Tre' Newton, Sophomore running back for the University of Texas, has decided to hang up his cleats after sustaining a new concussion several weeks ago. He had also sustained several concussions in high school and one last year. He was advised by the team's medical staff that he should consider walking away in order to reduce further damage to his brain.
After consulting with his family, including his father Nate Newton, a former NFL player, who told him that he had to consider his future because football would end someday, he decided to quit. Unfortunately, Newton has probably already sustained considerable injury which may hurt him in the future. One of his teammates, who obviously doesn't get it, said that he wouldn't quit because in ten years he wouldn't have the memories of having kept playing. The question is whether he will be able to remember his playing days or not.
That is the reality for Jim McMahon, former Super Bowl winning quarterback, who has announced that his memory is shot, both short-term and long-term. He is now speaking out to let other people know, especially those who continue to downplay the dangers, what the future may hold for them.
What all those who are complaining about NFL commissioner Roger Goodell's actions trying to limit violent hits don't understand is that at some point, as the medical knowledge increases, Congress will step in and do something. The NFL does not have a God given right to exist and to remain the preeminent sport in America. Look what has happened to boxing. At one point, boxing was one of the most popular sports in America. Now, to many people, it is little different than dog fighting, and the same thing can happen to football.
Nearly a century ago, Theodore Roosevelt stepped in and saved football, which was on the verge of being banned because of the number of deaths taking place, and radical changes were made to the game to make is safer. If he had not done so, football would have been outlawed. I believe we are on the precipice of another such situation.
As more and more ex-players come forward and talk about what is happening to them. And as more evidence mounts of what is happening to these players brains, including what is being found in the brains of high schoolers, people will rise up and call for a change or they will take their dollars, and their sons somewhere else. Here are two pieces about research being conducted at Boston University on head trauma in atheletes (here and here).
Credit must be given to UT for allowing Newton to continue under his football scholarship, rather than rescinding it which is within their prerogative. They have a significant statement about their priorities through this move as well.
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