{"id":28040,"date":"2012-05-05T13:28:51","date_gmt":"2012-05-05T18:28:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?p=28040"},"modified":"2012-05-05T12:12:56","modified_gmt":"2012-05-05T17:12:56","slug":"concussions-football-and-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2012\/05\/05\/concussions-football-and-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Concussions, Football and You"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>Are the new studies about concussions, the new reports (Sonjay Gupta, for instance), and the recent revelations of football players who seemingly committed suicide as a result of football injuries (Dave Duerson, Junior Seau) \u2026 are these making you rethink or even have a conclusion about permitting your son\/s play football?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jonathan Anker<\/a><\/strong>:<\/p>\n

When I heard about\u00a0Junior\u00a0Seau\u2019s\u00a0stunningly tragic suicide <\/a>at just 43 years old the other day, I couldn\u2019t help but immediately wonder what toll the game\u00a0Seau\u00a0loved and dominated may have played in his death. To be clear, there is absolutely no proof or even indication right now that the cumulative effect of all\u00a0Seau\u2019s\u00a0gridiron collisions contributed to any kind of depressive thoughts or degenerative mental condition. We don\u2019t know why he killed himself. We may never know.<\/p>\n

But we do know it\u2019s happened in other instances. After former Chicago Bears standout\u00a0Dave\u00a0Duerson\u00a0committed suicide<\/a> last year, an analysis of his brain revealed he suffered from a trauma-induced disease found in at least 20 other football players who have passed away, according to the Sports Legacy Institute<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Former Philadelphia Eagle\u00a0Andre Waters was 44<\/a> when he killed himself in 2006. Studies found his brain, according to\u00a0Sports Illustrated<\/a>, \u201cresembled what one would expect in an 85-year-old man in the early stages of Alzheimer\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n

Knowing this, and knowing how prevalent and often undiagnosed\u00a0concussions are at even the lower levels of football<\/a> (to say nothing of all the other serious injuries accepted as \u2018just a part of the game\u2019 in football), why would any parent choose to enlist their child to join these ranks? To volunteer them to have their head smacked around inside a plastic cage? Children have been playing tackle football for generations, yes, but only recently have we become aware of what it\u2019s doing to them.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, there\u00a0are <\/em>other sports out there.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Committing suicide is of course an extreme and relatively rare outcome for football-related trauma, but how many other serious issues pop-up among football players \u2014 of any age \u2014 for having taken all these shots to the head? How many cases of depression? How many instances of memory loss or other declining cognitive functions? Or even debilitating migraines?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Are the new studies about concussions, the new reports (Sonjay Gupta, for instance), and the recent revelations of football players who seemingly committed suicide as a result of football injuries (Dave Duerson, Junior Seau) \u2026 are these making you rethink or even have a conclusion about permitting your son\/s play football? Jonathan Anker: When I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[330],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"\nConcussions, Football and You<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Are the new studies about concussions, the new reports (Sonjay Gupta, for instance), and the recent revelations of football players who seemingly\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2012\/05\/05\/concussions-football-and-you\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Concussions, Football and You\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Are the new studies about concussions, the new reports (Sonjay Gupta, for instance), and the recent revelations of football players who seemingly\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2012\/05\/05\/concussions-football-and-you\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-05-05T18:28:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-05-05T17:12:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/files\/2012\/05\/Screen-shot-2012-05-05-at-12.09.08-PM-300x207.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2012\/05\/05\/concussions-football-and-you\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2012\/05\/05\/concussions-football-and-you\/\",\"name\":\"Concussions, Football and You\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-05-05T18:28:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-05-05T17:12:56+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\"},\"description\":\"Are the new studies about concussions, the new reports (Sonjay Gupta, for instance), and the recent revelations of football players who seemingly\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2012\/05\/05\/concussions-football-and-you\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2012\/05\/05\/concussions-football-and-you\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2012\/05\/05\/concussions-football-and-you\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Concussions, Football and You\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\",\"name\":\"Jesus Creed\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\",\"name\":\"Scot McKnight\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. 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