OT: Chris Borland retires due to concerns about brain trauma
- Thread starter Hungry Jack
- Start date
The irony is, if I heard the radio broadcast correctly, both of his diagnosed concussions were from pre-college days in sports other than football.
Yup. But he's no dummy. He also mentioned having one during his first camp with the 49ers, but not reporting it yo the staff out of fear of being cut.
Remember, it's not the concussions, but the repeated head trauma, that causes the most long-term damage.
Kids would be wise to avoid playing contact football too early. We might also see some "one and dones" in the NFL. A guy would play just long enough to make sufficient funds to retire comfortably.
sadly, that doesn't happen nearly as much as it should even with longer careers today! although i do believe that players are eligible for a (comparatively modest) pension if they're in the league at least 5 years.
Modest compared to what?
Players with 8-10 years of service credit are getting 240K annual pensions for life with COLAs and numerous other benefits...including HSAs in the multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars. That's for the ones that exit the League in reasonably good health. For those that don't, the CBA provides far greater medical and disability benefits ... over and above their state workers' compensation and private insurance benefits. There are older veterans suffering because they chose not to pursue the benefits that were available to them when they retire, albeit at a time when the benefits were as relatively modest by today's standards as their salaries were. Even for them, the League has bent over backwards (with the cooperation of the NFLPA) to divert funds to aging veterans that otherwise would have gone to current players. It's all an evolving process, and much of it is subject to the collective bargaining process, but I can assure you with absolute certainty that enhancing player benefits both during and after their careers is, and has been, squarely on the front burner. Sunstantial progress is being made, and nothing about it is modest.
GOUNUII
Players with 8-10 years of service credit are getting 240K annual pensions for life with COLAs and numerous other benefits...including HSAs in the multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars. That's for the ones that exit the League in reasonably good health. For those that don't, the CBA provides far greater medical and disability benefits ... over and above their state workers' compensation and private insurance benefits. There are older veterans suffering because they chose not to pursue the benefits that were available to them when they retire, albeit at a time when the benefits were as relatively modest by today's standards as their salaries were. Even for them, the League has bent over backwards (with the cooperation of the NFLPA) to divert funds to aging veterans that otherwise would have gone to current players. It's all an evolving process, and much of it is subject to the collective bargaining process, but I can assure you with absolute certainty that enhancing player benefits both during and after their careers is, and has been, squarely on the front burner. Sunstantial progress is being made, and nothing about it is modest.
GOUNUII
Re: Modest compared to what?
And as we see from time to time when a network decides to do a "special" to titillate, many of the NFL guys pretty much spend it all as they get it --- on the celebrity trappings (houses, clothes, jewelry and cars), on bad investments and being scammed, and then settlements with the moms of their kids, and so on.
And as we see from time to time when a network decides to do a "special" to titillate, many of the NFL guys pretty much spend it all as they get it --- on the celebrity trappings (houses, clothes, jewelry and cars), on bad investments and being scammed, and then settlements with the moms of their kids, and so on.
Re: Modest compared to what?
3.3 years, with a very broad distribution. RB get beat up the most, averaging only 2.57 years.
http://www.statista.com/statistics/240102/average-player-career-length-in-the-national-football-league/
3.3 years, with a very broad distribution. RB get beat up the most, averaging only 2.57 years.
http://www.statista.com/statistics/240102/average-player-career-length-in-the-national-football-league/
It used to be 5 years. Now I've heard if a NFL player participates in 3 games over 3 years they're guaranteed a pension for life. Still very difficult to get to - I for one commend Borland'a decision.
Think we are already seeing it.
Many upper middle class parents already steer their sons away from FB into other sports like lax.
Think we are going to see CFB and the NFL increasingly made up of players from lower socio-economic backgrounds who have or at least see fewer options ahead of them.
In my community, where we have a great disparity of wealth within a single school system, the kids whose parents went to college generally are playing in the new soccer league and passing on football.
My best friend kept his son, who is now 33, out of youth football because of injury fears, thinking he could play in high school. He did play but was relegated to safety and receiver when, IMO, he was clearly the best athlete on the field and would have made a great QB. The coaches openly said the choice was to out of loyalty to the guy who put in the time. The QB's dad was also one of the assistants. Politics also plays a role.
This post was edited on 3/30 7:01 AM by Deeringfish
My best friend kept his son, who is now 33, out of youth football because of injury fears, thinking he could play in high school. He did play but was relegated to safety and receiver when, IMO, he was clearly the best athlete on the field and would have made a great QB. The coaches openly said the choice was to out of loyalty to the guy who put in the time. The QB's dad was also one of the assistants. Politics also plays a role.
This post was edited on 3/30 7:01 AM by Deeringfish
His knees, ankles, hips, back, neck and shoulders will thank him in about 10-20+ years too.
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