Junior Seau: Dead!
Heading into my last final of my law school career I started hearing rumors that Junior Seau had died.
I tried telling myself there is no way my childhood hero could have actually taken his life, just FOCUS on your final! Turn off your phone, focus.
Throughout my three-hour exam, all I could think about was the hard-hitting, ferocious, Seau…I grew up emulating this guy. There is no way he could have possibly died.
I finished my exam at 4:10 pm (CST), I turned my phone on and had 16 emails – a lump grew in my throat – the same feeling I had when I woke up to the message my father had died of a heart attack.
Law school was over, celebrate!
But, I wasn’t satisfied, no joy, no happiness…Junior Seau…dead…of an apparent suicide.
I just finished my law school career, I should be ecstatic, right?
It was confirmed, my childhood hero, ICON, Mr. Say Ow……DEAD OF AN APPARENT SUICIDE…SHOT HIMSELF IN THE CHEST!!!
My father would show me films of Seau; he bought me Seau’s jersey when I was in 5th grade. I wore it once a week. It was my pride and joy. It made me feel tough, it made me feel invincible…I had Jr. Seau as my guiding force…the hardest hitting, most feared linebacker in the league.
The toughest guy in the NFL, dead at 43, apparently shot himself in the chest, perhaps to show the world chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is REAL. It’s here to stay, a devastating disease that completely takes over your brain, controls who you are, doesn’t let go until it kills you!
It took one of the toughest guys in the NFL. The guy I — and so many others — grew up emulating, Mr. Say Ow!
In 1994 — the same year the Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Committee was created – Seau was named NFL’s Man of the Year.
Could Seau become the face of future player safety?
A new safety and health benefit plan dedicated to any and all players – vested or not – that will provide lifetime-neurological treatment to all past and current players?
Will this be a game changer? We can only hope so, so we never have to see another football legend die of an apparent suicide.
CTE can only be diagnosed postmortem. We can only suspect that Seau was suffering from the debilitating disease that eats away one’s frontal lobes, controls impulse behavior and subsequently leads to death— often by apparent suicide.
Seau is not an anomaly, at least six former NFLers have died of COMPLETELY unnatural causes—Terry Long, Andre Waters, Mike Webster, Shane Dronett, Dave Duerson, Ray Easterling, and the latest, Mr. Seau.
How many lives will have to be destroyed?
The shield can only dodge so many PR hits.
Two suicides within two-and-a-half weeks?
I’m ready to wake up from this nightmare; unfortunately the guys that sold their soul — and brain — to the game they loved will never wake up.
SAD VERY SAD