The Death of Junior Seau

Last week was a sad week for the NFL as former linebacker Junior Seau committed suicide. Seau was a time time Pro Bowl player who played 20 years in the league, 13 of them with the San Diego Chargers, 3 with the Miami Dolphins and 4 with the New England Patriots. He was hard nosed and tough but well liked by all his teammates.

Seau's death leads to a much more troubling question. What if anything does repeat blows to the head ultimately lead to. At the time of his accidental death in 2009, the brain of former Cincinatti Bengals WR Chris Henry was examined and was shown to suffer traumatic damage. In 2011 former Chicago Bears DB Dave Duerson left messages for his family asking to have his brain examined before he fatally shot himself in the chest, the same way Seau killed himself. Duerson was discovered to have  chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disease linked to depression, dementia and suicide, commonly among former NFL players. The disease has been linked to concussions and may be what Seau suffered from near the end of his life. His family has agreed to donate his brain for study to confirm this for definite. The disturbing trend among former players, has the league scrambling to find solutions to an ongoing issue. Concussions cannot be avoided in a hard hitting league, but the damage can potentially be lessened with certain safety measures and better equipment. The league has mandated that a player must sit a minimum of 1 game before he can return from a concussion. A newer more impact resistent helmet has been developed with some players such as WR DeSean Jackson, who once suffered a concussion, to quickly adopt it. But what about other former players? What can be done to avoid this sad trend of suicide and death? Are there preventive measures that can watch over them as well? No one knows how many other former and possibly even current players are suffering with the symptoms of CTE, but maybe Seau's death will help shed a light on the issue, and more players will step forward to receive the help they need.

Continued Fall Out From Saints Bounty-gate

As if things werent bad enough for the Saints with losing their head coach Sean Payton for the season, last week the NFL handed down a decision to punish several former and current players of the Saints defense as well. This unfortunately includes LB Jonathan Vilma who received the most severe punishment when he was suspended for the entire 2012 season. DE Will Smith was also suspended for 4 games. 2 players no longer with the Saints are also being suspended during the 2012 season. Green Bay Packers DE Anthony Hargrove is suspended for 8 games and Cleveland Browns LB Scott Fujita is suspended for 3. All 4 players are appealing the suspensions.

The validity of the suspensions is not in question in so much as the length of the suspensions and the few number of players who were actually penalized. On top of this former players such as Cris Carter admit to putting bounties on the heads of players in his day. Is a bounty system so unique to the Saints? Or is this even a new phenomenon? As more players and coaches former and current speak out there is come contention to these questions. In the eras of Pete Rozelle and Paul Tagliabue issues such as bounties, off field personal conduct and on field conduct detrimental were not addressed nor grounds for suspension unless they were extreme (think Lawrence Phillips). Nowadays players can face league suspensions before they even face criminal charges. Behavior once accepted now makes teams even leary to draft players coming out of college because of past personal issues. Is this new tougher stance fair? Do suspensions and fines for plays that are legal at the time they occured even warranted?

Saints bounty system may be an extreme example of a tough defense gone horribly wrong, but it is not new. If the Steelers of the 70s faced suspensions for hits put on opposing players  at that time, how many Super Bowls would they have actually won? This may be the question the Saints and other teams will have to face moving forward. Teams will now have to draw the line between being tough and being legal and it may not be for the improvement of the game.