Yeah, that’s a roulette wheel competing for stadium seating. As a footballer you take your chances of being early existed from life by you’re mere participation in the ultimate game of injury by chance–football–especially so as a pro. If you develop CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy), your last years in life, supposedly “the golden years,” you won’t even be able to remember because CTE will be sabotaging your mental switchboard decades before. And if your switchboard goes totally haywire, usually suicide beats the slower CTE deceases (dementia, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, ALS, etc.) to the draw.

OK, it’s a given that modern footballers (21 century players) are now aware of the mental and psychological risks (CTE and its ramifications) of playing the game. And because of the recent scientific evidence, the rules of the game of football have been changed to protect the now participants. But it’s far too late for many of us old 20th century players (especially pre–1993ers ) to turn back the clock.

All footballers have always known and realized the physical risks of playing this contact sport. But never had we fathomed (or been warned) that our head concussions could be exponentially more debilitating than any physical injury below it. Many medical experts liken a footballer’s CTE to a punch-drunk-boxer, although we (supposedly) had helmet protection! Yeah, right.

I’ve always felt cheated that my football career was shortened due to an automobile accident that broke and dislocated my left hip. But in retrospect, my abbreviated career, in all likelihood was probably critical to my escaping the CTE catastrophe. Another five years playing time might well have placed me at much greater risk for developing CTE. It’s a “crapshoot” (i.e., roulette wheel) at best what players develop CTE, but each modern player can, now, better decide whether or not it’s worth taking that risk.

Recently, the Patriot’s Rob Gronkowski and the Colt’s Andrew Luck abruptly retired from pro football citing the toll of mounting injuries. Their bodies below the neck are really the top of the injury iceberg–the part you can now see and are aware of. The bottom 90% of this human berg (head injuries and the like from concussions) remains basically silent, unseen, and unnoticed until it either rears its ugly head unexpectedly to commit and/or attempt suicide or takes a longer, more gradually debilitating course towards the devastation of CTE disease that is prevalent approximately 3x more in footballers than the normal populace.

I find it surprising that a number of pro-footballers exhibiting CTE disease will say that even if they knew beforehand what the consequences of CTE might do to them, they would still have played the game–with reckless abandon. I’m not of that mindset even through I exhibit no apparent CTE disease. I thank the good Lord for my good fortune. Amen? (Some pro players won’t allow their sons to participate in football at all. Others, not before high school. It’s a mixed bag of rationalizing playing. Who’s to say what’s best?)

Of course, the Steeler’s All-Pro center Mike Webster is the most famous CTE poster player. But my four-year back-up guard Ralph Wenzel preceded Mike by almost a decade. Ralph wasn’t as fortunate as I. He died from sever dementia caused by CTE in 2012 at age 69. He had been institutionalize since 2006. He was a “teddy bear” of a person. Nobody was liked better on our team! Although he played sparingly as a regular, he was a special teams terror (defensive wedge man and offensive wedge buster).

Then there’s Mike Haggerty, who played next to me as a tackle when we were with the Steelers and later in the WFL. I cite him because he died of brain cancer in 2002 at the age of 57. I’m convinced that his playing of football was a major contributing factor in his early demise. He died before CTE money was available to his children. Mike was as close as I got to any peer pro footballer.

Thirdly, I cite Jim Tyrer, the huge offensive tackle for the Kansas City Chiefs who committed suicide after he did in his wife and children. He was the Chief’s premier lineman for 14 years, and received many of the league’s outstanding player awards. He was 6’6” and had spindly legs with an oversized head. Only his teammates could call him Pinky (or Pumpkin). Oh, did I mention, he had red hair and freckles too. Most of his close friends interviewed after his death concluded that his businesses failures probably drove him to pull the trigger. That was before the tau protein that causes CTE was discovered.

Lastly, there’s Kim Hammond. An All-American QB for FSU. (I didn’t hold it against him even through I was a Gator). We’d played together in the WFL after our NFL careers. He had a fine, long judgeship career after football in Flagler, Florida, but Parkinson disease took him early in 2017, at age 72. The above are the professional players who have died well before their time due to the negative influence of CTE (my opinion) that I’ve known personally and played professional football with.

In my painting, some of the game‘s most famous players that exhibited CTE and its consequences (post mortem) are identified by their representative famous numbers. Thank God that the NFL has been made to compensate their families for loosing their cherished husbands and fathers way before their time should have expired. And thank God and the NFL for the rule changes to better protect footballers at all levels of play. But no thanks to Mr. Trump who said the rules were changed so much that a bunch of sissies now play the game. Rest assured, Trump never played football nor served in our military, yet had the audacity to ridicule one of America’s great Viet Nam war heroes and senators, John McCain. In conclusion, getting to hold up the Vince Lombardi trophy after winning a Super Bowl seems fruitless, if a few years afterward, you stand a good chance of not remembering having done so.

Till Death Did Us Part (more painting details commentary):
Flyovers are common at the Bucs’ games since CENTCOM is located in Tampa. Stealth bombers and/or fighters are my warplanes of choice for these flyovers. My painting depicts Death’s-head hawkmoths in a warplane flyover formation. An image that resembles an apparent human skull (which I inverted) is located on the backside of this insect. All athletes experience a certain amount of “butterflies” before a football game. But these Death’s-head hawkmoths represent the butterflies that players often see while being concussed during competition. These moths with their skull-like image seem a perfect way to parallel the head devastation caused by CTE. Notice also that the roulette wheel’s ball shape have morphed into white shaped footballs. Where a oblong football will eventually end up after it bounces is exponentially more difficult to predict than a spherical object. And so is the likelihood of who develops CTE parallel to the unpredictability of a football bounce.

Bill Cody, one of Auburn’s greatest linebackers ever (you’re welcome, Bill) experienced and exhibited the effects of one of his many concussive blows to the head. After delivering a bone-crushing tackle to a Gator player, he returned to the bench. Problem was he ended up plopping down on the Gator’s sideline bench instead of Auburn’s. And then, to add insult to injury, he had to suffer the embarrassment of returning to Auburn’s sideline via the end zone in front of 50,000+ (laughing?) football fans.

He also categorically maintains that in one of our games he literally jumped over me (playing offensive left guard) to get himself into the play. I don’t recall that ever happening, and since he’s the one with CTE not me, who you gonna believe–a ghost (play) buster or me? PS: Cody told me that Spurrier signed one of his books to him with the inscription: “To the best receiver I ever threw to.”–or something to that effect.

Summing up, let me be clear. I’m certainly not advocating doing away with football. It’s America’s game, and possibly the only ticket for a lot of young players to free themselves (and their families) from extreme poverty. More power to them to better their lots. Still, I personally don’t believe anyone should play the game (of tackle football) before high school. That would include my son, if ever I had one. And now that we have so many protective rules and equipment changes to further protect all levels of footballers, I think it’s relatively safe “to go back in the water” of football competition.

People might be wondering why I painted such a gloomy, morbid, and depressing subject matter. The answer is really quite simple: I want all the football fans, and the people responsible for the safety of the players to always have remembrances of what kind of mental sacrifices footballers incurred (mostly without their knowledge) playing the game of football that everyone loves to watch. Just like we have Holocaust museums as continued reminders of what atrocities that took place during WWII, we must also never forget the older NFL players who played the game of football with almost no holds barred competition in comparison to today’s contemporary players.