Pollard: NFL will not exist in 30 years

[DaBears1127]

http://espn.go.com/nfl/playoffs/2012...exist-30-years

Do you agree with Pollard? Or is it a little bit exaggerated? I personally can't see a game this popular not being in existence, but I think the amount of changes taking place will definitely hurt the games popularity going forward.

[Pinstripe power]

it will be the Nation Flag Football League

[Seguin]

"The league is getting WAY too soft"
"Wait, Brady almost kicked someone?! That's such a risk, that could scrape someone's knee! Get him out of the league"

[NYSPORTS98]

might be a lot less than 30 years. Could be 10 or less.

[Pinstripe power]

"The league is getting WAY too soft"
"Wait, Brady almost kicked someone?! That's such a risk, that could scrape someone's knee! Get him out of the league"

who said its danergous? people complain because dangerous or not, it's dirty and illegal

[DaBears1127]

might be a lot less than 30 years. Could be 10 or less.

No way this happens.

[NYSPORTS98]

No way this happens.

Go look at the last post in the Seau thread. What goes up will come down. People need to be educated on what is happenening. Pending lawsuits could supercede the entertainment dollars. It's a timebomb and it's real.

[tlynch]

While they often discuss removing helmets, or changing to soft helmets. I wonder if they ever consider having two sets of pads - offensive and defensive. Where the defensive pads are minimal, and the offensive pads are slightly more substantial. Yet they are both all soft pads.

The defense is typically the initiator of hard hits, so it would remove the feeling of invincibility from the defense.

It would also probably increase scoring - which I assume they would like.

[Pinstripe power]

Go look at the last post in the Seau thread. What goes up will come down. People need to be educated on what is happenening. Pending lawsuits could supercede the entertainment dollars. It's a timebomb and it's real.

the lawsuits aren't going to amount to much. at the end of the day, its going to be hard to get past them willingly and knowing playing a dangerous sport. we all knew football was dangerous, it was the extent that has been a surprise

[NYSPORTS98]

While they often discuss removing helmets, or changing to soft helmets. I wonder if they ever consider having two sets of pads - offensive and defensive. Where the defensive pads are minimal, and the offensive pads are slightly more substantial. Yet they are both all soft pads.

The defense is typically the initiator of hard hits, so it would remove the feeling of invincibility from the defense.

It would also probably increase scoring - which I assume they would like.

If they go to a soft helmet the league will go under b/c somebody will die out there. As far as pads, I believe next season they will make it mandatory for players to wear leg pads in an effort to slow down the game a bit. Too many players are just wearing pants without any pads to slow them down a hair.

[NYSPORTS98]

the lawsuits aren't going to amount to much. at the end of the day, its going to be hard to get past them willingly and knowing playing a dangerous sport. we all knew football was dangerous, it was the extent that has been a surprise

Clearly you don't even know what the lawsuits are about as most of it has to do with getting medical assistance. Do you research anything????? No

[NYSPORTS98]

I'll post it over here too.

People need to educate themselves.


http://www.northjersey.com/closter/F...abilities.html

The desperate prayer often escapes Wesley Walker’s lips in the dead of night.

When the pain grows intolerable, he sits alone in the dark watching movies, passing the sleepless hours that plague him almost daily.

“I’ve sat in bed, praying ‘Jesus, God, would you make the pain go away?’ ” said the 57-year-old Walker. “I just don’t want to go through this anymore. I would give anything just for a day not to have this happen.”

The former Jets Pro Bowl receiver has been unable to feel his feet for 25 years and suffers from “constant, wrenching” pain running up his arms and deep inside his hands — which now shake — caused by nerve damage.

This is life for Walker, and many of his former colleagues. While tens of millions of fans are focused on Sunday’s Super Bowl, Jets and Giants once at the center of attention deal quietly with illnesses such as Walker’s.

Several of the Jets and Giants and their families are among the more than 4,000 former players and families who have accused the National Football League of concealing research linking head trauma to permanent brain injury, spawning a series of lawsuits. While the NFL has embarked on a number of measures in the last three years to address concerns, it has consistently refused to comment on the suits since consolidated in federal court.

Some stories are well known, especially those of players like Junior Seau who committed suicide after their careers ended. But most fans are unaware what’s befallen Walker, Bruce Harper and other local stars after they limped out of the spotlight.

Harper’s wife, Nancy, is afraid to leave the former Jet — widely known for his work with Bergen County young people — alone given his serious brain and heart issues. The ex-Giant lineman Brad Benson had emergency spinal surgery in September when he could no longer feel much of his right leg.

And Leonard Marshall, a former Giants and Jets defensive end, suffers from mood swings, fogginess and short-term memory loss. Only 51, he is convinced he’s suffering from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, a degenerative brain disease linked to repetitive head trauma.

Those players knew football was a brutal sport when they signed up on their own volition. But players not suing the league, such as Walker, join Harper and Marshall — who are involved in the lawsuit — in contending that the league needs to do more to help.

The NFL has instituted a strict return-to-play protocol for concussions and an education campaign including TV commercials and posters in locker rooms demonstrating proper tackling technique. It also has introduced new penalties to protect players’ heads.

In September, the league pledged $30 million to the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health to fund research. And it established the NFL Player Care Foundation in 2007, providing health screenings and other medical services.

But critics say those measures do not do enough to assist the players who came before, who are suffering now.

“These guys need help. And they’re asking for help,” said Taylor Walker, Wesley’s daughter and a former New Jersey Nets dancer.

Harper doesn’t know how much time he has left.

The Englewood native and Closter resident, who copes with near-constant headaches, worries that the suit will still be going on after he dies.

“Right now, even thinking about [concussions], I could just cry,” said Harper, a Jets receiver, back and returner from 1977 to 1984. “I’m not kidding you. I could cry right now very, very easily....

“And the sad thing is, I think they’re just going to string this out until most of us die. In my health, I’m not going to live long.”

Harper and Walker are hardly alone.

Benson underwent a three-level fusion in his lower back that lasted 13½ hours and included the insertion of 12 rods. Doctors feared the numbness and nerve damage would become permanent if they did not operate immediately.

“Before this technology that they have today? I’d be in a wheelchair,” said Benson, a Giants left tackle from 1978 to 1987. He’s now well known for his unique radio commercials advertising his car dealership in Central Jersey.

Benson, 57, previously had both hips replaced and spinal fusion surgery on his neck after parts of both hands went numb. He has regained all feeling.

Former left tackle Roman Oben endured 11 surgeries during his 12-year career with four teams, including the Giants. He endured nine on his knees (one was a microfracture) and two reconstructive procedures on his left foot. Only 40 years old, he has “chronic pain.”

“It’s the story of football,” said Oben, who retired in 2007. He works as a broadcaster and serves as vice president of the New York/New Jersey chapter of the NFL Alumni Association. “It ages you 15 to 20 years, so I’m probably 40 going on 60 physically.”

For Marshall, it’s his brain that’s worrisome. He has bouts of fogginess, where his train of thought becomes cloudy, and headaches that throb from temple to temple. He also has short-term memory issues and mood swings that send him on a “roller-coaster ride.”

Marshall, a former Pro Bowler who had most of his 83½ career sacks with the Giants, said he lives with it every day.

“One minute I’m crying,” he said. “The next minute I’m all emotional....

“I know that I’m not myself. I’m not the kid that came into this. And this is not what I signed up for. Had I known this [would happen], I probably would have said, ‘The fame and fortune might not be worth it.’


He compares his symptoms with those of his friend and onetime teammate Dave Duerson before the former Chicago Bear and Giant shot himself in the chest in 2011. Duerson, 50, had asked that his brain be studied to explain why he suffered from neurological issues in the final years of his life. CTE was discovered.

“Everything he went through, I’ve gone through,” said Marshall, who also has four ruptured disks in his neck and lower spine issues and recently suffered kidney failure.

“It’s very frightening because he couldn’t get answers to the same questions I have.”

Medical documents related to the retired players’ illnesses are confidential because of federal privacy laws. Walker says he has “closets full” of his medical reports. Marshall says his own files stretch over 1,400 pages.

The narrative former players and their lawyers portray is simple: They were asked to perform to the limit of their extraordinary physical abilities, sacrificing their bodies — and, unwittingly, their minds.

Their suffering often is silent, heard only by wives, children and former teammates — the only support networks many have. They often require constant care and are drowning in medical bills.

One recurring symptom that players talk about is depression.

“These guys are getting bare-bones benefits,” Barbara Comerford said of players out of the NFL for 15 years or more. Comerford is a disability attorney based in Midland Park who represents “several” former players.

“I get calls from ministers about these guys.” she said. “I get calls from spouses. I get calls from siblings because the spouses are gone.”

Nancy Harper isn’t going anywhere.

But Bruce Harper’s wife of almost 28 years cannot fix everything — or be there every minute. She wishes she were.

Harper, 57, has a pacemaker to regulate a bad heart after it stopped in 1991 and he had to be revived. He suffered a mini-stroke last May.

He “doesn’t like to go too far without me,” said Nancy, a pediatric nurse. “He will not travel without me.”

“We’re always worried about Bruce,” she continued. “If I’m at work and I call home and he doesn’t answer the phone, my first concern is, ‘Oh, my gosh, what happened?’ ”

In 1998, Harper founded Heroes and Cool Kids, a not-for-profit organization that teaches high school students to mentor younger kids. He remains involved, but a partner runs it because he no longer can.

“I’m just so messed up,” said Harper, who was never diagnosed with a concussion but was knocked out cold three times. “Sometimes I just can’t quite figure something out. It’s like I’m in a fog.”

He deals with other problems: His back. Wrists. Shoulder. Knees. Feet.

And Harper called it a “relief” when he tore his ACL in his final season. He wonders if it saved him from paralysis because of a serious spinal issue in his neck.

“I think had I played much longer, who knows?” he said.

Despite his struggles, Harper says, “the guy I really feel bad for is Wesley.”

Walker took hits in 1986 and 1989 that left him temporarily paralyzed — and are responsible for much of his pain and weakness.

He underwent spinal surgery five years ago that required a plate and 14 screws to rebuild his neck. His doctor told him he “had no choice” — even a minor car accident could leave him paralyzed.

Now he needs back surgery.

Drinking kept his mind off the pain. But he recently stopped when his three adult children grew concerned.

“They don’t understand,” Walker said. “It’s not taking the pain away. It’s just making me not think about it.”

“It’s just a constant struggle because he’s always in pain,” his daughter said.

He relies on injections to keep him walking. And recently, Walker noticed a deteriorating short-term memory and enunciation difficulties, with his words occasionally coming out “as mumbo jumbo.”

“I never thought it would be like this,” Walker said. “If I knew I would end up like this, hell no. Not on your life [would I have played]. I’d find another career.”

[subroc]

Pollard: NFL will not exist in 30 years

...Do you agree with Pollard? Or is it a little bit exaggerated? I personally can't see a game this popular not being in existence, but I think the amount of changes taking place will definitely hurt the games popularity going forward.

I believe he is right.

I don't want to get into the safety changes.

The pads have literally become a form of armor and with bigger and stronger and faster guys launching themselves turning pads in to a hard plastic weapon. We will eventually see significant changes in the name of safety.

I believe, an assertion that he made that someone will get killed was also pretty pertinent and wouldn't be surprised if he is correct.

I expect 30 years is a reasonable prediction.

[hoosiercubsfan]

Was listening to the Dan Patrick show this morning and he had Tony Dungy on talking about this very topic. Dungy stated that he did not believe this is the case. That all throughout history as the game changed people claimed the exact same thing but it still remains the most popular pro sport in the U.S. I tend to agree with Dungy and don't think any rule changes are going to kill the sport. It could take a pretty major shot if/when they lose the court case but it won't kill the sport itself.

Patrick also mentioned that moving towards a stronger PED testing system will also help. Each year you have guys getting bigger, faster, and stronger being able to cover sideline to sideline. Having an ever evolving PED program that includes HGH could have a profound impact on the sport causing a dramatic drop in the use of them. Only the marquee guys who make enough to pay the top doctors will be able to stay above the curve with newer designer PED's.

As for the guys who have come before the present group the care they have been shown is absolutely pathetic. If not for them the NFL would not be where it is now and they all need to step up immediately and start caring for them. Being that if they don't start now the current guys will take their places once they decide to retire.

[Shlumpledink]

I'll be playing football on my deathbed