For every Tony Dorsett (the former Dallas Cowboy star reportedly diagnosed with degenerative brain disease), there is a roomful of less well-known players suffering from the consequences of joint trauma.Ī 2009 University of Michigan study of retired NFL players concluded that “the most striking difference between NFL retirees and the general population” is that the former players younger than 50 were nearly five times more likely to have arthritis than comparable men in the general population. The price of a career in football shouldn’t have to include dementia or neurological trauma.īut I worry that we’re ignoring a much more prevalent, and treatable, consequence of careers in football. The health news about NFL players tends to focus on concussions and head trauma, and I’m all for addressing that devastating problem. Others struggled with diabetes, and some even had heart disease. Most had arthritis, and virtually everyone complained of joint pain. Several already had undergone knee and hip replacements one had endured an unsuccessful back fusion.
I realized quickly that most of my teammates had suffered terribly from their years in the great but violent game of football. But as a doctor, I found the weekend of camaraderie and reminiscing in Miami troubling. It was great to catch up with my former teammates at the reunion.
Eventually, I joined a practice as an orthopedic surgeon in my Connecticut hometown. However, after a season with the Dolphins, which included playing in Super Bowl XVII, I left football for medical school back at Yale, followed by an orthopedic residency and fellowship. My path to the NFL started at Yale, where I was an All-American running back. It had been 25 years since I took off my pads and helmet for the last time, and since then, I’d had little contact with most of my former teammates. In 2008, I attended a reunion for Miami Dolphins players who had played in the 1983 or 1985 Super Bowls.
0 kommentar(er)
