NFL: Study shows retirees live longer

[zulater]

The NFL is telling retirees about a medical study that says former players live longer than men in the general population.

While player safety issues related to brain trauma and other football-related injuries dominate the headlines, the study by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) found 334 deceased men in a sampling of 3,439 former NFL players. Estimates for the general population anticipated 625 deaths.

Players in the study participated in the NFL for at least five seasons from 1959 through 1988, and were observed by NIOSH through 2007.

The study is a follow-up to a 1994 report the institute did at the request of the players' union to "investigate concerns that players were dying prematurely." The latest findings, which contradict that idea, were published earlier this year in the American Journal of Cardiology and on NIOSH's blog. The NFL sent a newsletter from NIOSH about the study's finding to about 3,200 pre-1993 retired players on Tuesday.

The results come as NFL veterans by the hundreds -- from both recent years and decades ago -- are suing the league because of long-term health effects, many head injuries they sustained playing football. The league maintains player safety was and is a major priority.

The latest study found that players had a much lower rate of cancer-related deaths, with 85 dying from the disease as opposed to a projected 146 based on estimates from the general population. One reason for that could be low levels of smoking among athletes, but NIOSH did not attempt to contact former players about their smoking habits.

Larger players, particularly defensive linemen, had a higher level of deaths from heart disease, 41 as opposed to an expected 29. There were 498 defensive linemen studied.

Offensive and defensive linemen, of course, are likely to have a higher body mass index, a measuring factor for obesity.

Overall, though, the study showed that the risk of players dying of heart disease was lower than the general population, with 126 deaths while the anticipated number was 186.

The report made several recommendations to former football players about maintaining a healthier lifestyle.

"Though football-related injuries may make it hard to exercise regularly," the report said, "it is important that players continue to be active or maintain a healthy weight. It is also important to not smoke, eat right and treat medical conditions like high blood pressure and diabetes."

NIOSH also is studying neurological causes of death among the NFL players, including Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's and ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease).

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/7905891/nfl-says-study-shows-retired-players-longer-lives

[BigNastyDefense]

Honestly, the mentality of the football player/pro athlete has been to ignore symptoms of a concussion and other injuries for the most part. Common sense should tell you that an injury to the brain is something serious, and repeatedly will just make it worse in the long run. The players could have said that they didn't feel right, but they chose not to.

They knew that there would be repercussions from playing the game the way they did.

Is the NFL themselves at fault? Yes partially they are, especially of they lied about the effects concussions could have on the players long-term.

But nobody held a gun to the players' heads and forced them to play such a violent sport for a living. They chose to. They knew it would cause health problems later. Did they know how severe? I doubt it.

I am all for getting the blatant head shots out of the game. There is no place for that stuff, IMHO. But the way the NFL is penalizing what should be legal hits and accidental helmet-to-helmet hits is bullshit. This game is played at a million miles an hour. A defensive player can target the chest of an offensive player, but that offensive player drops his head and/or body level to prepare for it and the defensive player hits him in the helmet. He didn't mean to, but it happens. Shouldn't be a penalty, shouldn't be a fine, shouldn't be a suspension.

[GBMelBlount]

Honestly, the mentality of the football player/pro athlete has been to ignore symptoms of a concussion and other injuries for the most part. Common sense should tell you that an injury to the brain is something serious, and repeatedly will just make it worse in the long run. The players could have said that they didn't feel right, but they chose not to.

They knew that there would be repercussions from playing the game the way they did.



Not sure I agree.

I understand your point...but when you are a gifted athlete playing the game you dreamed of playing your entire life and getting paid to do it....and feel invincible...I would imagine it would be easy to shrug off injuries and concussions or ignore symptoms.....especially when being tough and working through pain and injury is pounded into you from a young age.

Just my two cents

[steelreserve]

This ought to be expected. Most of the people with really serious life-threatening medical conditions don't make it to be professional athletes, particularly in football. So you've weeded out all the people who are most likely to die prematurely. On top of that, just about all pro athletes stay in top physical condition and very few carry around any extra weight, save for linemen - so the heart disease figures ought to be expected too.

What will really tell whether there's anything to all this concussion and head trauma stuff is whether or not it turns out they find out that former football players have, like ... 80 times the risk of dying from some other specific rare cause.

[suitanim]

Who is likely to live longer, someone who retires at 32, with a big chunk of cash, or someone who has to retire at 70 and scrape by in a hardscrabble existence?

This news doesn't surprise me at all...even of you batter your body at football for 15 years, you do it while you're young, and you have significant periods of time each year to recover, and you're probably done (on average) at about 32.

[zulater]

I'm glad to see this study come out when it did. Something needed to turn the tide a little bit. I mean it's gone past the point of absurd. It seems as though every ex NFL player sees the over trumped concussion issue as a get out of jail free card which absolves them of any and all future responsibly for the remainder of their life. Apparently playing on average 3 years and getting paid slightly over 1 million dollars for that time isn't enough. It seems that they think the NFL should bear responsibility for whatever path their life follows until their dying day.

And check out this gem. Now Art Schlichter is attributing his lifetime full of borderline anti social behavior on concussions! :frusty:

Repeated concussions drove Art Schlichter's gambling addiction and 30 years of criminal behavior, his attorney said yesterday after a federal judge sentenced the former quarterback to more than a decade in prison."At least now, he understands there is a reason for his behavior," public defender Steven C. Nolder said in court.

U.S. District Court Judge Michael H. Watson sentenced the former Ohio State University football star to 10 years, seven months in prison for fleecing 55 people out of millions of dollars.

Nolder said that three mental-health specialists who examined Schlichter in recent months concluded that he has "significant deficits" in the frontal lobes of his brain, most likely caused by the 15 concussions he suffered while playing high-school and college football.That kind of damage can cause impaired judgment, impulsive behavior and severe depression, Nolder said.Concussions are being studied for possible links to depression and suicide in NFL players.Schlichter's sentencing yesterday was the latest chapter in his transformation from a football star to a desperate ex-con, the judge said.


http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/sns-mct-football-concussions-to-blame-for-schlichters-20120505,0,7741065.story

[suitanim]

Well, why take personal responsibility and hold yourself accountable for your own actions and decisions when you can just blame it on someone or something else?

[LLT]

Well, why take personal responsibility and hold yourself accountable for your own actions and decisions when you can just blame it on someone or something else?

I understand what you are saying...but even the army...which is considerably more dangerous than the NFL...recognizes its responsibility in taking care of its soldiers who where forced into retirement due to injuries incurred while working.

And everyone of those soldiers understand the danger involved.

But regardless of all that...the league isnt willing to FAIRLY sit down and discuss responsibility, but rather plays both sides of the coin in condemning hits that cause concussions while denying benifits to those who are forced into retirement due to such hits.

[suitanim]

I understand what you are saying...but even the army...which is considerably more dangerous than the NFL...recognizes its responsibility in taking care of its soldiers who where forced into retirement due to injuries incurred while working.

And everyone of those soldiers understand the danger involved.

But regardless of all that...the league isnt willing to FAIRLY sit down and discuss responsibility, but rather plays both sides of the coin in condemning hits that cause concussions while denying benifits to those who are forced into retirement due to such hits.


I was speaking specifically of Schlichter.

[BnG_Hevn]

Studies like these are all hogwash.

It is akin to the old "average length of NFL career is 3 years" argument. Sure, if you count all the players that come and go within a year to play special teams that get bounced b/c of the new rookie class, then it would be low.

But if you were to count only players that have started for two consecutive years, then the number goes way up.

Just like this study. They are grouping linemen / RGs in with WR and QBs etc. I'm sure the WRs in the league live longer and people like Deion Sanders (I never really blamed him for lack of contact, you know what you're getting) take less punishment so they also live longer.

For an accurate study, they need to do it by groups based on the amount of punishment that position typically takes.

[LLT]

I was speaking specifically of Schlichter.

..and I agree with that statement.

[suitanim]

Studies like these are all hogwash.

It is akin to the old "average length of NFL career is 3 years" argument. Sure, if you count all the players that come and go within a year to play special teams that get bounced b/c of the new rookie class, then it would be low.

But if you were to count only players that have started for two consecutive years, then the number goes way up.

Just like this study. They are grouping linemen / RGs in with WR and QBs etc. I'm sure the WRs in the league live longer and people like Deion Sanders (I never really blamed him for lack of contact, you know what you're getting) take less punishment so they also live longer.

For an accurate study, they need to do it by groups based on the amount of punishment that position typically takes.


Obviously, each position takes a different amount of "damage", but look closely at the study. It's pretty thorough. First off, the sampling size is high. The Arbitron book in Akron takes a sampling size smaller than this (3,439 for the NFL study) to map the ratings for a market of 540,000 people, and they are the unquestioned gold standard for radio ratings. So the degree of accuracy will be high. Also, this study goes back into an era when the equipment was inferior, and the rules much more liberal. 59-88 includes Jack Tatum, for Chrissakes. The players all played for at least 5 years, so that means they stayed in the league longer than the average.This is also a follow-up to a '94 study, and data was included up until 2007. Essentially, we are talking about 50 YEARS of data. The margins of difference are pretty significant, too...it'd be one thing if ex-NFLers died at a rate of 575 to 625 for non-players, but the margin was nearly double.

Finally, this isn't a study conducted by the NFL, it was conducted by the NIOSH. They have no skin in the game, and no reason to report findings more or less favorable to the NFL, especially since collusion would undermine their credibility. All in all, I'd say this is a legitimate case study.

[fansince'76]

I'd be willing to bet that for every Junior Seau out there, there is also a Roger Staubach (who was literally a walking concussion during his playing days)...

[suitanim]

I'd be willing to bet that for every Junior Seau out there, there is also a Roger Staubach (who was literally a walking concussion during his playing days)...

I still have to chuckle at Art Schlichter: "I couldn't figure out why I was always a dirtbag and degenerate gambler all the way back to high school, even before I played in the NFL and racked up gambling debts and landed in prison for fraud and cocaine use that hopefully this class action lawsuit will help me pay. It's because I took a tremendous amount of head trauma in the 13 NFL games I came in to take the game-ending kneel-downs in.

Fucking rat bastard. THIS is exactly what happens when you start fishing for "victims" in our overly litigious system.

[steelerdude15]

In all reality, there's is an extremely small percentage of past players that have died from head trauma related injuries. With that said, this study could help the NFL in their lawsuits.

[ShutDown24]

I generally tend to side with the players in these types of disputes. However, in this case, I don't know if I can. At the core of the argument, I agree with the players. But the way they have gone about this has really turned me off. While common sense might say having more ex-players on board is a good thing, I think it's really counterproductive to their message. They are shooting themselves in the foot. It seems like every guy who ever played a down is coming out of nowhere to try and get his share. If it were 20 or 30 serious cases, I feel that would be more viable. As is, with basically thousands of players making the claim, I just don't know what to make of things. Unfortunately it seems like a lot of these guys are in this for less than pure reasons.

[suitanim]

I agree 100%. This comes down to: How do you separate the wheat from the chaff? I look back and think if the very sad case of our own Mike Webster, and then see a scumbag like Schichter and wonder how the two could even be compared, but in the eyes of a lawsuit, they MIGHT be viewed equally. So these parasites that leech on are actually undermining the credibility of the whole case and hurting the people who really have a legitimate gripe. I fully expect Ryan Leaf to be next. Salisbury should be held accountable for some of this, too,,,his axe to grind is turning over rocks where every player who ever wasted his money or made bad decisions is now gonna try to capitalize on the few players who really have a legitimate gripe.

[NCSteeler]

I agree 100%. This comes down to: How do you separate the wheat from the chaff? I look back and think if the very sad case of our own Mike Webster, and then see a scumbag like Schichter and wonder how the two could even be compared, but in the eyes of a lawsuit, they MIGHT be viewed equally. So these parasites that leech on are actually undermining the credibility of the whole case and hurting the people who really have a legitimate gripe. I fully expect Ryan Leaf to be next. Salisbury should be held accountable for some of this, too,,,his axe to grind is turning over rocks where every player who ever wasted his money or made bad decisions is now gonna try to capitalize on the few players who really have a legitimate gripe.

Fully agree with that

[LLT]

I agree 100%. This comes down to: How do you separate the wheat from the chaff? I look back and think if the very sad case of our own Mike Webster, and then see a scumbag like Schichter and wonder how the two could even be compared, but in the eyes of a lawsuit, they MIGHT be viewed equally. So these parasites that leech on are actually undermining the credibility of the whole case and hurting the people who really have a legitimate gripe. I fully expect Ryan Leaf to be next. Salisbury should be held accountable for some of this, too,,,his axe to grind is turning over rocks where every player who ever wasted his money or made bad decisions is now gonna try to capitalize on the few players who really have a legitimate gripe.


Very well put.

[steelerdude15]

You know, I bet some of these players are just looking for a pay day. A recent stat showed that seventy-nine percent of players who are retired for just five years are broke. I bet there are players in these lawsuits just to get money.

[fansince'76]

I still have to chuckle at Art Schlichter: "I couldn't figure out why I was always a dirtbag and degenerate gambler all the way back to high school, even before I played in the NFL and racked up gambling debts and landed in prison for fraud and cocaine use that hopefully this class action lawsuit will help me pay. It's because I took a tremendous amount of head trauma in the 13 NFL games I came in to take the game-ending kneel-downs in.

Fucking rat bastard. THIS is exactly what happens when you start fishing for "victims" in our overly litigious system.

I also wonder how many "concussive" hits (now-Minnesota Supreme Court Judge) Alan Page sustained in his 15 seasons as a HoF defensive tackle? Quite a few more than mega-bust Art Schlichter, I'd imagine...

[suitanim]

Just to clarify, Schlichter was already a degenerate gambler in HIGH SCHOOL...he was at the local horse racing track every day.

[BigNastyDefense]

I agree 100%. This comes down to: How do you separate the wheat from the chaff? I look back and think if the very sad case of our own Mike Webster, and then see a scumbag like Schichter and wonder how the two could even be compared, but in the eyes of a lawsuit, they MIGHT be viewed equally. So these parasites that leech on are actually undermining the credibility of the whole case and hurting the people who really have a legitimate gripe. I fully expect Ryan Leaf to be next. Salisbury should be held accountable for some of this, too,,,his axe to grind is turning over rocks where every player who ever wasted his money or made bad decisions is now gonna try to capitalize on the few players who really have a legitimate gripe.

Exactly.

There are some serious cases here. But then you have guys that played very little if at all. There are plenty of guys joining in on this to just make a buck.

While I feel bad for the players with a legit gripe, I hope the NFL wins this case just because of the people jumping in that might have never suffered a concussion as an NFL player.