Big Ben's Night Out

I know! It was red kryptonite! It made Ben act like an idiot. But it's in a lead box now. Everything fine.

 

This man is not amused.

(Funny stuff, TSP.)

 

You don't know that, OOP. That's the point.
The point that Dr. Davies is making is that he has examined the brains of people who've had concussions and never seen the same level of trauma that he has seen in some of these deceased FB players. And he's wondering if there's not more to it than simply repeated concussions. Of course there's going to be more data on concussions if that's all that some of these doctors are examining; they looked at the brains of ex-FB players and said, "Must be the concussions." And this Doc is saying, "Hey, maybe there's more to it."
There are plenty of ex-FB players who were concussed who aren't drinking antifreeze or ramming their cars into tanker trucks.
Is there a difference between the two?
I'm simply saying it's a question worth giving more exploration.

 

Is there evidence of athletes suffering permanent brain damage or suddenly dying on the field due to steroids? If there is, please share it.

There is evidence of both regarding concussions. So yes, based on the knowledge we actually have, I do know that playing with a concussion is more dangerous.

And there are plenty of former football players who took steroids who aren't drinking anti-freeze or ramming their trucks (I believe it was a truck not a car), into tanker trucks, too.

That doctor is comparing the brains of football players to non-football players who had concussions. But did those non-football players spend their days butting heads with other really big, fast people the way the football players did? Did they suffer the repeated blows to the head? I'm guessing no, but we can't know for sure. It could just as easily be the amount of blows to the head causing the differnces he sees.

It is damn lousy science to blame steroids when all he has to work with is that he sees something odd.

My point is, the data backs up the issue with concussions. There is no data to back up blaming steroids. The league hasn't done a very good job overall of dealing with either problem, so your theory about attacking only things that make the NFL look bad doesn't really hold up.

 

Oh for goodness sakes.
The point, made three times already, is that there's a doctor out there who thinks the problem might not be repeated concussions and thinks the issue of whether it's steroids that are causing these catastrophic brain injuries deserves more examination.
There's no way to know entirely that concussions are causing what the scientists are seeing on the slides. It's as much a theory as the steroids theory. Who knows? It might even be a combination of both.
I suggest you read the Laskas article. There's no data on either side, only theories, because there's no way to know what, precisely, caused the high degree of trauma to Webster or Long's or Strelczyk's brains.

I'll provide the link again. It's a great piece, even though I think it leans too far in one direction.

http://www.gq.com/sports/profiles/200909/nfl-players-brain-dementia-study-memory-concussions?currentPage=1

 

If dying of brain cancer counts as "permanent brain damage", let us present Lyle Alzado as Exhibit A.

 

Of course, it wasn't proven that steroids caused the cancer. He was on other things, including HGH. My point is that with performance enhancers, the data just isn't there.

I'm not defending the use of them or saying they aren't dangerous. They are. But this idea that people focus on concussions only because it makes the league look bad is silly. Both problems make the league look bad and concussions haven't gotten nearly enough attention before the last year or so.

 

One theory has a hell of a lot more data backing it up. The steroids theory is basically,"Well, we don't know what's causing this, so maybe it was steroids."

By the way, insisting that I read that piece again came off as a bit condescending. I read through it again. It is an excellent piece. But it doesn't back up the argument you are making nearly as well as you think it does.

 

The discussion on the Dez Bryant thread got me thinking. What happens if one of the big names in MLB did the exact same things? I know the policies are different, but do you think Bud Selig would even try to punish a player in a similar situation? Would he be able to?

 

I'll stick with the theory that Big Ben's just a douchebag.

 

Twoback was talking about steroids fucking up the brain moreso than concussions in that post, but I agree with you. (Isn't THAT odd?)