nealhe
Feb 2, 09 20:47
Post #48 of 60 (3201 views)
Hello Tom and All,
Short answer - football players do not escape
A quick Google will net you a lot of sorry stories.
Triathlon doesn't pay as well :) but is a lot healthier ...... I hope.
Cheers,
Neal
http://www.steadyhealth.com/..._injury_t158800.html
Posted: 01/22/08 - 06:09 Post subject: 
Hello there. I train football for more than three years now and I have a question about football long term injury. How serious can they be? I ask this because several of my teammates are playing under injuries for couple of months now. They are taking pain killers, but feel some pain sometimes. Still, they try not to think about longterm effects. This whole situation is bothering me so I need some more info on football long term injury.
Here are the facts. 70 non active players were examinated, tests were performed on them to check out their knees and ankles. 40 of them had
knee injuries, while 30 had ankle injuries. Knee injuries included damaged medial collateral ligament combined with damaged anterior cruciate ligament and meniscus lesions. Symptoms ofarthritis were found in almost 65% of injured knees and in around 35% of injured ankles. I think that the facts speak for themselves, but I'll say it outloud: don't play with injuries, you'll be out of the game faster than you know it.
Curt Marsh celebrated his 43rd birthday a week ago at his suburban Seattle home with his wife of 21 years, their three children, his artificial right leg, several pain-killing prescriptions and an aluminum walker.
Marsh doesn't hesitate to give credit for his lot in life -- the good and the bad -- to one source: football, particularly his seven years playing in the National Football League for the Raiders in Oakland and Los Angeles.
He says he doesn't regret having sacrificed his health for football, for the game he loves -- but also the game that caused his degenerative arthritis, the replacement of one hip and the scheduled replacement of another -- and, seven years after his retirement in 1987, the amputation of his leg from the ankle down.
Nevertheless, 21 years after eagerly entering the NFL as a first-round draft pick, Marsh has had to come to terms with a grim future -- years, probably decades, of pain and disability. Two days before his birthday, he came home from a nine-week hospital stay after two back surgeries related to degenerative arthritis. Those operations boosted the total to about 30. "I stopped counting at around 21," he says.
Posted: 03/21/08 - 22:16 Post subject:
I played football now my shoulder is probably ruined for life. I'm waiting to go see another specialist after spring semester and I posted up on here to see if any of these guys have a clue. Apperently they don't considering there is no answer. Just be careful and once your injured call it quits. I played through the pain and now raising my right arm above shoulder level is near impossible unless I wiggle it around.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/...ghtrib/s_373963.html
Repeated blows to the head during Terry Long's eight-year National Football League career led to a brain inflammation that killed the former Steelers guard in June, Allegheny County Coroner Dr. Cyril H. Wecht said Tuesday.
Long's death was caused by a cerebral meningitis that resulted from "repeated mild traumatic brain injuries while playing football,'' Wecht said.
The case, Wecht said, underscores the need for better helmets and complete neurological exams performed on football players -- from the high school level to the pros -- as part of athletes' annual physicals.
http://www.sfgate.com/...L&type=printable
Curt Marsh celebrated his 43rd birthday a week ago at his suburban Seattle home with his wife of 21 years, their three children, his artificial right leg, several pain-killing prescriptions and an aluminum walker.
Marsh doesn't hesitate to give credit for his lot in life -- the good and the bad -- to one source: football, particularly his seven years playing in the National Football League for the Raiders in Oakland and Los Angeles.
He says he doesn't regret having sacrificed his health for football, for the game he loves -- but also the game that caused his degenerative arthritis, the replacement of one hip and the scheduled replacement of another -- and, seven years after his retirement in 1987, the amputation of his leg from the ankle down.
Nevertheless, 21 years after eagerly entering the NFL as a first-round draft pick, Marsh has had to come to terms with a grim future -- years, probably decades, of pain and disability. Two days before his birthday, he came home from a nine-week hospital stay after two back surgeries related to degenerative arthritis. Those operations boosted the total to about 30. "I stopped counting at around 21," he says.
As the 83rd NFL regular season gets under way Thursday night when the 49ers play the Giants, Marsh knows he is both typical and atypical of professional football veterans.
Atypical in the severity of his post-career injuries, but typical in the daily presence of pain from the aftereffects of football. Based on studies over the past 15 years and on the testimonials of former players, escaping unscathed is virtually impossible. Nearly two-thirds suffer an injury serious enough to require surgery or sideline them eight games or more.
In addition, six of every 10 players suffer a concussion; more than a quarter will suffer more than one, and the odds are that any player who suffers a concussion will later experience headaches and memory problems. Nearly half of all players retire from football because of an injury.
Applying those figures to Thursday night's game in East Rutherford, N.J., some 70 of the 106 players in uniform for both teams will someday suffer a football injury causing long-term pain that might never go away. It's a type of pain that Marsh says makes him feel as old as pro football itself.
"Physically, I feel 83," he says.
David Meggyesy, a former NFL linebacker, author, lecturer and now director of the NFL Players Association's San Francisco office, likened the issue of post-NFL injuries to "the elephant in the room that no one wants to say is in the room."
Trace Armstrong knows it's there. The Raiders' defensive tackle, entering his 14th NFL season and a month away from his 37th birthday, has undergone 16 surgeries. He is coming back from a torn right Achilles tendon that erased the final 14 games of last season. Post-NFL life, he says, "crosses your mind all the time. I'm fully aware that my body has paid a price for what I do for a living. Every time I've had something (injured) or had something done, I've always made sure I'm fully aware of what the risks are, and what I can do to manage the risks."
Cheers, Neal
