Brian Dawkins Talks About NFL Concussion Reality
Doctors would disagree, but Brian Dawkins says there are two types of concussions.
There are the ones that until recently were misdiagnosed as simply “getting your bell rung” – the kind where you are shaken up and seeing stars, but snap back in fairly short order. At least, you can get back on your feet and play football. It was impossible for him to count how many of these he has suffered over his 15-year career.
Then there is the far scarier grade, where a collision knocks you out or forces you to lose time. Dawkins believes he has had four such episodes.
Such is the toll for a player that sacrifices his body with such abandon in the name of his sport, an approach that has endeared him to the city of Philadelphia and elsewhere.
Fearless on the field, yes, but as Dawkins nears the end of his career, he is beginning to see a landscape littered with broken-down bodies and men screaming into an abyss.
He, like many of his brethren, was shaken when former Chicago Bear Dave Duerson shot himself in the heart back in February, leaving instructions with his family that his body be donated to science to have his brain tissue examined. It is expected to be done at the Boston University Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy, a condition that gained public recognition when it was identified in the brain of former Eagles safety Andre Waters after he committed suicide. Waters, who played a similar brand of unchained football as Dawkins, was said to have brain damage similar to that of an 85-year-old in the early stages of Alzheimer’s.
“Sometimes things are not just hitting home but smashing you in the face,” said Dawkins. “Like when tragedy happens, it makes you think about things on a different plateau, you begin to think about things on a different level. It’s a concern, and it should be a concern to everybody.”
As we speak, the NFL and NFL Players Association are locked in negotiations that will determine where league monies will be allocated over the next several years. While most of the talk has surrounded issues like how to split a billion dollars between owners and players and the rookie wage scale, the future of health care for current and retired players is also being decided. Hundreds of desperate eyes are watching.
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Current players are said to receive health care benefits for five years after retirement. And even that comes with a major caveat.
“The simple fact is that every player plays [an average of] 3.4 years,” union executive director DeMaurice Smith said at a private event in Washington following Wednesday’s negotiations. “We lose 25 percent of our players every year. And you have to play three years in the National Football League in order to get any post-career health care.
“So it seems to me we could very easily be making the argument that a business that had revenues of $9 billion in the worst recession of our lives, it seems to me that the teams could do a better job of taking care of the players that played this game.”
Of course, the argument can be flipped right back on the union.
It was just a couple years ago when a lawsuit filed on behalf of retired players led to a $26.25 million settlement with the NFLPA after a ruling that the union cut them out of lucrative marketing deals.
And for every CBA that has been inked, there is a union that has agreed to its terms.
“My own union doesn’t represent me,” said Jim Brown, considered by many to be the greatest running back of all time and an activist on many fronts. “The NFL doesn’t represent me. Who am I as far as the NFL is concerned? My image is being used, but am I part of the NFL fraternity?”
There is a widespread sense of alienation between many of the veterans and the game they helped popularize, much of it stemming from the lack of care once they step off the field. As flimsy as the current benefits may seem they are significantly better than what former generations received. Those who took an early pension make as little as $100 per month, and are on their own to deal with the physical problems resulting from their playing days.
“We paid a tremendous price with our bodies for a game we loved,” said Brown. “You look out for the wounded, for the old soldiers, for the injured.” Adding, “Every modern player is going to be a veteran sometime.”
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Shannon Jordan receives between 10 and 15 calls a week from NFL veterans or family members seeking medical and financial assistance.
As the President of Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund — a non-profit that aids retired NFL players that are in dire health or financial distress — Jordan is in charge of streamlining the effort to tend to the needs of ailing veterans.
“These men we are helping are in dire straits,” she said. “They can’t afford insurance, they’re living in pain, have depression … the list goes on and on.”
Mike Ditka has become the face of Gridiron Greats through his involvement in and promotion of the enterprise. The former Bears and Eagles tight end is dealing with his own physical issues as a result of his playing days: He’s had each of his hips replaced twice and is currently putting off getting his shoulder replaced.
That said, Ditka is unquestionably one of the fortunate ones, as he’s been able to earn a good wage and have all of his needs tended to since retiring in 1972. Instead it was the plight of men like former Eagles Hall of Famer Pete Pihos, who has long suffered from Alzheimer’s, that inspired him to act (Ditka grew up an Eagles fan despite living in Western Pennsylvania in Steelers country).
“One hundred and thirty [retired] NFL players died last year,” said Ditka. “Once you’re an NFL player you should be a member of the NFL Players Association, a part of the family. You don’t just throw them out because they’re retired.”
The major flaw in the system is that the benefits run out shortly after retirement, while many of the costly health issues that arise often take a decade or longer to surface.
Lack of coverage can force a player to take his pension early. Often unable to work because of their condition, all their money can be quickly wiped out paying for health costs. Broke, ailing and sometimes homeless, the men are forced to turn to places like Gridiron Greats for refuge.
“I think it’s the union, I think it’s the league, I think it’s everybody,” Ditka said when asked to assess blame. “There is enough money being made to make this go away, and in the process, they can make themselves look good from a humanitarian standpoint.”
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Some of the men responsible for shaping the new CBA have a sense of the gravity of the moment.
Dawkins, for one, believes it is the responsibility of the current regime to ensure the well-being of both former and future players alike.
“This is a fraternity and everyone involved should want to make sure our brothers are taken care of,” he said, adding that the goal is to eventually provide lifetime coverage to veterans.
If the ideal can’t be obtained, advocates would at least like to see benefits significantly increased and a co-op introduced while increasing aid to former generations.
“For a guy who goes to a lot of former player meetings, who has seen guys in their 40’s and their 50’s who have trouble walking up stairs,” said Smith. “When you see guys that I grew up loving like Dan Dierdorf and Earl Campbell, guys who are walking around with canes; you just have to think that maybe a $9 billion business can do a little bit better for the people I know you all love, but certainly for the people that I love.”
Ultimately, whether through mediation or through court rooms, a new deal will be struck and the mega-business that is the NFL will churn on. It is yet to be seen whether it will rumble forward with a proper eye toward those who laid the roads.
“We have to make sure that the men who play the game are protected for long after they are done,” said Dawkins, “so that our legends can be living legends.”
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