That didn’t take long.
It was only hours after Junior Seau died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound that talking heads and pseudo psychologists on the Internet began speculating that the NFL ultimately caused Seau to pull the trigger and take his own life.
Analysts and bloggers everywhere now are theorizing that brain-related injuries and concussions Seau may (or may not) have sustained during his playing career might have been the reason he decided to commit suicide.
Such talk is irresponsible guesswork.
Why is it everytime a professional football player commits suicide, it’s the NFL’s fault?
Tragically, tens of thousands of people commit suicide in this country every year and, believe it or not, most of them have never played a down of football. Rich people, poor people, black people, white people, young people and old people commit suicide not because they have suffered too many blows to the head but because, for some reason, they have lost hope.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying football had nothing to do with Seau’s apparent suicide; I’m just saying let’s not wrecklessly rush to judgement here. Maybe he had personal problems. Maybe he had financial problems. Maybe he had other problems we will never know about. Maybe football was so important to him that once he retired he couldn’t find anything in his life to replace it.
Maybe he had a broken heart instead of a broken head.
I realize there are some studies that say depression is one of the more common symptoms experienced by athletes that have had a history of concussions. But there are also studies that show many NFL players are bankrupt within a few years of retirement. Both of those scenarios could cause depression and might be a reason a distraught player would make the decision to take his own life.
The fact is we’ll never know why Junior Seau apparently decided to take his own life.
Only he knows for sure.
All of the neophyte psychologists and amateur concussion experts can try to make sense of it all they want, but it is fruitless.
There is no making sense out of a senseless act like suicide.
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