Chris Benoit and family found dead

I'm not excusing what Chris Benoit did. It was horrible and inexcusable; he'll probably pay for eternity with what he did to his wife and child.

But WWE's culpable. Years of pressuring its wrestlers to use steroids--Benoit's father told Larry King that the wrestler said, "I can't go back looking like a plucked chicken," after his mother asked why he was using--and demanding that they risk their bodies and brains four, five nights a week with shows that including being hit with steel folding chairs.

I'd think the families have a heck of a lawsuit.

 

How those guys can subject themselves to so many shots in the head -- in light of what we know about concussions and the brain today -- is incomprehensible.

 

For anyone who doesn't believe chair-shot-to-the-head do any lasting damage, just watch Mick Foley try to talk to his family after absorbing 11 unprotected shots from The Rock in Beyond The Mat.

 

I read his book. The section on his concussions was disturbing and that was before he'd retired the first time. I've had a few myself and I'm trying to be more careful, protecting my noggin as much as I can.

 

That match was just fucking crazy. I remember seeing his wife and kids in the front row and watched Beyond the Mat a few years ago. That was some pretty scary shit.

And wasn't there some talk of him coming back for a small stint sometime soon?

 

Not to take away what happened to the Benoits, but what do you think the reaction will be if a former NFL athletes goes nuts like this?

 

I think the reaction would be the same if something like this happened with a NFL/MLB/NHL/NBA athlete. Look at Rae Carruth. There was a ton of coverage after he murdered his wife.

The one major difference is that WWE's drug testing is a joke. Benoit was taking a year's worth of steroids every month and passing WWE's "Wellness Policy."

 

One did. Unfortunately instead of killing himself too he got on a plane to Chicago. He got away with a double homicide thanks to Johnnie Cochran playing the race card.

 

No justification for what he did but ...

http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/story.html?id=d0508db5-d3d3-4fa7-b1cb-4789343389bc

Repeated concussions from a career in professional wrestling severely damaged Chris Benoit's brain, according to a report that will air on CBC television's The Fifth Estate tonight.

Benoit, his wife and his seven-year-old son were found dead in the family's home in Atlanta on June 25, 2007, in what police believe was a murder-suicide.

The CBC report claims Benoit's brain was in similar condition to one of an 85-year-old man with dementia. Doctors interviewed in the program claim Benoit could not have been held accountable for his actions due to the severity of the brain damage.

Benoit's steroid use has also been cited as a possible cause of the murder-suicide.

 

I hope that The Fifth Estate feature on the Benoit family tragedy does a better job shedding light as to what happened and why than most of what has been aired down here.

There's only so much Nancy Grace that the relatively sane human being can take.

 

Concussion-related dementia.
Sad.

 

I wonder if Vince McMahon, the steroid-addled don of professional wrestling, will take any responsibility for Benoit's concussions and dementia when he goes before Congress.