RIP Junior Seau

Junior Seau killed himself Wednesday morning.

According to reports, he shot himself in the chest with a handgun at his home in Oceanside, CA.

He is the eighth member of the 1994 San Diego Chargers' Super Bowl team to pass away at a very early age.  The previous deaths were attributable to accidents, heart attacks, even a lightning strike.

None of those deaths, however, so stunned the tight-knit community of professional football as Seau's death.  Suicide is a different matter, after all.

Seau was one of the most popular players to ever play the game, and a pure joy to watch for the hard-core football fan.  Few players have demonstrated as much passion for the game as Seau, who played professionally for 20 years after graduating from USC in 1989.

That is an extraordinary number of years for a footballer to play the game.  Few players last that long, for football torments and breaks the human body.

The average career of a professional running back is 3.5 years.

Football is an extremely violent game, and there is ample evidence that concussions are a factor in the depressive state many ex-football players find themselves in after their careers end.

Dave Duerson, the ex-Chicago Bear, killed himself last year, also using a bullet to the chest from a handgun.  He'd arranged for his brain to be studied by scientists upon his death, knowing football had damaged him.

Killing oneself for science?  What level of torment leads to something so bizarre?

Only recently have the owners of  National Football League franchises faced the reality that their game is taking an unmanageable toll on the lives of former players.  As a result, better pensions and access to medical care have been integrated into the players' post-career lives.

Today's equipment and training surpass anything I experienced when I played the game in high school and college.  It is hard to imagine what more could be done to make the game safer in that regard, though clearly further research is needed.

The truth is that kids have always wanted to and will continue to want to play the game, often dreaming of the riches the game provides the lucky few, but also simply because it is a fun game to play.

One can be hurt, even die playing the game, but kids learn that at a very young age.

The case of Junior Seau is sad, but unfortunately it won't be the last time something like this happens.


TS