No brain damage. Looks like his brain is the only one of 19 examined that had no sign of disease.
Strongest drug in his system at time of death was Ambien.
Suppose it’s safe to say that nothing killed Junior but Junior.
*depression/mental health issues
This will not help the NFL union
I agree with you Deej.
To be a big softie for a second, this whole Seau situation has me shaking my head. Depression is a motherfucker. I mean, this dude was ADORED. He lived on the beach in his hometown, had a family unit that loved him… And if there’s anything that’s to be admired in the Samoan/Hawaiian/Polynesian culture, it’s how hard they love each other.
Maybe financial situation? But I think it would have come out in the news if he was in money trouble. I don’t get it, can’t explain it. Depression is too big of a blanket to throw over the whole thing.
No matter what we do, try to fix, make a pill, whatever we try the human mind is a vast and mysterious thing. We will never know what drove him to do it and its just another sad thing in life.
I have a hard time believing 20 years as a linebacker in the NFL would have left no mark on his brain, and reading that article the only direct quote from the autopsy report was that his body showed “no pre-existing natural disease.” Would brain damage suffered from playing football be classified as a pre-existing natural disease in this context? I’m not a doctor, have no formal medical training, blah blah blah, so I don’t know.
[quote]TheJonty wrote:
I have a hard time believing 20 years as a linebacker in the NFL would have left no mark on his brain, and reading that article the only direct quote from the autopsy report was that his body showed “no pre-existing natural disease.” Would brain damage suffered from playing football be classified as a pre-existing natural disease in this context? I’m not a doctor, have no formal medical training, blah blah blah, so I don’t know.[/quote]
I don’t believe for a second that playing football by default causes brain damage. Accidents while playing football yes, but not just the sport.
[quote]TheJonty wrote:
I have a hard time believing 20 years as a linebacker in the NFL would have left no mark on his brain, and reading that article the only direct quote from the autopsy report was that his body showed “no pre-existing natural disease.” Would brain damage suffered from playing football be classified as a pre-existing natural disease in this context? I’m not a doctor, have no formal medical training, blah blah blah, so I don’t know.[/quote]
I completely understand where you’re coming from and I’m alarmed over this too. I fully expected the report to basically say “holy shit his brain was toast…” That would have tied a neat bow around this whole bummer.
[quote]pat wrote:
[quote]TheJonty wrote:
I have a hard time believing 20 years as a linebacker in the NFL would have left no mark on his brain, and reading that article the only direct quote from the autopsy report was that his body showed “no pre-existing natural disease.” Would brain damage suffered from playing football be classified as a pre-existing natural disease in this context? I’m not a doctor, have no formal medical training, blah blah blah, so I don’t know.[/quote]
I don’t believe for a second that playing football by default causes brain damage. Accidents while playing football yes, but not just the sport. [/quote]
Maybe not football in general, but as a linebacker in the NFL who played at a time when people lead with the head when tackling? Between the tackles there are just too many big bodies and too many collisions and too many pileups for me to easily accept that he did that for 20 years and his head came out unscathed, especially when he reportedly played with the passion that he did (I’m not old enough and didn’t start watching the NFL early enough to remember most of his career). I’m not saying it’s impossible, I’m saying it’s improbable.
<---------------20 years of medicine. Nothing is impossible or predictable in regards to the human body
[quote]TheJonty wrote:
[quote]pat wrote:
[quote]TheJonty wrote:
I have a hard time believing 20 years as a linebacker in the NFL would have left no mark on his brain, and reading that article the only direct quote from the autopsy report was that his body showed “no pre-existing natural disease.” Would brain damage suffered from playing football be classified as a pre-existing natural disease in this context? I’m not a doctor, have no formal medical training, blah blah blah, so I don’t know.[/quote]
I don’t believe for a second that playing football by default causes brain damage. Accidents while playing football yes, but not just the sport. [/quote]
Maybe not football in general, but as a linebacker in the NFL who played at a time when people lead with the head when tackling? Between the tackles there are just too many big bodies and too many collisions and too many pileups for me to easily accept that he did that for 20 years and his head came out unscathed, especially when he reportedly played with the passion that he did (I’m not old enough and didn’t start watching the NFL early enough to remember most of his career). I’m not saying it’s impossible, I’m saying it’s improbable.[/quote]
I think players stopped leading with their heads back in the late 70’s early 80’s once the “spearing” penalty came into effect. Guys like Earl Campbell were no longer allowed to drop their chins any longer upon collision.
Ronnie Lott got away with it on occasion, but by the time Junior was playing for San Diego guys were often getting penalized for hitting with the head intentionally. Guys like John Lynch and Rodney Harrison )who was Seau’s teammate), are other examples.
[quote]Derek542 wrote:
<---------------20 years of medicine. Nothing is impossible or predictable in regards to the human body[/quote]
Exactly
[quote]BradTGIF wrote:
I think players stopped leading with their heads back in the late 70’s early 80’s once the “spearing” penalty came into effect. Guys like Earl Campbell were no longer allowed to drop their chins any longer upon collision.
Ronnie Lott got away with it on occasion, but by the time Junior was playing for San Diego guys were often getting penalized for hitting with the head intentionally. Guys like John Lynch and Rodney Harrison )who was Seau’s teammate), are other examples.
[/quote]
[quote]BradTGIF wrote:
I think players stopped leading with their heads back in the late 70’s early 80’s once the “spearing” penalty came into effect.[/quote]
[quote]BradTGIF wrote:
late 70’s early 80’s[/quote]
I think I just became too young for this conversation.
[quote]TheJonty wrote:
[quote]BradTGIF wrote:
I think players stopped leading with their heads back in the late 70’s early 80’s once the “spearing” penalty came into effect. Guys like Earl Campbell were no longer allowed to drop their chins any longer upon collision.
Ronnie Lott got away with it on occasion, but by the time Junior was playing for San Diego guys were often getting penalized for hitting with the head intentionally. Guys like John Lynch and Rodney Harrison )who was Seau’s teammate), are other examples.
[/quote]
[quote]BradTGIF wrote:
I think players stopped leading with their heads back in the late 70’s early 80’s once the “spearing” penalty came into effect.[/quote]
[quote]BradTGIF wrote:
late 70’s early 80’s[/quote]
I think I just became too young for this conversation.[/quote]
I don’t think so. I’m going to be having this conversation with my son as soon as he starts to ask about playing sports. He’s two right now.
Knowing the history of things helps with overall understanding.
Feel free to tweet that last quote, if that’s what you kids are up to these days… 
[quote]BradTGIF wrote:
I don’t think so. I’m going to be having this conversation with my son as soon as he starts to ask about playing sports. He’s two right now.
Knowing the history of things helps with overall understanding.
Feel free to tweet that last quote, if that’s what you kids are up to these days… :)[/quote]
Well, regardless of age I think I’m going to bow out here. I don’t have the historical knowledge to argue anything with any degree of confidence beyond what I’ve already displayed, and my only personal experience is high school football (and one university spring camp) and anecdotal evidence from a friend who plays in the CFL. Going to leave it up to those of you who know a little more about football and/or medicine. Though I suppose if I have kids one day I’ll be having that conversation with them as well . . .
And Twitter can go to hell. I only got a cell phone because my friends decided they’d had enough of not being able to get a hold of me, and I’m only on Facebook because a friend made a fake account for me and I wound up taking it over as my real one. If someone’s got to trim down their news to ninety six and three quarters characters or less, I don’t want to hear it, I want the full version.
Well fuck me I spoke too soon.
Brain hasn’t even been tested yet.
I remember when he first killed himself there was a thread here about it, and in it I argued that this was undoubtedly the result of massive CTE. I stand corrected.
Bet you dollars to donuts that the end of his career was too hard for him to deal with, along with financially supporting ALOT of his people.
When I say “his people,” I mean he had many of Samoan and Hawaiian community members always with their hands out. As nice as he is (was), he would help the best he could. But when his career ended, so did his paycheck.
I went to the tribute they had for him in Oceanside, really sad to see. I was hoping that we would have had a USC tribute, but there was no talk about it from the press office.
This guy was not about money or bling, he just loved football and his family.
To this day, he still has many of the USC football lifting records.
Money/Fame doesnt buy you happiness.