Junior Seau | Suicide

[CentreHice]

Article

Seau's death, by gunshot wound to the chest, is similar to the way former Chicago Bears defensive back Dave Duerson committed suicide. Duerson shot himself in the chest on Feb. 17 -- a method used so that his brain could be examined for symptoms of CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy), a trauma-induced disease common to NFL players and others who have received repeated blows to the head.

Be interesting to see if concussions/depression/painkillers etc. have anything to do with it.

Only 43 years old.

RIP.

[CentreHice]

Family has donated his brain to science.

Becoming a familiar, albeit sad, pattern.

[seventeen]

May 4, 2012 16:04:34 GMT -5 CentreHice said:

Family has donated his brain to science.

Will that tell us what not to do?

[Doc Holliday]

Pretty sad stuff.

A doctor was telling me about a patient, young men, very active, very healthy, who liked to train. Like many young men around a gym, he decided to take streroids in order to boost his muscle... few weeks later, the guy has to be rushed to the hospital with psychotic behavior. Permanant brain damage caused by the Juice, he'll forever have to deal with schyzophrenia.

...friggin' society based on perfromance, performance, performance.

[blny]

I was really shocked to hear this the other day. Junior was a classy guy, and never seemed the 'roid rage' type. He was a nice guy, well spoken, and genuinely loved by all he played with. I know he was divorced. Hard to say if perhaps that had something to do with it. He was clearly hiding depression from the public. As sad as it is that he felt he had to end his life, I'm relieved he didn't pull a "Chris Benoit" and kill his wife and child first.

[CentreHice]

Getting the edge to get the big money. If most are doing it and you want to compete, what's your choice?

Been going on for quite some time. Here's something from half-a-century ago.

1963 San Diego Chargers

In the mornings, the ranch hands swept the grounds of Rough Acres for rattlesnakes. Sometimes, they spread sawdust over the field.

As the sun rose on the high desert scrub, they hosed down the dust and the wood shavings and packed the gopher holes as best they could.

But by the time the players took the field for the first of their two-a-day workouts, the hot wind had blown the drying sawdust into piles around the fence posts at the edge of the ranch.

For the rest of the day, the players cracked bodies into each other under a cloudless sky, trying for traction on a desolate patch of hard dust where grass couldn't grow.

This was the price of playing for a genius. This was also the price of failing him the season before.
In 1962, the San Diego Chargers trudged to a 4-10 record as coach Sid Gillman watched broken bodies and losses pile up. In 1963, he was ready to try things no one had ever done.

Gillman found Rough Acres, a failed dude ranch 70 miles east of San Diego, down a dirt road from the tiny town of Boulevard, Calif., and its one bar, and set the Chargers up to train there on the flat, dusty surface that looked like it had been cut out of a hill. But in the late summer heat, usually in the high 90s, the players didn't see the field for what it really was. Gillman chose this spot to be his football laboratory, the place where he could remake the game by mixing iron and pills and even the colors of the men themselves. Rough Acres was where he introduced the game's first strength coach, its first weightlifting program and a conscious effort to racially integrate his club.

It was also where Gillman and his staff handed out little pink pills called Dianabol. It is an anabolic steroid.

More in the article....but it was a legal substance back then...and not banned. But likely still as dangerous in the long run.

The strength coach got the idea from the Russians at the Olympics.

That science has been "pumped up" ever since....always looking for the best cloaking device as well.

[jkr]

Sportsnet played the clip of his distraught mother speaking in public. It was a heart wrenching scene. Very tough to watch.

[CentreHice]

Report is in: brain disease (CTE) consistent with exposure to repetitive head injuries.

Are the fame and money worth the risk of having the rest of your life adversely affected...let alone leading to depression causing suicide?

When you're working your way up and enjoying the success, the signs must not be there, at least in as full-force as they are later in life.

For Seau's two sons the decision was simple:

Gina Seau's son Jake, now a high school junior, played football for two seasons, but has switched to lacrosse and has been recruited to play at Duke.

"Lacrosse is really his sport and what he is passionate about," she said. "He is a good football player and probably could continue. But especially now watching what his dad went through, he says, `Why would I risk lacrosse for football?'

"I didn't have to have a discussion with him after we saw what Junior went through."

Her 12-year-old son, Hunter, has shown no interest in playing football. "That's fine with me," she said.


Seau had CTE