OT: Early deaths of several USC linebackers
This is an SI piece by Michael Rosenberg (yes, that Michael Rosenberg) on the linebackers from USC's 1989 team. Michigan played them in the 1990 Rose Bowl, which was Bo's last game. Five of the twelve guys have died before the age of 50.
https://www.si.com/college/2020/10/07/usc-and-its-dying-linebackers
October 8th, 2020 at 11:51 AM ^
Incredibly sad fact, saw this article earlier today, definitely a reason other than protecting QB for a lot of the rule changes in football that have come since then
October 8th, 2020 at 12:30 PM ^
Can't read it at work, but were they natural deaths?
October 8th, 2020 at 1:39 PM ^
Haven't read it yet but pretty sure Junior Seau was on that team.
October 8th, 2020 at 1:41 PM ^
With the exception of Seau, a sociopathic health insurance jackass would say "yes". As in, none of the others were conventional suicides.
But the other four were very much death by self-destruction. Lots of alcohol and drug abuse, binge eating as well. They set out to destroy what was left of their bodies and succeeded.
October 8th, 2020 at 3:15 PM ^
Thanks, you got my point. I was wondering if these were self inflicted or accidental. By car or crime or something similar.
October 8th, 2020 at 11:31 PM ^
They all apparently suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, something that was known years ago as being "punch-drunk" (found in boxers, surprise surprise). The damage to the brain may have led them to alcohol and drugs and other behaviors, or exacerbated them because of the brain damage, self-medicating or trying to blot out the confusion and chaos from their damaged brains. Some died of suicide, some may have died of other direct causes, but the CTE was what led them there.
Years ago I worked with a young doctor who was doing an early paper on CTE (I think before it was given that name). He was a doing a neurology fellowship while moonlighting as a ring doctor. He loved boxing, and I asked him how he could now that he knew the damage it could do. But that's what drew him to the research, and he later became one of the early experts in the field. Football and the early dementia and deaths of football players brought it much broader attention and focus on prevention.
October 8th, 2020 at 12:08 PM ^
Very sad. Taught to tackle by leading with the head.
October 8th, 2020 at 12:18 PM ^
Football is a dying sport unless things change fundamentally. . .
October 8th, 2020 at 12:24 PM ^
Its not. Not even close. And this article is in regards to players in 1989. Today's game is vastly different than it was 30 years ago. Changes have already been made for the better and its dishonest to not recognize that fact.
October 8th, 2020 at 1:20 PM ^
I would agree that it is a dying sport if the game was still being played the way it was 30 years ago but it's not. The game is incredibly more safe now than it has ever been. Just watch the way defenses tackle nowadays. Much more head up tackling, much more wrapping and rolling. Getting your "bell rung" is not something that is shrugged off anymore.
Even at the lower levels the game is being taught in a much safer way. Shoot even 20ish years ago when I was playing, we had coaches who would buy kids McDonalds for blindside hits. I had a coach tell us to take out another team's All State linebacker's knees.
If the delta of safety changes in the next 30 years are even half of what they have been in the past 30 years, I don't think we will have to worry about Football becoming the 21st century Boxing
October 8th, 2020 at 4:49 PM ^
I played HS football at a small upstate NY high school in 1989 - 1992. I guess I didn't realize how forward-looking my coaches were at the time, because they drilled into us that we should hit with the shoulder and wrap-up... never lead with the head.
I remember getting criticized/somewhat mocked by other kids in bigger programs for "tackling wrong"; and being a bit embarrassed about it at the time; but I always did what coaches said and never lead with head... so thanks to them!
October 9th, 2020 at 4:32 PM ^
look at high school rosters. They are a fraction of the size that they were even 10 years ago. . .
Unless CTE goes away forever, it's just going to get worse.
October 9th, 2020 at 9:51 PM ^
I'm sure concern about injuries is a factor in the participation decline. But I think there are other factors. I think there is less interest in physical sports and particularly in organized sports. I'll probably get Boomer comments but when I was growing up the local parks always had pick-up games going on in and baseball. Now they are relatively empty.
October 8th, 2020 at 1:28 PM ^
Yeah it’s so unpopular they are making it happen thru a pandemic
October 8th, 2020 at 1:57 PM ^
It's not dying, but I wouldn't be surprised if numbers of participants adjusted for changes in family size are down compared to the 70's-90's.
My family may, or may not be part of that trend, if it exists. The boys in my extended family are all athletic and play at least two sports. None of them play football. Soccer, Golf, basketball, track, baseball and cross country.
I played at their age, and I've asked them all why they don't. The answers ranged from "Too much practice and training for too little game time" to "The coaches take it way too seriously and only want you to play football" to "I just didn't like it." None of them mentioned concerns about injuries. But their parents were all quietly relieved when they stopped playing JFL.
With regard to the article, I'm sure studying the long term survival of OL and DL players at the elite level would lead to similar shocking data on long term morbidity and mortality.
Let's face it, the game we love on the level they play it in the NCAA and NFL is a meat grinder. And it's still being largely ignored because of the money involved.
October 8th, 2020 at 1:33 PM ^
I wonder how many of them were doing the roids too...
October 8th, 2020 at 1:42 PM ^
not exactly my era, but pretty sure those guys were living wild lives - coc, juice, booze, etc on top of the improper tackling technique.
October 8th, 2020 at 2:42 PM ^
The article does briefly touch on that aspect of this
October 8th, 2020 at 2:35 PM ^
Agree and the poster following up about booze/drugs imo both play a huge part. I don't recall the show but it was years ago that talked about how offensive and defensive lineman had crazy diets to work out that much and keep packing on weight. Discussed the medical ramifications to their bodies playing that big, fast and the pounding from all the training, practices and games.
Those days they hit almost all week and only did walk throughs the day before and pregame.
October 8th, 2020 at 2:51 PM ^
Swimmers also pack on a whole lot of food to maintain weight. One of the people who was stationed with me was a D1 scholarship swimmer at Indiana. She said that in high school she got special permission to drink protein shakes in class because she simply couldn't eat enough to maintain her weight during the standard lunch period. And yes, when we stop swimming at the highly competitive level, we struggle to adjust our eating habits.
There's a joke among swimmers about the difference between your non-swimming friends and your swimming friends. Let's say you go to a restaurant for a meal with the non-swimmers. If you go to the rest room before you're done, you have to worry about the server clearing your plate. If you eat out with your swimming friends and go to the rest room, you have to worry about your team mates finishing your plate.
October 8th, 2020 at 3:02 PM ^
not that swimmers don't eat, but you ain't seen nothing until you've been to training table.
October 8th, 2020 at 4:44 PM ^
I was (and still am in Masters) a pretty high level swimmer (mid-distance at that). Sure we ate a ton and our metabolisms were volcanic, but I wouldn't say it's more than a high-level football player or other high-level athlete that is doing a lot of VO2-based exercises. Of course, age has a lot to do with it. No matter how much I train with my Masters team now, weight is harder to shed and it's easier to maintain.
Gymnasts, football players, soccer players, swimmers, track/CC, the list goes on. They all need fuel.
October 9th, 2020 at 8:45 AM ^
I played football and wrestled in hs. I ate everything in wrestling and never put weight on. I was that guy on the wrestling team, late early 90's. But I didn't gorge on McDonalds or weight in and eat 3 sandwiches and down two gatorades trying to refuel and hydrate like half the team did.
Football then, yeah, I got my bell rung a few times and didn't know where I was for the next series.. Once hit the rb heard ball and woke up at the bottom of the pile with the ball in my arms and the refs and medical trainers asking how many fingers they were holding up..
October 8th, 2020 at 1:36 PM ^
That is one chilling article. I wonder, is it a coincidence that this happened to so many USC linebackers from that era, or were they doing something different from other schools? Or would we see similar experiences from players at other schools if someone looked hard enough?
October 8th, 2020 at 1:57 PM ^
USC might be an outlier in terms of death tally, but I highly suspect there are plenty more casualties of CTE, if enough people cared to look.
For one, I gave the "Tampa 2" concept a verrrry long side-eye, with its emphasis on speed and demanding run-pass responsibilities. If I'm not horribly misunderstanding, it's a "defensive" defense (as opposed to an attacking defense like Don Brown prefers) that sends its middle linebacker and safeties into deep zones -- but also expects them to fill run gaps. So Tampa 2 schemes will draft lightning-fast, undersized defenders (think Devin Bush and Jabrill Peppers) that can cover and tackle, and on run plays asks them to fly to the LoS and tackle bigger players at full speed to limit gains. It's a bend-don't-break defense that starts on its heels and then forces you to dink-and-dunk its soft underneath. The faster you get to the ball, the more you limit the gains, and the more pressure you apply to the offense. The difference between three yards and five yards is significant. Fly to the ball and hit at full speed, over and over again.
I don't know how many programs ran it, but Tony Dungy and Monte Kiffin won a Super Bowl running the Tampa 2, and the NFL is a copycat league, so I'm worried we'll see another generation of linebackers and defensive backs struggling with CTE from that era.
October 8th, 2020 at 1:42 PM ^
Randomness looks non random
October 8th, 2020 at 2:57 PM ^
The article was frightening and chilling to read. The game my son plays and practices is not the same that I played in the 80's. Rarely hit. Don't start off with Oklahoma drills.
October 8th, 2020 at 6:43 PM ^
They were roid central. Fact. That kid Brian cushing on the Texans would go home to nj in offseason and often would come back and test positive during camp and be suspended.
October 8th, 2020 at 7:36 PM ^
^^^^^^
The eighties were a laboratory for roids and athletes in all sports in the USA. Well documented in baseball, Sosa and McGuire, Flo Jo etc. in track. Mandarich at staee. Brain CTE and heavy roid abuse leads to dire consequences. Sad but true reality of that era.
October 14th, 2020 at 6:59 PM ^
I'm sure there are many confounding factors involved for each one of these people. But the core truth here is that playing football, particularly for linemen, carries a grave risk for brain damage that cannot be diagnosed until it is far too late.