Author Topic: Rookie WR to retire after TBI in practice  (Read 2829 times)

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Rookie WR to retire after TBI in practice
« on: September 07, 2015, 05:13:38 PM »

Offline tarheelsxxiii

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Coxson, a rookie WR for the Packers has decided to retire after suffering a grade 3 concussion during practice on August 1st. The issue of the NFL's reputation related to TBI/CTE was raised in another thread. Would be interesting to hear what people think regarding these early-career retirements. Given growing awareness about TBI/CTE, do you believe this is going to become more common? As research develops, how will this impact the NFL as an organization?

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/13602937/former-green-bay-packers-player-adrian-coxson-retiring-says-next-hit-kill-me
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Re: Rookie WR to retire after TBI in practice
« Reply #1 on: September 07, 2015, 05:22:12 PM »

Online Donoghus

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Coxson, a rookie WR for the Packers has decided to retire after suffering a grade 3 concussion during practice on August 1st. The issue of the NFL's reputation related to TBI/CTE was raised in another thread. Would be interesting to hear what people think regarding these early-career retirements. Given growing awareness about TBI/CTE, do you believe this is going to become more common? As research develops, how will this impact the NFL as an organization?

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/13602937/former-green-bay-packers-player-adrian-coxson-retiring-says-next-hit-kill-me

The more momentum this CTE stuff picks up, the bigger effect will be felt at the lower levels of football; Pop Warner, high school, etc..  Parents pushing their kids towards alternative sports or kids abandoning football at a younger age (after high school or something).

If numbers drastically drop at those levels, the eventually you could see it impact the higher levels of the game.

No idea how much this thing could snowball but its something that the NFL & other levels of football should be concerned about and look into remedies.


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Re: Rookie WR to retire after TBI in practice
« Reply #2 on: September 07, 2015, 05:30:53 PM »

Offline tarheelsxxiii

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Coxson, a rookie WR for the Packers has decided to retire after suffering a grade 3 concussion during practice on August 1st. The issue of the NFL's reputation related to TBI/CTE was raised in another thread. Would be interesting to hear what people think regarding these early-career retirements. Given growing awareness about TBI/CTE, do you believe this is going to become more common? As research develops, how will this impact the NFL as an organization?

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/13602937/former-green-bay-packers-player-adrian-coxson-retiring-says-next-hit-kill-me

The more momentum this CTE stuff picks up, the bigger effect will be felt at the lower levels of football; Pop Warner, high school, etc..  Parents pushing their kids towards alternative sports or kids abandoning football at a younger age (after high school or something).

If numbers drastically drop at those levels, the eventually you could see it impact the higher levels of the game.

No idea how much this thing could snowball but its something that the NFL & other levels of football should be concerned about and look into remedies.

I agree. They are going to need to act quickly, but aside from changes in helmets (which I doubt would make a significant difference) I think there will be a hesitancy to embrace other remedies that will make the game less violent.

An interesting point in the brief article is that Coxson reportedly agreed to an injury settlement with the NFL. At this moment, we CTE can technically only be diagnosed post-mortem. But, the same is said for Alzheimer's - it can only be conclusively diagnosed post-mortem, yet we diagnose AD based on behavioral criteria every day. Nothing changed re: AD except increased awareness and agreed upon clinical criteria... and the clinical profile of CTE is already pretty well-established.

On top of that, in addition to concussions, sub-concussive head hits also produce measurable changes in athletes' MRI. Any number of players could produce evidence that repeated hits produce changes in their brain structure/function, from year-to-year, if they wish to track it.
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Re: Rookie WR to retire after TBI in practice
« Reply #3 on: September 07, 2015, 06:49:59 PM »

Offline Neurotic Guy

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I just had a conversation this afternoon with my neighbor about his son who is playing for the local high school football team.   He plays offensive guard and my neighbor is less worried at that position than he would be if he were a running back, wide receiver of defensive back.  But... it is definitely on the minds of parents.  I have 2 girls who are grown, but if I had young boys today I'd deifinitely be steering them to sports other than football.   

This could very well be the beginning of the end for pro football as we know it.  If it were ever found that a high percentage of high school players suffer life-long negative results (some degree of impairment) from head hits, I am certain that the landscape would change significantly within one generation. 

Re: Rookie WR to retire after TBI in practice
« Reply #4 on: September 07, 2015, 07:20:56 PM »

Offline Csfan1984

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Flag football is the most I'd allow under 13.

Re: Rookie WR to retire after TBI in practice
« Reply #5 on: September 07, 2015, 07:21:06 PM »

Offline hwangjini_1

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the nfl has long lived by being a blood sport and having players pay the costs for it.

as a minimum, give players big, thick, padded helmets. studies have already shown them to reduce damage to the head.
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Re: Rookie WR to retire after TBI in practice
« Reply #6 on: September 07, 2015, 10:08:46 PM »

Offline BDeCosta26

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This is a topic pretty near and dear to me. As a parent of 6 and 7 year old boys (Plus another baby on the way, lol) with a long, complex history of football related TBI's I can kind of see this from both directions.

First off, I love football. When I played, I loved everything about it. It was the first sport I played that I had success in, and to this day I dream of being able to coach it somewhere. Playing football in high school truly steered me away from a bad path a lot of my friends went down, and I can't say enough about the role being part of that sport helped me grow as a young adult.

Thanksgiving of my Junior year, I suffered a grade 3 concussion catching a pop-pass over the middle. I was knocked unconscious for a pretty significant amount of time, I was taken to the local hospital and kept there for the weekend. That had been my 3rd documented concussion, and the doctors told me in no uncertain terms that my football career needed to be over and that my recovery this time needed to be slow and deliberate, because they honestly didn't know what to expect. I thought I did. I had two of them before, and I figured a week later I'd be fine.

I was wrong. Right away, I just felt cloudy. Bright lights made me sick, like a knife was going through my head. My short-term memory was shot, and I was struggling to maintain a train of thought or put coherent sentences together. Perhaps most difficult, I just couldn't fall asleep. Within the first week, I went 72 hours straight without sleeping until my body basically shut-down. That became a constant occurrence in my life. Sleep for a few hours every couple of days. My body had lost it's internal clock, and when I finally could fall asleep, I had no control over when that was. I'd just fall asleep in the middle of class just to be woken up 10 minutes later and reprimanded. This developed into a big problem (I was in a Voc-Tech HS no less, so falling asleep while in shop is dangerous). I felt constantly confused, overwhelmingly anxious and entirely angry that no one seemed to understand. I had done well in school up to that point, and my grades fell off a cliff. I sat out the basketball season, and I started missing more and more days of school.

It was really a hazard for all involved to have me in my shop while I was going through that. Some days I felt like I could hardly see with the bright lights shining through the shop. I was rarely engaged in learning anyway, and I became a drag and a danger on everyone else. By the end of my junior year, the school was at a loss. Some of my teachers just thought I was lazy for a while, and the school had trouble understanding it because I didn't understand it. It took months of "negotiations" with my child advocacy lawyer and the school to formulate a plan so I could graduate. I had seen half a dozen neurologists, including two of the best at Children's and MGH in Boston, and even they were unsure what my prognosis was. I tried so many different changes to sleep habits, melatonin and more advanced sleep drugs and therapies. I started seeing Psychiatrists and counselors to help with my decaying sense of self worth. I had sank into the kind of black hole of depression I never dreamed existed before. It took over a year and half (much longer, by certain measures) to start to really climb out of it. I cycled through countless medications, I had to go to both summer and night school to catch up at school. I wouldn't wish that on anyone. The after effects of the serious TBI I dealt with were far-reaching and complex. I applaud a guy like this who, even after he finally realizes his dream, has the sense to know when to walk away.

As my kids are now reaching the point where they wanna play pop Warner, I'm really divided in how I feel about it. On one hand, I know just how dangerous it can be better than anyone. On the other hand, I loved the sport and it shows, so that's part of the reason they wanna play in the first place. I'll probably make them wait until high school, but after that I'll let them make their own choice. But that decision is fast becoming something parents don't want to go along with, and I wonder about where Football will be in 30 years. I'm not sure exactly what they can do to make it safer, but I hope they do. The more stories like my own that are brought into the light, the more important a conversation it will be. And that's a good thing.

Re: Rookie WR to retire after TBI in practice
« Reply #7 on: September 08, 2015, 06:39:51 PM »

Offline tarheelsxxiii

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Thanks for sharing, BD. Sounds like an unfortunate experience in that major concussions were not nearly as well understood when you were playing, and perhaps people could've been a little more sensitive/understanding to the situation. Glad to know you came through it on top, though - continued school despite the inherent challenges, learned, grew, and now have two boys of your own to share your interest in the sport with.
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Re: Rookie WR to retire after TBI in practice
« Reply #8 on: September 08, 2015, 06:50:35 PM »

Offline tarheelsxxiii

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Csfan and Neurotic - also a good point regarding kids' involvement in football as we learn more about the effects of TBI. If I had a son, I would be wary to let him play. I can appreciate not wanting to spoil your kids' dreams though, at the same time, and understand that some have great experiences with football. I learned a lot from a sport, too - basketball, but the premise is no different, I suppose.

Had been initially surprised by the injury settlement and what type of the precedent that could set for NFL players (pending it hasn't happened in a case like this - maybe it has). I was thinking of the future of the NFL related to the outcome of that story, and less about what may happen if families start funneling their kids into other sports.

I can definitely see that happening, but I'm not sure it would be a broadly developed trend. With sports, in general, there will probably always be groups of folks that won't care much about the risk, even after the severity is spelled out for them. For kids/young adults playing sports to escape less-constructive activities and/or poverty, for example maybe it won't matter. For others, I imagine it may matter a lot.

Edit: sorry, hwang, I see you. Point taken about the helmets. Wonder how effective they would be? Haven't read very much about it. Is the idea gaining steam?
« Last Edit: September 08, 2015, 07:10:05 PM by tarheelsxxiii »
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