Junior Seau’s suicide has sparked an incredible amount of debate about the mental health ramifications of being a long term football player. Gary Plummer, Seau’s former teammate, had this to say on the matter:
They said a Grade 3 concussion meant you were knocked out, and a Grade 1 meant you were seeing stars after a hit, which made me burst out in laughter. As a middle linebacker in the NFL, if you don’t have five of these [Grade 1 effects] each game, you were inactive the next game. Junior played for 20 years. That’s five concussions a game, easily. How many in his career then? That’s over 1,500 concussions. I know that’s startling, but I know it’s true. I had over 1,000 in my 15 years. I felt the effects of it. I felt depression going on throughout my divorce. Junior went through it with his divorce.
As noted the other day, Seau’s family has agreed to allow his brain to be studiedto a find link between repetitive brain injuries and depression. Via
