor7]

Re: Antwaan Randle-el regrets ever playing football

The NFL pretty much has a license to print money. No way in hell it ever goes away. The owners would never let it happen. I'm talking about doing the nastiest of things to prevent it.

As for the players they will always risk their bodies for that big time paycheck. That's just the reality of things. For every sad story like this one from Randle El there's one of guys who played, made their coin and lived happily ever after without that much repercussion.

[Historian]

Re: Antwaan Randle-el regrets ever playing football

Make tackling above a certain area of a player's body illegal?

I was taught to aim for the waist, and wrap up the legs.

Players today are trying to take guys down with the big collision.

Of course they're going to get gurt

[OpIv37]

Re: Antwaan Randle-el regrets ever playing football

The problem is some players have no respect for the safety of other players. Look at the morons launching themselves helmet first into other players. Is football a rough sport? Hell yes it is, it always has been, but there's a fine line between rough and reckless. When guys are getting bigger, stronger and faster, and becoming reckless, that's when things go bad.

What's the solution? I don't know if there is one. Take away the helmets and pads? I don't think that's the answer. Make tackling above a certain area of a player's body illegal? Slippery slope too.

The bottom line is, something has to be done, or there will be no long term NFL.

I hate that idea because I don't trust the refs to enforce it fairly. Our guys will nearly get decapitated and they won't throw a flag, meanwhile they'll flag anyone who touches Brady above the numbers.