{"id":610,"date":"2012-05-02T21:28:13","date_gmt":"2012-05-03T02:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nflconcussionlitigation.com\/?p=610"},"modified":"2012-05-07T11:20:27","modified_gmt":"2012-05-07T16:20:27","slug":"610","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nflconcussionlitigation.com\/?p=610","title":{"rendered":"Junior Seau: Dead!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Heading into my last final of my law school career I started hearing rumors<\/a> that Junior Seau had died.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Throughout my three-hour exam, all I could think about was the hard-hitting, ferocious, Seau\u2026I grew up emulating this guy. There is no way he could have possibly died.<\/p>\n

I finished my exam at 4:10 pm (CST), I turned my phone on and had 16 emails \u2013 a lump grew in my throat \u2013 the same feeling I had when I woke up to the message my father had died of a heart attack.<\/p>\n

Law school was over, celebrate!<\/p>\n

But, I wasn\u2019t satisfied, no joy, no happiness\u2026Junior Seau\u2026dead\u2026of an apparent suicide.<\/p>\n

I just finished my law school career, I should be ecstatic, right?<\/p>\n

It was confirmed<\/a>, my childhood hero, ICON, Mr. Say Ow\u2026\u2026DEAD OF AN APPARENT SUICIDE\u2026SHOT HIMSELF IN THE CHEST!!!<\/p>\n

My father would show me films of Seau; he bought me Seau\u2019s jersey when I was in 5th<\/sup> grade. I wore it once a week. It was my pride and joy. It made me feel tough, it made me feel invincible\u2026I had Jr. Seau as my guiding force\u2026the hardest hitting, most feared linebacker in the league.<\/p>\n

The toughest guy in the NFL, dead at 43<\/a>, apparently shot himself in the chest, perhaps to show the world chronic traumatic encephalopathy<\/a> (CTE) is REAL. It\u2019s here to stay, a devastating disease that completely takes over your brain, controls who you are, doesn\u2019t let go until it kills you!<\/p>\n

It took one of the toughest guys in the NFL. The guy I — and so many others — grew up emulating, Mr. Say Ow!<\/p>\n

In 1994 — the same year the Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Committee was created \u2013 Seau was named NFL\u2019s Man of the Year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Could Seau become the face of future player safety?<\/p>\n

A new safety and health benefit plan dedicated to any and all players \u2013 vested or not \u2013 that will provide lifetime-neurological treatment to all past and current players?<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

CTE can only be diagnosed postmortem. We can only suspect that Seau was suffering from the debilitating disease that eats away one\u2019s frontal lobes, controls impulse behavior and subsequently leads to death\u2014 often by apparent suicide.<\/p>\n

Seau is not an anomaly, at least six former NFLers have died<\/a> of COMPLETELY unnatural causes\u2014Terry Long, Andre Waters, Mike Webster, Shane Dronett, Dave Duerson, Ray Easterling, and the latest, Mr. Seau.<\/p>\n

How many lives will have to be destroyed?<\/p>\n

The shield<\/a> can only dodge so many PR hits.<\/p>\n

Two suicides within two-and-a-half weeks?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m 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.<\/p>\n

Video<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nflconcussionlitigation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nflconcussionlitigation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nflconcussionlitigation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nflconcussionlitigation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nflconcussionlitigation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=610"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/nflconcussionlitigation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":639,"href":"https:\/\/nflconcussionlitigation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610\/revisions\/639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nflconcussionlitigation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nflconcussionlitigation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nflconcussionlitigation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}