OT - 1994 Heisman Winner RB Rashaan Salaam dies

Submitted by translator82 on

Former Colorado RB and Heisman Trophy winner Rashaan Salaam found dead at 42. Another gone too soon...2016, please end now.

Former Heisman Trophy winner and Bears' first-round pick Rashaan Salaam died at age of 42, per family spokesman. Another gone way too soon.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) December 6, 2016

Edit: Here's a story link

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FauxMo

December 6th, 2016 at 3:37 PM ^

I just read that his body was found in a car in a parking lot at a park, and that no foul play was suspected. That sounds a lot like suicide. There is way too much of that going on among former CFB and NFL players. I know, I know, the suicide rates aren't that much different than the general population, just more high-profile. But the link between CTE and suicide is still very troubling... 

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FauxMo

December 6th, 2016 at 3:42 PM ^

"Attribute" in the cause-and-effect sense? We can't, and probably never will be able to. But the same goes for smoking and lung cancer and related lung ailments; too many variables to establish cause and effect from correlation. Nonetheless, the fact that virtually every one of these players that was opened-up post-suicide to examine for CTE indeed showed signs of CTE is pretty telling, no? 

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1464

December 6th, 2016 at 3:55 PM ^

I guess the question is if CTE is more prevalent in NFL players, and suicide is not more prevalent, how is there evidence. Personally, is assume separate causes? Rich NFL players have less to worry about financially, and tend to have better lifestyles. Maybe it's a balancing act between fewer struggles in life and higher rates of CTE. Maybe that just... Balances the scales?

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taistreetsmyhero

December 6th, 2016 at 7:08 PM ^

The problem is that nobody can really know just how terrible CTE is until they have it. It's easy to say, "yeah, you could pay me tens of millions of dollars to have my body and mind degenerate starting in my 40s." But it's hard for me to believe that these players, many of whom come from poverty, really can fathom just what they're signing up for.



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Aero01

December 6th, 2016 at 4:02 PM ^

I certainly don't have the authority or knowledge to say whether or not there is a link between CTE and suicide, but no, on it's own, the fact that virtually every one of these players that was opened up post-suicide showed signs of CTE (Note that I don't know whether that is indeed a fact) is not at all telling.  If the suicide rates are not statistically different (again, I don't know if this statement is true), then it seems unlikely to say that CTE is a major factor. 

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TrueBlue2003

December 6th, 2016 at 4:28 PM ^

to argue against the link between head trauma and suicide, they're likely leaving out some important confounding factors.  The first being income.  There is strong negative correlation between suicide and income. The San Francisco Federal Reserve (weird sponsor I know) published a study concluding that people making under 34,000 a year have 50% more risk of suicide.

I believe there are links associated with former military service, and whites commit suicide at rates twice that of minorities and there are a whole slew of other factors that impact the general population but do not apply the same to the small sample of former NFL players.  Based on difference incomes and demographics, one might conclude that former NFL players should have suicide rates much lower than the general population, so the fact that they're at the general level (assuming again, that that is accurate), means there's likely something else elevating that risk.  Can't rule out the possibility of offsetting factors in the data.

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FauxMo

December 6th, 2016 at 5:31 PM ^

Thank you. This was my point exactly about the impossibility of "causation." The NFL has responded to the admittedly hasty efforts to link CTE and suicide by being similarly hasty and citing the fact that a smaller proportion of NFL players commit suicide than the general public. This, of course, assumes that NFL players are "just like" the general population in every other way, with the exception of playing professional football. That is absurd.

No, we should not be too rush to damn football based on the several high profile suicides among players we've seen the last few years. But, we should also not be too quick to say, "whether CTE is real or not, it does not increase the risk of suicide." I think all can/should agree that this needs to be studied more and watched carefully, for the sake of the future existence of the sport itself...  

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FauxMo

December 6th, 2016 at 5:53 PM ^

Suicide rates among higher income groups are in fact a bit lower. However, suicide rates among the wealthy that live among other wealthy folks are actually higher than average. In other words, if you're rich and living amongst other rich folks, you're actually more like to commit suicide. Wrap your mind around that one for a moment... 

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Witz57

December 6th, 2016 at 6:44 PM ^

That's a fair matchup to call for, but if you're comparing population sets, keep in mind that the average former NFL player likely is more economically successful (and I'd argue more socially successful) than the average getting older male. Those are catagories in which low status often bolsters the chances of suicide.

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buddha

December 6th, 2016 at 4:31 PM ^

C'mon, man. This is a pretty sensationalist rush judgement. Very little information has come out about this incident; you outline it in your comment.

Why rush to head trauma and suicide when a host of other explanations could be pretty reasonable and logical (e.g. drug overdose)?

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FauxMo

December 6th, 2016 at 5:40 PM ^

I tried pretty hard to make it clear I was NOT rushing to judgment, but apparently failed. 

FYI, the police in Boulder have now announced it is being investigated as a "likely suicide," so... 

Again, I am in no way saying "football causes CTE, Rashaan had CTE, Rashaan killed himself because of CTE caused by football." Even if they do autopsy him and find CTE, we cannot make that link definitively. But at some point, a preponderance of evidence becomes so overwhelming that we cannot dismiss it any longer. For us, this is just a discussion; but for this sport and the folks that play it, the question is much, much more important. 

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CarlosSpicyweiner21

December 6th, 2016 at 4:50 PM ^

Wondering if it is CTE or more of a looking back on life. He was right at Mid-Life Crisis range and could have looked back at a career that never fully paned out to what many thought it would. 

As a person looking closer to that mid-life time frame I find my self assesing my life and I can only imagine being a top flight football player who never really met expectations and if he was struggling with life in general it could be real easy to look for the easy out.

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LSAClassOf2000

December 6th, 2016 at 3:56 PM ^

I am going to say this just once - regardless of your feelings for the man, please strive to be a better person in moments like this. 

While I don't understand what evokes such a reaction in you regarding Salaam per se, whatever it is has no place in a thread about his death. 

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uofmchris

December 6th, 2016 at 4:23 PM ^

Damn! 

I live in Denver, and he would call in a few times a year on one of the local sports talk radio stations (Alfred Williams co-hosts a show out here). Always came off as a really nice guy during those interviews. 

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bronxblue

December 6th, 2016 at 4:35 PM ^

Really sad. I remember him being amazing in 1994. I assume there will be more details coming out, but this is terrible for his friends and family.

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StephenRKass

December 6th, 2016 at 5:29 PM ^

This is so extremely sad to me. He should be in the prime of life, and not gone. A loss of hope, of happiness, of meaning. This hits hard.

There's a quote in the ESPN article that caught me:

Marijuana use contributed to his problems in Chicago. "It probably had me out there lackadaisical instead of going out there 100 percent," he told ESPN in an interview then. "Everybody thinks getting high is cool, you can let it go when you want to let it go," he said. "But it's just as potent as cocaine."

I would love to hear from mgobloggers regarding their thoughts on marijuana use. It certainly was prevalent on campus when I was at UM. I was never a user, but never thought it was a big deal . . . just a personal choice. Use it or don't use it. Whatever. As time goes on, I wonder more and more about the reality of what smoking weed does to a person, and suspect that it just isn't a good thing. But I certainly don't know personally.

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taistreetsmyhero

December 6th, 2016 at 6:19 PM ^

IMO, people are predisposed to addictive behavior from birth, and if they find a vice (be it booze, weed, cocaine/heroin/meth, or even basics like overeating) they will be more likely to abuse it. I'm not entirely certain what he meant by weed being equally "potent," but I'm fairly certain that any use of that word is wrong in at least a couple important ways. There is a much higher percentage of people who are able to use weed responsibly than there are harder drug users. Weed as a drug itself is less harmful to the body immediately than any of the harder drugs. Weed may have insidious long-term effects on the body that are difficult to quantify, but harder drugs have much worse effects that are much easier to quantify.

I would rather live in a world where drug use was destigmitized. Doing so takes nuance. There is definitely truth behind the intention of what he meant there, but that kind of alarmist and incorrect statement is not useful.



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