The Bitter End

The Sporting Life:

The Public Professor’s Sports Column

This past Christmas Eve I was at an annual dinner and drinks affair that I attend in the Washington Heights section of New York City every year.  While there, a friend commented on Pittsburgh Steelers Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger’s latest tough guy exhibition, playing through a Grade II high ankle sprain the prior Monday night.  Roethlisberger was taped up like a mummy and had undoubtedly been shot full of cortizone, pain killers, and who knows what else.

“It’s not going to end well for Roethlisberger,” my friend said.  “He seems like the kind of guy, who when he’s done playing, is gonna be a real mess physically.”

I concurred, with a caveat.  Yes, Roethlisberger seems exactly like that guy.  “But the thing is,” I said, “we’ll never actually hear about it.”  After all, the press just doesn’t devote that much coverage to NFL players who end up crippled, brain damaged, or otherwise physically disabled after their careers.  Mid-week injury reports about whether or not they’ll be able to play on Sunday?  Every Wednesday, you betcha.  Post-career follow-ups on the damage sustained from a lifetime in a brutal sport?  Not so much.

I’ve written about it before: athletes whose lives were damaged or shortened as a result of their professional injuries.  But it’s an issue the press only deals with sporadically.

Then just today, Yahoo Sports released a retrospective on great athletes who passed away this year.  As I looked it over, I couldn’t help but notice that many football players didn’t fare well.

Sure, some guys had a good long run.  NFL Hall of Famers Ollie Matson, Andy Robustelli, and John Henry Johnson all passed away after making it to their eighties.

However, in looking over the list, there was a clear pattern of professional athletes who died young after pushing their bodies past reasonable extremes.  Diet, drugs, and physical abuse took a toll on many who had strived to be bigger, stronger, and faster.

Former Chicago Bears Safety Dave Duerson is the most obvious example.  The four-time Pro Bowler and member of the legendary 1985 Bears team, killed himself in February.  He shot himself in the chest instead of the head, thereby allowing researchers to to conduct a post-mortem on his brain, which is the only way to diagnose Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy.  It’s a debilitating disease resulting from repeated head trauma, and it afflicts primarily football  and hockey players, and boxers.

Sure enough, Duerson’s autopsy revealed that he suffered from the disease and that it almost certainly caused the crippling depression and mental disabilities that preceded his suicide.

There was also the case of Austin Box, a highly recruited high school linebacker who chose to play football at the University of Oklahoma.  However, his promising career was cut short by a rash of football-induced injuries.  He died from an overdose of pain pills last May at the age of 22.

Randall Poffo a.k.a. Randy “Macho” Man Savage was one of the best known professional wrestlers of hte 1980s and 1990s, when that sport was (and most likely still is) awash in anabolic steroids.  Steroid abuse often leads to heart damage and Savage died of heart failure last May at the age of 48.

There was also a bevy of retired athletes who died from causes that cannot be directly connected to their careers.  However, particularly for football players and other athletes who need to maintain a high weight, strokes, heart failure, and diabetes are common.

Former Tampa Bay Bucaneer Defensive Tackle and Hall of Famer Lee Roy Selmon died of a stroke at 56.  Former Houston Oilers Wide Receiver Drew Hill died of a stroke at age 54.  Former Dallas Cowboys Fullback Ron Springs was also 54 when he finally succumbed to diabetes after spending three years in a coma.  Another Cowboy, Godfrey Myles, died of a stroke at the age of 42.  Four-time Pro Bowl Defensive Lineman Chester McGlocton died of a heart attack, and he too was 42.  Former NFL Offensive Lineman Orlando “Zeus” Brown died of complications from diabetes at age 40.  Former University of Michigan and Dallas Mavericks basketball player Robert “Tractor” Traylor died of a heart attack.  He was only 34.

And sadly, there are also those whose bodies live long despite the decline of their minds.  Earlier this year I wrote about former Baltimore Colts Tight End John Mackey who died after years of suffering from dementia.  The NFL’s Traumatic Brain Injury Committee is named for him.  More recently, former heavyweight boxing champion “Smokin'” Joe Frazier died at the age of 67.  For the last two decades of his life, the effects of brain damage were obvious to all in the form of slurred speech and declining motor functions.

Many of these athletes, though certainly not all of them, were handsomely rewarded during their professional careers.  However, that is not a valid excuse.  Regardless of compensation, all workers deserve a safe working environment.  We should tolerate neither the physical abuse that leads to permanent disability or dementia, nor the culture of exploitation which beginning in childhood contributes to behaviors and practices that lead to serious health problems.

Let all of the athletes named here, many of whom lived with disabilities and/or died at a young age, be a reminder of that.