
“They Basically Reset My Brain” - aburan28
https://www.theplayerstribune.com/jermichael-finley-packers-injury-retirement/
======
bsenftner
I am a geek, always have been. But my dad was an all state football player and
a golden gloves boxer in the Army. Despite my "best efforts" I was muscular,
and was (for real) forced to play football against my wishes. I played for 6
years, and finally stopped after an injury that crushed vertebra in my lower
spine. Healing from that injury, I went from a weight of 210 to 135, and
required therapy to learn to walk again. I took me 10 years after that before
I was physically active again. Reading this article is reading symptoms I
have. I think I need to go to this clinic...

~~~
agumonkey
Are you back to a more balanced weight ? By physically active you mean soft
sports or just able to leave the house without worry ?

~~~
bsenftner
Thanks to my wife, I work out 5 days a week now. It was a month of walking
before I could run more than a block, but within a year I was jogging beside
her for two miles five days a week. I'm at 165-170 now, with a real ease at
bulking, which I don't really want. I saw chiropractors and acupuncturists
quite a bit for the first 5 years I was active again. As my health returned to
more-or-less athlete level my back / vertebra / neck and hips issues reduced
and only happen if I miss workouts for more than 3 days. It's actually amazing
what happens when I can't workout: not only do multiple joints slip, but my
mental state just crashes. I can't code, can barely read, irritation at the
tiniest things, pretty much a tunnel vision of perception takes place. I
recognize the state now, get some protein and find a way to get a cardio hit
that makes me pant, hard. That will head off a crash, both mental and my
joints slipping. In many ways, I'm glad to be alive now, as places like this
clinic are starting to appear. Previously, an injury such as mine put people
into a disability state for the rest of their lives. Today, the dynamic nature
of our bodies and advances in medical technology have brought forward a strong
recovery attitude for many previously hopeless situations.

~~~
agumonkey
I remember feeling so much joint "safety" when working out. Everything seemed
to fit and lock into place much better.

It seems that your mind is a bit stuck though. Having to exercise to be able
to be "happy" in a way.

------
soneca
I find it interesting that at the end he doesn't blame american football in
itself for the negative long term effects in his health as I thought he was
heading to. He ends up (spoilers alert) coaching football.

I myself do not have a strong opinion on the matter of the ethics of creating
a billionaire business around a game that is so dangerous to everyone that
plays it seriously, from high school to pros. I am instinctively against, but
as long as the issues are clear, transparent and everyone involved have all
access to information needed to do their own informed choices, it seems
correct.

That said, a very brave and insightful tale on how these personal struggles
are. Very well written too. And glad to know that there are effective
treatments out there that can help this kind of health problems.

~~~
tokai
>He ends up (spoilers alert) coaching football.

That is actually really sad.

Motor sport used to be very deadly half a century ago, and it took hard work
from drivers to change that. Drivers that were often ridiculed for talking
about the need for safety. Now professional motor sport is surprisingly safe,
just take Scott Dixons crash at Indy 500 yesterday from which he escaped
unscathed.

Football players have to demand their safety is taken seriously before any
positive change is going to happen to the sport.

~~~
Klathmon
I think it's going to take more than just the players demanding their safety,
mainly because as this article notes, it's not going to happen on it's own.

Why not align the incentives? Fans of the game should be putting pressure on
the coaches about ensuring that their favorite players aren't injured, coaches
should be pressuring the association to force better safety systems so their
players don't get removed from the game, the contracts with players should
value their long-term abilities more than their short-term wins, the
association can start including more and more safety requirements and rules to
make sure that the fans keep watching for their favorite stars.

This kind of thing needs to be attacked at all angles, make everyone involved
WANT better safety by making it make beneficial to everyone involved.

~~~
ebiester
There is only so much safety when you're talking about 300 pounds meeting 250
pounds. The problem with football is physics.

~~~
Klathmon
Then change the rules of the game.

Racing did it, they regulated the max amount of fuel, they reduced the top
speeds, they added safety barriers, etc...

Do it with football. Change their gear, change the allowed "hits", remove
their cleats, etc... I don't actually watch football so I'm not sure what
would help or wouldn't, but don't act like this is just impossible to resolve.

Yeah, people would probably hate these kinds of solutions right now, but if
you get the public opinion on your side, and you start moving in that
direction people will change, they will realize being able to watch a safer
form of football with their favorite players in it beats being able to watch
"current football" but with all their favorite players horribly injured with
their lives ruined.

~~~
mnm1
This is happening, although not as much as it could and probably should be.
One example is moving kickoffs to a higher yard line so that the chance of a
touchback (no return) is greater. Since kickoff returns are some of the more
dangerous plays, it lessens the times returns actually happen. Helmet to
helmet collision rules are another example. So is the rule for the horse
collar tackle. Things are changing, but perhaps not enough or fast enough.
Further, as a huge fan, these rules are minor changes and do not at all
detract from the game, IMO.

~~~
jimnotgym
I really don't know anything about American football, but in Rugby a lot of
work has gone into this kind of thing. You can't tackle a player who has
jumped to catch the ball until his feet touch the ground. If you pick a player
up, you are responsible for putting them down. High tackles (around the neck)
or not attempting to wrap your arms around a player when (so you 'clothes-line
them) you tackle is much heavily penalized. All of these will result in 10
minutes in the sin-bin at least, maybe bans after the game. All head injuries
result in the player being sent for 'assessment' by a doctor during the game,
and a concussion protocol which enforces long breaks from the game. With
regards to American football I have two questions

1) Is the impact to the brain higher because of the protective equipment?
Would people tackle as ferociously without it? You are allowed very little of
that gear in Rugby. Head clashes in particular are rare in Rugby, without the
helmet you put your head to the side of someone when you tackle!

2) American football players seem to carry a lot of body mass for fast people.
Is it possible that their advanced sports science is a bit too pharmaceutical
in nature? I wouldn't want to suggest anything, but is there a chance steroid
use is widespread? If this is the case then clamping down here would
presumably lessen the hits?

~~~
fencepost
It's likely that a bit of the size /bulking up is steroid based, but a lot
more is just based on the relative size of the population pool and the kinds
of exercise and diet regimens used with a focus on size and burst speed. Where
some sports will stop at a certain level then focus on stamina and
maintenance, US football may keep pushing for more bulk.

~~~
jimnotgym
How much time would the average player actually spend on the pitch in American
Football? It seems a lot of sprints and changes. Rugby players play for 80
minutes with one half-time break. I'm guessing that produces a more
compromised physique.

------
ErikAugust
I'm 33 and played sports my whole life.

This includes:

\- Hundreds of competitive basketball games - youth, AAU, high school, etc.

\- Thousands of running miles - including completing (and winning)
trail/mountain ultra marathons

\- Dozens of soccer games at mixed levels

\- Training and sparring at a boxing gym for 4-5 days a week for a year

And none of this has caused any major injury.

The two years I played high school football? A separated shoulder, and a torn
MCL. Not to mention having my bell rung many times. I could measure the amount
of football games I actually played in like under an hour worth of actual
time.

~~~
neves
I'm from Brazil, a soccer crazy country. All of my friends that continued to
play soccer for fun started to get injuries after they were 35yo.

~~~
notgood
Amateur soccer is mostly played without a referee -so it usually doesn't
punish aggressive players-, and there are no paramedics next to the field to
immediately treat any injury/pain, plus little to no aftercare for the
muscles/ligaments. So what I mean is that professional and amateur are a lot
different, at least in football soccer.

But of course as you get old your body is gonna break more easily, that's what
aging after 25 means: decay.

~~~
woliveirajr
And then there are amateur and amateur games: ones where people take it too
seriously (and get hurt) and the ones where everybody is just to enjoy. Do a
rough play in the last one and your punishment is to never be invited again by
the same people.

------
falcolas
As a person who works with their mind all day long, concussions scare me. They
scare me more than injuries to my hands do. I took a good hit to my head in a
really slow lowside on my motorcycle (I, to this day, don't remember the
incident itself, but I'm pretty sure it was a combination of loose gravel and
rolling onto the throttle early). For months after that hit, I had more
trouble than usual understanding complex concepts; had trouble building that
mental model which lets us work.

Concussions result from your brain rattling around inside your skull like
Jello. It's hard to write them off as minor inconveniences when you look at it
like that. I recommend watching the "beer bottle to the head" episode of
Mythbusters; those slow motion shots are scary (though exaggerated).

~~~
sjg007
Might be worth not riding a motorcycle.

~~~
jlgaddis
It's absolutely worth it.

I got hit head-on, suffered several broken bones, now have a bunch of metal in
my body, and couldn't walk for a few months (and I know several people who
have been killed), but I got right back to riding as soon as I could.

~~~
bluejekyll
I think you left out the part where it brings enough joy and excitement to
your life that you feel it is worth the risk of dying.

This is a valid personal choice. But with what you've written above, you're
just convincing me to never ride a motorcycle. This is coming from a bicyclist
who enjoys good downhills on my road bike at speeds in excess of 40mph (fast
for a bicycle and little armor). So I get the thrill, but I've never
experienced the number of issues and extreme physical trauma that I read about
people on motorcycles.

~~~
falcolas
What happened to me could easily happen to a bicyclist. I wasn't going that
fast, maybe 5-8 MPH in a turn from one road to another. It was an unlucky
fall. I had a full-face helmet, full riding armor, and the bike was in great
repair.

I daresay a bicyclist would have come off worse than I did (hello, road rash)
- especially if they hadn't worn a helmet (Montana doesn't have a helmet law
for anyone over 18).

EDIT: The risk of dying is higher than that of being in an automobile by the
pure statistics of it, but by riding smart you can easily bring them down
significantly - there's a lot of idiot riders out there wearing flipflops and
shorts, with no helmet to pump those statistics up.

Wear a helmet. Wear leathers or their synthetic equivalent. Wear armor to
protect your joints (usually built into riding gear). Keep your bike in good
maintenance. Don't ride beyond your limits.

Yes, I feel a bit hypocritical saying this after discussing my own concussion,
but damn it, it's fun. As freeing as a bicycle, but faster.

~~~
fencepost
And if you're going to ride like an idiot, please be sure you're registered as
an organ donor. I know I've heard of sport bikes being referred to as "donor
cycles" (according to the med student relating it) due to the number of young
bodies in relatively good shape except for massive head trauma that they saw.

------
nashashmi
Key takeaway:

> They had all kinds of neuro training exercises and routines they put me
> through, but a lot of it was centered around meditation and intense
> emotional therapy sessions. The exercises and therapy were to stimulate the
> parts of my brain that were running slow, and the mediation was to slow down
> the parts of my brain that were going a mile a minute.

I guess that is how they reset his brain. I need the same thing. Three years
and still recovering, I have counted five bottlenecks in getting there.

1\. Fear of memories, 2. Ego/arrogance, 3. Imbalanced thought pattern, 4.
Mental unrest, 5. Lack of stimulating activities.

Now that I think of it, the author has described the same thing. Meditation
has worked wonders. I have combined it with philosophy and reasoning. I am
also trying to identify and reduce areas of ego. Stimulating activities is a
recent discovery but I am still working at finding stuff for it.

And the results are interesting: before my mind was on infinite replay, then
had a hard time remembering stuff, and now memories from when I was one years
old are coming back like it happened yesterday. That never happened!

~~~
jeremywho
Do you have a routine you follow? Any chance of getting a more detailed
account of what activities you're doing for each?

~~~
Scalestein
I'll second this, especially the bit about bringing memories back. I haven't
had much head trauma but don't really have any memories from longer than 5
years previous.

~~~
nashashmi
This is difficult to answer in a post like this, but I will try. The problem
is that for every technique or idea I put here, there will be a dozen who
disagree, but I won't care.

Meditation: Put yourself in an uncomfortable balancing position, like tip
toeing. Any trembling is a symptom of subconscious issues, so clear your mind
and you will be able to balance without much effort. Add stress to the
balancing act to uncover the more subtle subconscious problems. This should
begin the healing process. The issues were pulling at you even when you least
realize it and cause much damage and tension to the brain. Meditation reduces
bottlenecks 1, 3, 4.

Philosophy/Reasoning: Watching dog whisperer, I am learning calm assertive
energy techniques. Reduce your hyper self. Don't take action from a fearful,
frustrated, angry, or low-self estem position. Because then you are in a
compromised state. Don't react, and if you do, know that nothing you do when
you are reacting counts. Reaction is not bad by itself. It just causes actions
that would not have happened in a calm state. In moments of a highly reactive
state, remove yourself from the situation and clear your mind. Try to figure
what frustrates you or makes you fearful and disassemble it into small
manageable parts that you reason through one by one.

Reduce your ego: Meditation is clearing your mind. Philosophy and Reasoning
loosens the viscosity of the toxic liquid. Ego is the shell that protects it
and keeps you in an entangled state. Although ego is normal and makes you
human, too much ego puts you into a state of arrogance. Loosen the arrogance.
Eliminate the arrogance. Remind yourself that nothing you do is amazing and
all that you have is a priveledge and was given to you and was never yours to
begin with. Then reduce your ego. Think of all your skills and abilities as
something you have done a thousand times, a million times, and it lost its
awe. Do you have ego in your ability to walk? So why do you have ego in
everything else?

Stimulating activities: I am new at this, so I am still trying to figure this
one out. PH.D. research stuff and logic gets me excited. (It also brings back
ego, arrogance, fear, etc.) Problem solving gets me excited. Being better than
everyone else gets me excited. (THE conundrum!). If I can preserve the first
three steps, or the longer I can mantain it, the more I benefit from a
stimulating activity.

So that is my attempt and my mind is somewhat healing. I hope you make it out
alright.

A few things on the side: a messy room, or a messy essay, or a messy thought
process is a reflection of your state of mind. Coming to terms with your
inabilities brings rest to your mind. Collapsing from a highly skilled
intellectual position means you have to rebuild yourself up. If the skills and
confidence you developed was scaffolded with one on top of another, then your
recovery will be painful. Don't scaffold again this time. Hope all this helps.

~~~
mistermann
Very interesting, thanks for writing it up.

Did you learn this approach through trial and error or were you following some
teachings?

------
jcstk
Glad to see The Players Tribune on here. If you haven't read it before, it has
some amazing content - not just from pro athletes, but college athletes you've
never heard of.

The perspectives are often fascinating. Here's another great one from Bronson
Koenig, a Native American and one hell of a basketball player, on his
experience at Standing Rock: [https://www.theplayerstribune.com/bronson-
koenig-wisconsin-b...](https://www.theplayerstribune.com/bronson-koenig-
wisconsin-basketball-standing-rock/).

~~~
adjkant
Have never seen the site before, but +1 to this after browsing casually.

It's great to see profiles, nuance, perspectives, and discussion from players
- not the league or talking heads on ESPN who won't even really touch a lot of
issues with or tangential to sports with a 10-foot pole. Sports don't have to
be separated from other parts of culture.

~~~
JohnBooty
Yeah! That site is a treasure. Everything there is very well-written, and
would (I think) be interesting even to those uninterested in sports.

FWIW, some articles are written by the athletes themselves, and others are
ghostwritten in close conjunction with the athletes. (I have no problem with
this at all; it's still the athletes' stories)

------
phonon
A friend of mine has been working on an app (based on research from Dr. David
Eagleman) to help you track any cognitive declines from, among other things,
participating in contact heavy sports.

One use is for coaches to mandate players retake it periodically, so players
can stop playing _before_ the point of no return.

[https://braincheck.com/](https://braincheck.com/)

[https://techcrunch.com/2016/10/27/braincheck-
raises-3-millio...](https://techcrunch.com/2016/10/27/braincheck-
raises-3-million-for-app-to-monitor-brain-health/)

[http://www.tmc.edu/innovation/companies/brain-
check/](http://www.tmc.edu/innovation/companies/brain-check/)

~~~
kikimaru
Interesting, I wonder if this could also be applicable to that other article
regarding sleep deprivation.

------
mcgrath_sh
The entire history of the NFL and concussions is incredibly damning, including
the league denying the damage concussions cause and the league buying their
way into medical journals to push "studies" that supported that position. If
you want to know more "League of Denial" is a phenomenal book. PBS also
created a two hour documentary with the authors that has the same name.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_Denial](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_Denial)

------
bluejekyll
> So today, I put on football camps and work with kids in the small town of
> Aledo, Texas, where I live, and I work with my own boys, coaching them up,
> too.

This is a fantastic story, and a wonderful recovery, but getting to the end of
it and coming across this line... it's great that he's helping coach these
kids, but it would be even better to steer them in a direction where they
won't end up with the same story, or worse. Never making it, but still having
the same symptoms. There are other sports, way less impact.

I grew up playing soccer, and even there they, at least in the US, as I
understand it from my nephews, heading the ball is illegal until high school.

Concussions are problems in all sports, but American Football is just about
the worst, and on top of that does so much other damage from the heavy hits.
Concussions are perhaps the most prevalent and biggest problem.

~~~
switchbak
I played a bunch of high school football, and had a very severe back fracture
that I'll be living with forever. I'm functional, but have to keep very on top
of things to not suffer chronic pain.

I used to be absolutely obsessed about football, and getting used to not
playing anymore was a real challenge to my identity.

I look back on it now though (that was > 20 years ago now), and I wouldn't
choose to play the game again. It was an amazing way to push myself, and I
learned a lot about character and determination. The cost really isn't worth
it though, and I've seen a bunch of people pay even higher costs than me.

I also think - if I had kids, I wouldn't want them to play the game. It's just
too dangerous, and that danger is built into how the game is played. People in
the business often say "don't hit with your head" but watch any game, and
you'll see lots of head contact on every play. The cumulative effects of that
alone, not even counting the big hits - I think is quite substantial.

Unfortunately I don't see the game or the protective gear actually changing
much to lessen the degree to which these (predictable) injuries happen. And to
a great extent, more protective equipment means people just hit that much
harder - often times still injuring, but in ways that are harder to see.

------
whistlerbrk
That agent is a hero for insisting on that insurance policy.

~~~
culturestate
This kind of thing (a friendly intervention) seems to happen more often than
you'd think - Allen Iverson is still solvent only because his friends talked
him into taking $30 million or so of his last shoe deal as a trust fund that
he can't access until he's 55.

------
srdeveng
Quite a few negative reactions regarding the decision to go back to coaching
in retirement. I think change has to start at the coaching level, as
boycotting the sport will do little to change the status quo, especially in
the immediate.

A few thoughts -

In my own experience in playing contact sports (lacrosse, not football), it's
a trained behavior to shake off injuries, avoid trainers, and otherwise ignore
your body's warnings of potential harm. This is taught by the coach [or worse,
parents]. The encouragement to push yourself beyond natural limits only
increases as you progress to the collegiate and professional levels.

The unfortunate effects of competition are that coaches skirt a dangerous line
of balancing the star player[s] safety and winning the game, and this behavior
is clear to the players lower in the depth chart who wish to become the next
star.

Some of the more disturbing things openly shared were how to pass the
concussion protocol, that coach will let you take off a week of practice after
a hard head hit so don't go to the trainers, and to shake off any and all
injuries as you will be rewarded for being tough. I, and any number of my ex-
teammates, agree we experienced what are now known as "minor concussions"
constantly throughout our season. Only major concussions would go reported.
Being able to walk off the field typically meant you had only a minor injury,
and could go back in once getting some wind.

The fact that so many are injured during practice goes to show, it's coming
from the coach's inaction and not just during the heat of the game.

Under this light, I think Finley is taking a proactive approach to change by
inserting himself on the front lines.

~~~
minipci1321
> This is taught by the coach

Absolutely. Personal experience FWIW -- 30 years ago, different sport
(wrestling), different country, different culture, very low amateurish level,
but typically the same attitude. First time I got a moderately serious injury
(torn acromial ligament, couldn't move the arm for 6 months), I basically got
yelled at by the coach saying either I continue to came to training and work
with the other hand, or I split off. So the next time (I landed almost
vertically on the top of my head instead of flatly on the back -- now he was
afraid, but I was so proud of myself, didn't even want to interrupt the
exercise.

Fast forward 30 years. I realise now that in some sports, people who didn't
make it "to the top", are sometimes left with what seems like small stuff when
you're 16 -- damaged teeth, torn ligaments, broken ribs -- but which age much,
much worse than the rest of the body.

------
beautifulfreak
No one has mentioned the movie, Concussion, with Will Smith, who portray Dr.
Bennet Omalu. According to wikipedia, he "was the first to discover and
publish findings of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in American
football players." Seeing the injuries dramatized, the effects those injuries
have on football players, really drives home how serious concussions are.

------
WoodenChair
Football ruins this guy's life and when he finally gets better he coaches
kids' football. It sounds like he has an abusive relationship with football.

~~~
abandonliberty
Multimillionaire retired at 27. I don't think you can call his life ruined.

I wonder how the health damage of sitting at a desk for years compares.

~~~
xor1
>I wonder how the health damage of sitting at a desk for years compares.

Not comparable, the only real risks of brain damage sustained while working a
cushy software job are injuries sustained while commuting and reading really
bad HN comments.

~~~
Kenji
Working with legacy C++ code at work is a serious risk for my brain. It hurts
physically to read some of these lines of code.

------
brightball
Coaching and proper equipment are important. The biggest thing is that the
better the equipment gets the more comfortable players are trying to hit
harder and faster.

Rugby matches are very rough with near constant collisions but no pads. I'd be
really interested to see a comparison study between to two.

~~~
de_Selby
Concussions are a big problem in rugby too, and they have only relatively
recently realised the extent of the issue. The NFL may have swept the issue
under the carpet for years, but everyone was burying their head in the sand
until very recently in rugby - there have been multiple cases of players
clearly getting knocked out and playing on after a short head injury
assessment this decade.

There are many accounts of players saying they don't remember huge periods of
matches. Shonatayne Hape gave a great interview which is absolutely
terrifying, where he describes the effects and how it became progressively
easier for him to lose consciousness to the point where he didn't even have to
been hit in the head by the time he retired:

[http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objecti...](http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11264856)

~~~
aedron
Former UFC champion George Saint-Pierre has described in interviews how he
basically loses consciousness for hours at a time, and doesn't know what
happened. Like he'll come to and an entire day has passed. He suspects alien
abductions (!), but there's no doubt this is brain trauma from all the hits to
the head in MMA.

------
interfixus
A good friend of mine died a few months ago from ALS, clearly - also by his
own reckoning - a delayed consequence from a severe car crash in his youth. "I
was given an extra 29 years, I can't complain" he tapped out to me the last
time I saw him, speechless and immobilised in a hospital bed.

There's a fairly well established correlation between head trauma and this
abominable affliction. Why anyone _voluntarily_ would throw themselves into
that kind of risk is utterly beyond me.

But then, so is any kind of football, be it the US or the European kind.

~~~
mnm1
"But then, so is any kind of football, be it the US or the European kind."

How so?

~~~
interfixus
Beyond me. Not understood. I don't get it. I don't get the attraction, the
excitement, the hype. Which is all purely subjective, of course. I see two
teams of idiots chasing a ball. Haven't they got better to do?

~~~
mnm1
Can you even tell the difference between American football and association
football (soccer)? Seems doubtful. You certainly have no basis to discuss the
comparative risks between the two. Maybe the people that play these games
don't want to sit around in front of a computer all day atrophying and getting
fat and sick. Maybe they like to be healthy and have fun. That doesn't make
them idiots. It just shows your intolerance to something that doesn't even
affect you.

~~~
interfixus
May I humbly suggest a basic course of reading comprehension?

~~~
mnm1
You're the one that needs to learn how to write properly.

------
rrggrr
This appears to be similar to "Brainspotting", a technique that emerged from
Dr David Grand's work with EMDR therapy. They're trying now to get funding for
fMRI studies during treatments to better understand and possibly validate the
treatment. The mode of operation appears to be increasing metabolic activity
in certain areas of the brain for the purpose of enhancing processing/garbage
collection.

------
everyone
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronic_traumatic_encephalopat...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronic_traumatic_encephalopathy)

From the Mayo clinics page on CTE

"CTE is a progressive, degenerative brain disease for which there is no
treatment."

------
egypturnash
tl;dr: "Football gave me multiple concussions and severely broke my brain. Now
I am seducing kids into the same passion for football that lead me to that
point."

------
SkyMarshal
Wold be nice to have a submission title that actually says what the article is
about.

------
EGreg
I wonder if similar things (stimulating some parts of the brain and not
others) can be done for other professions, such as coding where you are
addicted to it, or maybe even the autism spectrum.

------
jaequery
I really enjoy stories like this. Are there any place with more like it?

~~~
jccooper
Well, the site it's on (The Players' Tribue) basically specializes in those.

------
ensiferum
What he has sounds like it is most likely
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronic_traumatic_encephalop...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronic_traumatic_encephalopathy)

------
concussions
I suffered 3 concussions in a 3 year period -- all from stupid accidents, not
sports -- and the effects have persisted for years, even with various types of
rehabilitation. It's very difficult to describe how a concussion changes a
person. Of course, problems with balance and speech are obvious. But for me,
the concussions also impacted my mind, my ability to think. I used to be able
to read for an entire day, soaking up information. But now, it's like I hit a
brick wall after a certain point, where it becomes impossible to proceed. I
basically have a set amount that I can learn in one day -- whether it's the
API for a library, the architecture of legacy code, etc.

Multitasking has become extremely difficult, even though it was never a
problem for me before. It's a complete killer for my mind and it will exhaust
it at the expense of the previously mentioned information-acquiring capacity
very quickly. When I worked as a developer, trying to switch between multiple
tickets between code reviews, conducting chats in multiple channels, and
jumping back and forth between various programming languages was a huge sap
upon my limited mental energy.

My first concussion wasn't too severe, but my second one was more so, as I
probably was still healing from the first one. I had just come back from a
break from work and didn't feel right in taking sick time. Compounding this, I
was in the process of switching careers to become a developer and was studying
very hard every night. I remember one night, about a week after my concussion,
when I was writing some code. The pain in my head increased, until it became a
pain of an intensity that I had never experienced before. This was probably my
first experience of what would become many years of migraines... and this next
part is probably unscientific, but I really felt that something "broke" at
that point, as it signaled the start of many months of cognitive decline and
emotional instability.

I sustained my third concussion when I felt pretty well healed from the second
one. Not having learned my lesson, I didn't take much time off of work. While
I didn't feel something "break" like the second time, I was working on a
difficult project under a short time schedule, and I was worried about losing
my first programmer job and the damage that could occur to my career if that
were to happen. I made it through that project, but then new problems began to
develop... and to persist. Two years later I still have many of the same
problems. I wonder if my dedication to that job and love for programming have
resulted in irreversible damage. It wasn't worth it.

Friends, we are all on this site because we are people who greatly use our
minds. I want you all to remember that we each only get one brain, which is
not only essential to our profession but which is the core of our personality,
of who we are. The severity of impact is not associated with the severity of
damage from a concussion, and experiencing one concussion makes you more prone
to further concussions. My 3 dumb accidents have made the last 5 years of my
life difficult in many ways, and have probably changed me for the rest of my
life.

As such, I cannot condone willingly embarking upon an activity such as
football which so clearly places one's mind at risk. To the author of this
piece and to some who read it, football may be a game, but I think that our
lives are more valuable than games to be played, than entertainment to be had.
For every high profile recovery like this, there are countless children who
are severely and permanently damaged for the sake of sport. Treasure your mind
and the minds of your loved ones. And if you ever do suffer from a concussion,
take complete and absolute rest, lest you jeopardize the healing process and
find yourself with lifelong injury.

------
martamoreno
Hmm too bad that there are literally at least a billion people on earth with
much more sad stories that didn't have a 10 mio. policy coverage for "when
they can't do what they love to do" anymore, and also most people can't do
what they love to do in the first place.

There is a name for all that, it's called "luxury problems". Like Paris Hilton
telling us that her boyfriend threw her diamond thong out of the window and
she can't find it anymore. Terrible.

~~~
JohnBooty
1\. I don't see this athlete claiming his story is comparable to the plight of
refugees or anything like that.

2\. Nobody is requiring anybody to read his story; he's simply making it
available to anybody that is interested.

3\. His story _is_ relevant to millions of (professional, amateur, and
occasional) athletes around the world... and millions more with traumatic
brain injury.

4\. He does have millions of dollars, but a lot of people with chronic illness
would gladly trade all that money for a clean bill of health.

5\. Consider that when you hear figures like "ten million dollars" that the
player may receive only half of that, when taxes and agents' fees are
deducted.

6\. Even _if_ he got to keep all $10mil tax-free (which he almost certainly
didn't, IMO) if he lives another 50 years, that's only $120K per year. A
comfortable living, well above average, but certainly not unlimited.

~~~
greenyoda
_" 5\. Consider that when you hear figures like 'ten million dollars' that the
player may receive only half of that, when taxes and agents' fees are
deducted."_

The $10 million he got was from an insurance policy, which he said was "tax-
free", and which it sounds like he bought for himself. That agrees with what
the IRS says:

 _" If you pay the entire cost of a health or accident insurance plan, don't
include any amounts you receive for your disability as income on your tax
return."_[1]

And I doubt that his agent would be entitled to any of his disability
insurance.

I agree with your other points.

[1] [https://www.irs.gov/help-resources/tools-faqs/faqs-for-
indiv...](https://www.irs.gov/help-resources/tools-faqs/faqs-for-
individuals/frequently-asked-tax-questions-answers/interest-dividends-other-
types-of-income/life-insurance-disability-insurance-proceeds/life-insurance-
disability-insurance-proceeds-1)

~~~
JohnBooty
Thanks! I missed that.

