OT: Should the NFLPA push mandatory counseling?

I'm not sure how it would work. How do you enforce it for retired players? Threaten to take their membership or benefits away? Players like Seau, with successful careers and a ton of money, would be able to live without the NFLPA and could refuse to go to the sessions.

"Now, the game is so popular, the money is so great, that the final curtain on a player’s career drops harder than ever - physically, monetarily, and emotionally." - from the article

The author makes an interesting point that, at  one point, NFL players actually worked during the summer because the pay  was not enough to carry them through, so there was exposure and preparation to their post-playing days through that structure. Even if they left the league in their late 20s or early 30s, they would have then been able to make a smoother transition to a work and home life most of us are far more familiar with. That isn't to say that CTE wasn't an issue back in the  day, of course, but there obviously little understanding or awareness - Lew Carpenter and Cookie Gilchrist, for example, were diagnosed post-mortem, as I recall.

Now, as he mentions in the article, it simply ends, and because there is so much more money in the game, it seems like fewer players have seen or been introduced to the sort of patterns and structure that would aid them in their post-game existence because  they don't need to supplement themselves. If you couple this with the faster, more violent nature of the game,  then I can see his point - some may handle the transition well enough, but you also have the players who are both unequipped psychologically for a "normal" existence and are suffering from real physical problems which are debilitating (and therefore compounding the base problem) and, in several cases, ultimately life-ending. 

I actually like the idea - in principle - of making the counseling mandatory if for no other reason than it will provide insight into players of particular concern so that proper  care can be  made available right from the start, but I wonder how it would be introduced - they are a represented workforce, after all, and I imagine it would require restructuring the agreement somehow. I don't think  they would simply be able to issue some edict, but making counseling a component of the total care picture is a great idea, I think. 

Perhaps - if they really wanted to make it part of the annual routine and avoid saying outright that it is "mandatory" -  they could do something similar to what many companies are doing (we do this actually) and make employees as well as retirees do certain things (like get a physical,  or in this case, mental health counseling) to maintain certain premiums or levels of benefits. Even if your motivation is financial, you're foolish if you choose to not do what they want because ultimately it is for your benefit and could reveal information that could save your life quite literally.  "Consumer-driven" plans, I believe they are called. I have never been involved in negotiating a contract as intricate as the NFLPA's, so I have no idea how such a thing would be structured for a professional sports league.

That being said, I don't think the NFL and NFLPA can just sit back and wait for other lives to end so tragically - the game is different than it was even  a generation ago and clearly those differences are underscoring serious problems which arise from exiting the culture of the NFL. Addressing them is long overdue. 

How much of this is about counseling, though? Isn't it more about physical brain damage? Maybe that can be helped with counseling, I'm not sure - but it seems different from your typical chemical disorder.

There should be someone with more medical degrees than me that will be able to speak to this.

Making counseling mandatory kind of defeats the purpose of counseling. If you don't want to be there then it isn't going to help much.

The root cause is all of the impacts a player takes to the head in his career.  Player should get mandatory SPECT tests as part of their physical.  If they don't "pass," they don't play anymore.  

A change in the child support laws so that someone who is retired and maybe making 100K on the rubber chicken circuit isn't expected to pay an ex a half million to a million a year would be helpful, too.  

I do think the PA should do something.  A union should exist to do more than agitate the league for more money.  A lot of times when someone says the NFL should do this or the NFL should do that, it's really the PA that should be doing it.  Like the mandatory rookie counseling the NFL runs.  It's great that they do that, but it really should be the PA's job.  They have got to take a more active role in taking care of their members, so yes, they ought to be doing mandatory counseling as well as a few other services.

While I was in the army and while getting out there was a lot of mandatory counseling. Unfortunatly a lot of current military and veterans still commit suicide, but if it saves even one its worth it.

I don't know about you all, but if I'm a high-profile athlete, I would not want people to know that I attend a place called the "Depression Center."

Words such as "depression" and "mental health" carry a negative connotation; instead of seeing it as an opportunity to better your life, many see it as confirmation that something is wrong with you.

Not 'counseling' as in therapy treatment sessions, per se.  But having an hour lecture as part of a mandatory exit interview process may be helpful, and at the very least may serve to increased awareness.  Just like rookies get financial counseling sessions during the NFL-sponsored orientation process.

There are loads of studies demonstrating a clear link between brain injury and clinical depression, both clinically and pathophysiology.  Combine this with the loss of income, stress from not working, etc., it's a recipe for unfortunate incidents like Seau's.

The NFLPA has been doing a good job with their summer internship program, letting players test out other fields during the off season to help them figure out their next steps after their playing careers end.

The NFL has no way of forcing them to go to counseling. The idea is asinine.

They should have people accountable to their own actions. Similarly, they should focus their energies on eliminating brain injuries.