Dave Duerson, for those who haven't heard, randomly decided to end his life. "Double D's" death has been deemed a suicide and Duerson (ever the pragmatist) decided to shoot himself in the chest rather than the head in order to aid in the study he requested be done on his brain to determine if he suffered damage from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy.
There's more than a few different directions to go with this for me. The most obvious being a reference to Duerson beating the crap out of his then-wife in a South Bend hotel room 5-6 years ago. Once that incident took place, like many, my perception of Dave Duerson changed dramatically. Duerson went from being seen as a player and a man who combined affability with integrity, to one of despair and isolation. Judging from those that knew him, Duerson seemed acutely aware that people would forever remember him as the former NFL player that beat his wife, rather than the charitable, philanthropic individual that succeeded both on and off the field.
Look, I can't in good conscience pretend I knew Dave Duerson. I can't sit here and pretend I knew his family, his wife, or his children. I can't pretend I knew his teammates, his coaches or his friends. I can tell you that I did meet him once at Brandt's in Palatine, IL and he was as nice as I could have ever hoped he would be. I can tell you he was a very good player as evidenced by his four Pro-Bowl appearances, Two Super Bowl Rings, and his long standing record for most sacks in a season by a defensive back (7). Unfortunately for us there might be a huge difference between the man he was, and the man who died.
The reason I say that is because the man who died may be an individual who had severe brain damage brought on by Post Concussion Syndrome. According to the reports, Duerson himself may have suspected he was subject to brain damage since reportedly before he died, sent text messages to his family requesting that his brain be studied by Chris Nowinski. Chris Nowinski as you may remember has been written about before on this blog, as well as received national attention as being one of the forerunners on CTE research. Nowinski's group through exhaustive research, has brought tremendous awareness on just how dangerous Football is for the human brain.
It would not surprise me in the least if Chris found that Duerson's brain has also received tremendous damage due to Post Concussion Syndrome.
The results will be discovered in time. For now, we are left to speculate. Was Dave Duerson yet another casualty of CTE, or was he just another guy with financial problems who lost all his money and thusly decided life wasn't worth living? For me, I'm guessing it's the former but I'll let Chris Nowinski decide for sure.
Either way, it's another shocking reminder of just how bad things can get for former NFL players and how rapidly "bad" can come. As morbid as this may sound, I'm actually (ahem) hopeful Duerson's brain had suffered damage, in the hope that we can truly understand just how dangerous football is while concurrently providing Duerson some salvation.
*as a side note, I wrote this while watching MLB Network replaying the 2002 Home Run Contest. It was just another shocking reminder of what a fraud the Steroid Era was as I'm watching Jason Giambi, Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Richie Sexson, Alex Rodriguez, Nomar Garciaparra, and a severely out-gunned Paul Konerko do battle. Listening to Chris Berman and Joe Morgan sycophantically kiss the collective ass of all these players who had needles in their asses as their standing in the batters box goes to show how A. The Steroid Era was such a joke, and B. Just how much ESPN should be avoided.
This tragedy has quite the eerie twist to it with his texts to his family and the decision to shoot himself in the chest to preserve his brain for CTE examiniation. I'm with you, I REALLY hope they find he suffered from CTE because there is that chance that he used this as a crutch for all his recent personal/family troubles. He has history on his side though- 13 of the 14 brains of former NFL players' donated to the research were found to suffer from a form of CTE. No way in hell I'd ever let my kid play football- the risks are way too obvious now. Scary/Sad stuff.
ReplyDeleteAnd I happened to be watching the '02 Derby on MLB network Sunday afternoon too. I found myself laughing and being pissed off at the same time with the Berman/Morgan ass sucking fest. The MLB network should really do themselves a service and not show any HR derbies from 1997-2006. That stuff belongs on Comedy Central with where those HR's are landing and the insane physique those cheaters are in.
Not sure if you saw Real Sports this week on Victor Conte re-emerging again. I'm curious to get your opinion on Marlon Byrd training with him and having such unwavering trust in Conte to the point where he doesn't even QUESTION what "supplements" Conte is giving him.
Great comment Joseph, as usual. You're exactly right that history is on his side. Look at the late Chris Henry. He never had a concussion, yet when they looked at his brain he had CTE. Plus now they're saying that Lou Gehrig might NOT have died of Lou Gehrig's Disease/ALS, but rather CTE!
ReplyDeleteYou're also exactly right that as soon as this information gets in the bloodstream of middle class parents, they'll never let their kids play football again. This has the potential to redifine football in the same way Boxing got redefined as a sport kids play not because they WANT to, but rather because they HAVE to.
Comedy Central-I LOVE IT! HAHAHA!!!
As soon as I get my hands on the Conte piece I'll post my impressions on the blog right away my friend. I promise.
This picture above where the Falcons played the Bears my former boss (NFLPA) Tim Tyrrell a good friend of mine was the special team captain for ATL. ATL only carried 2 qbs on their roster and the coach gave a speech saying wear knee braces and don't get hurt. Not to win the game, dont get hurt! The HC knew they were going to lose. Now for the QB, Tyrrell was a QB in college (NIU Huskies) he was actually warming up bc the bears knocked both QB's with concussions. He told me that was the only time he was scared to play, thank god the backup got and continued to play. To this day he has played against 4 superbowl winners in the 80's (including the 49ers). He will state The Bears were the best hands down and scared the living shit out of teams. Next, Timmy has told me several stories but one comes to mind about the concussion subject. Atl trainers actually had to hide his helmet so he would not go out and play special teams bc he was playing concussed. But, he always stole another players helmet and continued to play.
ReplyDeleteGood insights Matthew! You're right, concussions were just not treated as a big deal at all. You "just got your bell rung", and that was hardly a reason to give pause.
ReplyDeleteNow it's as serious as a heart attack in a lot of respects. Look at Justin Morneau with the Twins. He had a concussion and he missed the rest of the year and STILL isn't all the way back yet.
Once again, even more scary than that, Chris Henry didn't even HAVE a concussion ever, yet his brain had CTE.