When It Comes To Brain Injury, Authors Say NFL Is In A 'League Of Denial'
On the death of safety Dave Duerson in 2011
MF: Duerson was a long-time safety, a defensive back for the Chicago Bears — and one of the hardest hitters in the game. He had a reputation as just a powerful, powerful hitter. Also, ultimately, after his retirement, a very, very successful businessman. He also was on this committee that was giving out disability payments to players, and became sort of a lightning rod for retired players who believed that Duerson was effectively becoming a shill for the league and the union and trying to keep retired players from getting money. ... So, that's the backdrop in which you see Dave Duerson — until he ends up committing suicide and he leaves a note basically describing why he killed himself and how he realized that he basically was going mad.
SF: One of the more chilling things about this whole thing is that the people who are dying, many of them are dying in very macabre ways. They're drinking anti-freeze or they're driving their trucks into a tanker truck at 100 miles per hour. Duerson, after spending years denying that this was an issue and warning that the NFL was turning the league into a league of sissies, he then shoots himself in the chest to preserve his brain and then he writes this note:
MY MIND SLIPS. THOUGHTS GET CROSSED. CANNOT FIND MY WORDS. MAJOR GROWTH ON THE BACK OF SKULL ON LOWER LEFT SIDE. FEEL REALLY ALONE. THINKING OF OTHER NFL PLAYERS WITH BRAIN INJURIES. SOMETIMES, SIMPLE SPELLING BECOMES A CHORE, AND MY EYESITE GOES BLURRY... I THINK SOMETHING IS SERIOUSLY DAMAGED IN MY BRAIN, TOO. I CANNOT TELL YOU HOW MANY TIMES I SAW STARS IN GAMES, BUT I KNOW THERE WERE MANY TIMES THAT I WOULD "WAKE UP" WELL AFTER A GAME, AND WE WERE ALL AT DINNER.