https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/antonio-brown-sought-for-arrest-on-attempted-murder-charge-by-miami-dade-police-per-report/
This guy was a superstar, just great on the field and a transendent presense off of it. Dancing in commercials and singing on tv. He just jumped ouf of your screen he had that quality.
What I noticed is that after a blow to the head knocking him out by Vonteze Burfect he was completely different. I think it was his third concussion on record. Legal problems, unstable behavior, basically full on mental health melt down over the years since. Really sad stuff. Seen this far too many times. Guys like Kellen Winslow , Richi Ingonito, Aaron Hernandez...I can probably name over a dozen guys. CTE->mental health to criminal
Yes. That concussion in that Bengal game turned his behavior into eventual insanity, now freaking out in public again. Once a great player, now a clearly disturbed guy out of control facing jail time. Epic fall.
Quote from: Crypto Fareez on June 12, 2025, 11:42:38 PMThis guy was a superstar, just great on the field and a transendent presense off of it. Dancing in commercials and singing on tv. He just jumped ouf of your screen he had that quality.
What I noticed is that after a blow to the head knocking him out by Vonteze Burfect he was completely different. I think it was his third concussion on record. Legal problems, unstable behavior, basically full on mental health melt down over the years since. Really sad stuff. Seen this far too many times. Guys like Kellen Winslow , Richi Ingonito, Aaron Hernandez...I can probably name over a dozen guys. CTE->mental health to criminal
I really applaud your post. While it is extremely difficult, to nearly impossible, to diagnose CTE until after a person is already dead, the NFL and modern medicine, still has a long way to go in order to assess, detect, categorize and commit to more firm decision making as to when a player is/is not fit for entering the field of play.
Further continuous improvement is required, through rules modifications enforcing "duty of care" on the tackler, advancements in personal protective equipment, and perhaps punitive measures enforced by the league for careless hits with failure of duty of care to prevent injury to high impact areas such as head, face, neck, etc. Prevention of injury to the brain should be given the highest priority.
The league has already been working with the industry's best in class doctors whose expertise is in Neurology, the brain, the spinal cord and Hematology to understand better the impact of head injuries, how they can be mitigated and possibly, how they can be prevented.
Even still, this is not enough. This knowledge base MUST BE engrained into the Commissioner and all owners with a firm commitment from each of them to do their part to invest in the safety of every NFL player when it comes to injuries of the brain / brain trauma.
I take this subject very seriously as I've incurred two serious concussions playing sport; my first and my last. My first I was a stupid 18 year old college freshman goalkeeper who collided head-to-head with the opponent while going after a ball in the air while in a full sprint. He got me just above my left ear while I collected him just above his forehead. He was knocked out completely. I was completely void of hearing in my left ear. Eyesight was completely foggy and with tunnel vision; like a dreamy state. I should have just sat down and gotten checked out. I didn't want to get replaced, so I tried playing tough guy and said I was fine when, in reality, I wasn't. Somehow, I managed to finish the game, which I don't remember at all. We were on a road trip in Vermont and had to drive to Potsdam, NY the next day to play and I was still in goal, concussion and all. I felt queasy all day and could barely put water down. I think we lost that game but I remember I was grabbing the ball and an opponent crashed into me while the ball was between my left pointer finger and thumb; the latter I broke a few games earlier in the season and played with it taped up. Turned out it was completely dislocated at that point. Concussed and a dislocated thumb. Remember this was 1987 and we didn't have any trainers with us. We had to "man-up" and deal with it. So, now playing with one arm, still feeling concussed, and nauseated, they pulled back the dogs and ran the clock out, thank God! A scrappy weekend with two losses, a goalie who was sick of losing but couldn't think straight, and had a black and blue balloon where there once was a thumb, life tucked. But, as time went on, it all passed, and I got through it.
With a few other minor knocks to the head, in other games, they were bad but nothing that kept me out.
Then the roller blading accident into the telephone pole, followed by falling hard on the back of my head and having it cracked open, was the last straw. Relegated to home for two weeks in a room with the shades down. Hearing in the left ear mostly gone, but eventually some of it returned, but now am deaf to multiple sound frequencies which is an annoyance at worst. I generally have to ask folks to repeat themselves when they talk to me. I have migraine headaches more now than I ever had in my life. I have had my C-spine scanned with noticeable damage to my C5 to C6. I now have a chiropractor adjust me weekly to get the stiffness out of my back, shoulders and neck. Fortunately, I'm very busy at work so I am able to use my brain, my mind, to keep the muscles strong. But it does get tiring easier than in previous years.
The point of sharing some of my head trauma experiences is to let you all know I take this subject very seriously and there's a small element of concern that my past head trauma might rear its ugly head a little later after I retire in a decade or so. I have also lost my brother, back in 2019, to what we believe was a brain aneurysm. Literally, getting ready to go to work, he simply collapsed, and that was that. If his coworkers didn't send the police out his way for a wellness check, nobody would ever know. That all took place before COVID 19 as well as before we were getting ready to leave New Mexico to move to Phoenix. Tough times. It took me over three years to settle the estate, which was in New Jersey, and it took me another year before the gravity hit me to begin my mourning the loss of him and my mother (NOTE: who had passed three months before him). All while trying to work, get my NM home ready to sell and look for a place to live in AZ. Tough times.
I know this all is way off the OP's subject, but when you talk to me about brain trauma, brain injuries and you know someone close to you one day and BAM, they're gone tomorrow because something "broke" in their brain, it hits me harder than most. The 🧠 is one of the most fragile components of our body. Yet, it does so many things we have yet to understand. Some suggest that humans barely use up to 20% of their brain's capability and capacity. What do they mean? What else can it do for us? Yet, talented athletes put their bodies, and their brains, into the arena, where they can achieve greatness yet, in a split moment, it can all disappear should contact to the brain cause irreparable damage.
I will close with this thought. Those who gather the spoils from this enterprise. Why choose to count every last piece of silver when you could do something far greater which is to protect your "investments" with only the best of the best personal protective gear. Don't be so blatently myopic in your self-serving habitual need for greed! For it is only when you give, with an opening and purity of heart, that you will receive in abundance.
P.S. What the hell have you got to lose, anyway?
Peace!