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I read somewhere that there have been several NFL players who have committed suicide. Apparently they are shooting themselves in the chest rather than in the head so medical people can use it for study.....it implied that they want to learn more about concussions these men have suffered. Regardless, very sad.

Honestly, one of my first thoughts after I heard this. Very sad all around.

What is the suicide rate for the players back in the day before facemasks or helmets? We are becoming an overall softer society.

No fine from Roger Goddell on this shot

ebrooks11 wrote:What is the suicide rate for the players back in the day before facemasks or helmets? We are becoming an overall softer society.

Far less brain damage then because you can't hit as hard.

Same reason boxing gloves cut down on blood but increase knockouts and brain injury.

What do you mean can't hit as hard? Back then they may not have hit as hard, but they didn't have helmets or they were leather. What is the suicide rate in rugby?

With no helmets you quickly learn not to lead with your head, thus fewer head injuries. There have been those who suggest to going back to no helmets for that reason although that will never happen. You may get ripped ears, broken noses and some other facial injuries but there would be fewer concussions.

If you study behavorial science there is a personality type category that have extreme difficulty adjusting to life after their passion in no longer the major reason to exist. Playing football was Junior's passion and he may have felt very hapless, hopeless and depressed when he could no longer be involved as a player. Loyalty and the feeling of no longer being wanted or being of value are characteristic of this type which may have profiled Junior. As an example, a number of years ago the Detroit Police Department was forced to lay off 450 officers due to budget cuts. An astounding 48 committed suicide within 3 years of the lay off mostly attributed to the extreme breach of their loyalty, committment and life's desire to be in law enforcement. Junior was a football player and when his career ended and his family situation disintegrated he might have been a high level candidate for suicide if he were in fact of this behavorial personality type.

Interesting, Pocono. It certainly makes sense based on what little I know about the man. Tragic.

ebrooks11 wrote:What do you mean can't hit as hard? Back then they may not have hit as hard, but they didn't have helmets or they were leather. What is the suicide rate in rugby?

Compare normal boxing to bare knuckle boxing. A bare knuckle fight is extremely bloody but can go 20+ rounds and not have a knockout because without gloves to protect your hands you can't hit as hard.

Helmet/pads are the same thing. They allow players to smash each other harder without as much risk of bone bruises, broken noses, cuts, contusion etc. All that extra force rattles the brain.

PoconoPony wrote:If you study behavorial science there is a personality type category that have extreme difficulty adjusting to life after their passion in no longer the major reason to exist. Playing football was Junior's passion and he may have felt very hapless, hopeless and depressed when he could no longer be involved as a player. Loyalty and the feeling of no longer being wanted or being of value are characteristic of this type which may have profiled Junior. As an example, a number of years ago the Detroit Police Department was forced to lay off 450 officers due to budget cuts. An astounding 48 committed suicide within 3 years of the lay off mostly attributed to the extreme breach of their loyalty, committment and life's desire to be in law enforcement. Junior was a football player and when his career ended and his family situation disintegrated he might have been a high level candidate for suicide if he were in fact of this behavorial personality type.

Man, I can't tell you oppositely impacted I would be if I got laid off from my current job.

I always heard that helmuts were adopted after Teddy Roosevelt pushed for rule changes to lessen the number of series injuries / fataliities that were the result of playing football. The link below is to an article that mentions that bit of history.

http://www.pasttimesports.biz/leather_helmets_1920.html

My best friend growing up told me about a family member who had died from inkuries in a game after bucking the line, head down, and ran full tilt into a goal post. My friend said he had seen the man's jersey which had been cut from neck to the lower hem to remove it in the hospital.

In Oklahoma, the Eufaula HS football team has been called "Ironheads" since the 1920's when a fabled coach taught aggressive headplay, or at least to keep your head up to see what was going on. An observer is supposed to have remarked, "They play like they have iron heads," and the tag stuck. Nowadays, as you might imagine, the name is generally shortened to 'Heads, and with perhaps or probably a very different connotation.

Former Congressman and CFL, OU and EHS quarterback J. C. Watts mentioned that coach in his memoire.

I read the comment of a former player, myrdell, with interest, bearing as it does on my opening statement. Looks to me like any move to lessen head injuries will be very difficult to implement, and most contoversial, given the Mike Leach affair and the Saint's bounty hunting case.

I have played tackle football without a helmet and with a helmet. Never got hurt without one. Ended my career with one.

Granted the without a helmet games were few and far between pickup games and not organized activity but I still stand by the fact that you definitely protect yourself more if you are not wearing a helmet.

Helmet technology in the pre face mask era wasn't what it is today. Keep in mind Forest Gregg, Hershel Forester and Bill Fox all played on the line for SMU (and at the same time) in the 50s and all have (or had) Parkinson's. Basically over half the interior offensive line at SMU in the early 50s developed Parkinson's. May be a coincide or may have a cause and effect.

Boxer's have a higher rate of Parkinson's than the general population. Head injuries from football (or any hitting sport) aren’t limited to just dementia or suicide.

It may be very difficult to compare head injury rates from the pre facemask to post face mask era because of changes in medicine. Many pre face mask players may not have lived long enough to show manifestations of late in life head injury diseases (e.g. Parkinson’s). This is because the vast majority of these players lived in the pre antibiotic era (#1 cause of death in the US prior to the introduction of antibiotics was infection).

Also, Junior spent the majority of his career in helmets of a different technology than the ones today (as did Alex Karras and all the others). Thus, we can’t compare injuries because protective technology has vastly changed in a very short period of time.

Sad that he committed suicide but we may never know the reason. And the reason may not have been related to football at all.

ponyte wrote:Sad that he committed suicide but we may never know the reason. And the reason may not have been related to football at all.

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