Action News Daily Blogger

January 19, 2007 (WPVI) -- Part of childhood is figuring out your path in life, finding the right friends, and deciding which things just aren't your bag. It was clear to me early on that sports were not going to be where I found glory. The few times I played football, I intercepted the ball--- with my head.

Soccer ended when an attempt to kick a goal ended in with me doing an involuntary split. I never could manage to be on the same side of the court as an incoming tennis ball and swimming was essentially me saying I was doing the butterfly or overhand but really doing a sad dog paddle.

Thankfully, picking up running in my 20s gave me a chance to be a weekend warrior. I was very proud of my 6 miles on the treadmill twice a week...until bad knees ended that fantasy too.

So I have great respect for those with reflexes, intuitive skill, stamina and a high pain threshold. I often I imagine it's really me on the tv screen somersaulting my way across the gymnasium or off the high dive or skating my heart out in the Olympics. But I could never imagine what it was like to play a contact sport, to get whacked in the face with a hockey stick or felled in a dead drop on the football field by men the size of steer.

But for years, that was Andre Waters daily life. The former Eagles safety was a bruiser, known for bone-shattering, brutal penchant for "laying the big hit." He career ended when he resigned from the Arizona Cardinals in 1995. He moved on with his life, turning to coaching college ball and relocating to Tampa, Florida. But Andre Waters made it back into the news last November when he was found dead at his Tampa home, having turned a gun on himself. He was only 44. Friends reported he had become severely depressed.

And now Waters is back in the headlines again, this time from the grave. A University of Pittsburgh neuropathologist, Dr, Bennet Omalu, has autopsied Waters' brain. He says what he found was not the brain of an active, healthy man in the glow of midlife. The tissue looked like it belonged to an 85 year old man. There were also symptoms more characteristic of early on-set Alzheimer's.

Omalu theorizes that the damage was caused by the concussions Waters' suffered as a player. He says that had Waters lived to 55 or 60, he would have been "fully incapacitated."

And another expert, studying the link between concussions and depression in football players, says his early results are very disturbing.

The NFL has taken a middle ground, neither arguing nor affirming Omalu's discoveries. In a statement, they expressed regret about Waters' death and said the league was doing everything it could to enforce safety and study the effect of concussions. (READ FULL STORY)

But the news has triggered a hot debate in the sports world about the impact of concussions, not only in football, but also in other violent sports like hockey and boxing. More research has to be done, but in the meantime, we'd like to hear from you. Click here to visit our message board and let us know what you think about the connection between concussions, brain damage and emotional health. Do you think the safety standards should be changed? Would you still watch these sports if they were tamer?

Enjoy you're weekend and we'll see you Monday morning!

Tam

Get more News »

• Email
• Print
• Report a typo
•