Wednesday, May 02, 2012

05/02 (RIP Seau) Quickie

The death of the all-time great NFL linebacker Junior Seau is a tragedy. Did his suicide have something to do with his playing career? Let me step around that:

The fact that it is a topic that is immediately coming up -- whether or not the evidence ends up bearing that out -- is further confirmation that the link between football and brain trauma is both mainstream and entirely intertwined.

The idea remains: If there was a test for CTE or other brain trauma linked to football that could happen pre-mortem, I think tackle football would be over beyond anything but for a lunatic fringe.

The idea remains: Even with the little we know now about the link between brain trauma and football, you would have to be insane to let your child play organized tackle football, at any age.

The idea remains: As powerful as the NFL is -- and it is as close to all-powerful as we get in sports -- I do not believe that in 30 years it will exist in the form that it is in now.

More:

*I found the Saints' bounty program abhorrent, yet I think that giving Vilma a year's suspension -- same as the head coach -- is overly severe. If Vilma gets a year, Sean Payton should get five.

*As I get older, I come to appreciate Kobe's singular moments of brilliance so much more. Appreciate him, folks, because when he's gone, it's hard to see who will replace him. (Durant? Maybe, but Durant -- while relentless -- is too nice. Kobe's level of aggressive obsessiveness is the last of a bygone era.)

*The Bulls are cooked. Could be this round, could be next round. The fact is that they're done, and that even getting out of this Philly series should be viewed as overachieving.

*The Caps offer free admission to their a.m. skate-arounds, and I took my 3-year-old, who is obsessed with hockey, to practice today. He went bonkers. It was an awesome moment.

-- D.S.

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