RIP Junior Seau

Mike Webster's son Garrett is the administrator of the Brain Injury Research Institute. Among other things, that means he was one of the people to ask Junior Seau's family to use his brain for research.

http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/sports/ron-cook/webster-has-seen-firsthand-what-head-injuries-can-do-634881/?p=0

I remember meeting him briefly around the time his father died. He faced a lot of attention at the time and had been taking care of his father near the end. I was amazed how well handled all that.

 

This seemed to fall through the cracks, but Chris McCosky of the Detroit News wrote an excellent column about the time he thought of committing suicide that some here might want to read.
It reinforced again my belief that while we'd never tell someone with a heart problem that those clogged arteries were a figment, so many still think it's fine to question an illness in the brain.


http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120505/OPINION03/205050381/Junior-Seau-s-death-sheds-light-ignorance-depression?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|p

 

Slightly off the suicide topic, but it does touch on some of the themes of dealing with the loss of a loved one at a young age. It's a nice read on one of the '94 Chargers who died young (Doug Miller, the guy who was struck by lightning in 1998).

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/7904536/junior-seau-adds-tragedies-befallen-1994-san-diego-chargers-super-bowl-team

 

According to a CNN story, there was no apparent damage to Junior Seau's brain, per autopsy reports.

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/08/21/autopsy-no-apparent-damage-to-seaus-brain/

 

The mob's not going to want to hear that.
Although let's see what the brain bank says.

 

CTE's not the only possible culprit. Long-term steroid use causes depression, too.

 

If his brain tissue doesn't show proof of CTE - and the pathologists at this center are not in the habit of being wrong - then a lot of outspoken columnists and commentators are going to look very foolish.

 

Definitely.

But that Seau imitated Duerson likely contributed to the initial misimpression.

 

Right, and it caused everyone to go apeshit over concussions, and while I think it's been a bit overkill, I think it will be a huge positive in the end if there are rule changes and equipment upgrades.

 

About 10 years ago, an uncle of a very good friend of mine was going through a nasty divorce......so nasty that when he fired a gun into his head, his ex-wife was on the telephone with him that this would be the last time she ever talked to him.

I will never understand what goes through a persons mind the split-second before they decide to pull the trigger......

In my personal opinion......suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.

 

Well, well, well . . .

http://abcnews.go.com/US/junior-seau-diagnosed-brain-disease-caused-hits-head/story?id=18171785

 

Somebody else looks foolish now.