I love pro football so it pains me to write this. But obviously it doesn’t cause me nearly as much pain as the players suffer.

It’s essentially blood sport. The game is great for spectators, but not so much for the participants.

I can remember when I was in eighth grade and the guidance counselor asked us to write down what we wanted to do as a profession and I put down “professional football player.” At the time, it didn’t matter to me that I was on the 105 pound football team, which meant that I tipped the scales at less than that. That was what I wanted to do when I “grew up.”

Well, in many ways I’m glad that didn’t happen. The average career of a professional football player is less than four years. I read the other day that despite all the money players make, one in six NFL players goes bankrupt.

Last week Aaron Hernandez was found guilty of murder. That can’t be good for the game that many people think has surpassed baseball as the national sport.

And there was the recent domestic abuse scandals that rocked the game.

Defections

Chris Borland of the San Francisco 49ers recently retired at the age of 24, one year into a promising career.

Borland made his choice after speaking with concussion experts and former players.

Borland was the fourth player at the age of 30 or younger to retire in the week that he announced, although none of the others specifically attributed their retirements to head trauma injuries. The other three include Patrick Willis, Jason Worilds and Jake Locker.

Concussions

Concussion is a change in how the brain functions, in how it works. It’s not a structural injury so much as it’s a functional one.

A TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) happens when the brain bounces around and twists in the skull, stretching and damaging it.

What many people may not realize is you can have a brain injury without losing consciousness. And, even if a brain injury doesn’t show up on a CT scan, you may still have a concussion.

Just Say No

Athletes and former athletes who wouldn’t want their sons to play football include:

LeBron James – a professional basketball player who spoke out about football recently. Lebron said “Only basketball, baseball and soccer are allowed in my house.” When asked whether his decision was because of the health dangers to football, he replied “Yes.”

Brett Favre – He has made his thoughts about the physicality of the game known. He said “In some respects, I’m almost glad I don’t have a son…”

Troy Aikman- He would know. He’s had 7-8 concussions in his career.  He said “If I had a 10 year-old boy, I don’t know that I’d be real inclined to encourage him to go play football in light of what we are learning from head injury.”

Jeremichael Finley- in 2013, he took a violent hit on the field. Afterwards, his five year-old son said to him, “Daddy, I don’t want you to play football anymore.”

Terry Bradshaw – former Pittsburgh Steelers star quarterback, now a broadcaster, once said on the Tonight Show, “If I had a son today, and I would say this to all our audience and our viewers out there, I would not let him play football.”

Drew Brees- still an active player, played for a team that spent a year battling Bountygate. He said “It’s obviously very serious stuff.”

Kurt Warner – Super Bowl winning quarterback of the St. Louis Rams, said the idea of his sons playing football “scares me” and he thinks the risk of injuries is serious enough that his preference would be that his boys not play.

This is not a complete list of players with concerns about head injuries.

Signs of concussions

Some signs of concussions include:

• Difficulty sleeping
• Headaches that get worse
• Weakness, numbness or decreased coordination
• Repeated vomiting
• confusion
• and there are others

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A cognitive evaluation may be performed and the person may check out fine, but then 15 minutes later they’re not. Or, as Emmitt Smith says, 15 years after their playing career is over will really tell the story.

The bottom line is parents should know the signs and symptoms of concussion. For example, does their child often get headaches?

Parents are concerned. Pop Warner, the Little League of football, was down 10% over the past two years.

Many people think Borland’s retirement is the beginning of the end for football.

The game is at a crossroads.