Asked about the rising level of concern over the kind of head trauma inherent to the sport of football, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady preached player “proactiv[ity]” without panic.
Brady, speaking to ABC’s Michael Rothman last week, framed the concussion issue as one inevitably entangled with the game itself. Something you can’t avoid -- that players simply have to be smart about.
"It’s a very important topic,” Brady said. “If you are going to put yourself kind of in the line of fire, so to speak, you better educate yourself."
"I think there’s been more awareness from the general media on what CTE is, how it affects you, the long term ramifications of it," he continued. "I think, as an athlete, you have to take all those things into consideration and try to be as proactive as you can. Gain information, then go through the proper protocols if you do get a concussion."
Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is the degenerative brain disease, which -- due to an ever-growing, increasingly worrying body of research -- has become one of the focal points in the debate over football safety. Thought to be caused, at least in part, by recurrent hits to the head, CTE has triggered enough anxiety among past and present players, the press and the public to force even the NFL into admitting a link between the disease and the sport.
But in his interview with ABC, Brady was careful not to sound any alarm bells, presenting the prospective long-term health risks as par for the course in sports and beyond.
"It’s just part of life, you know, not only football, but contact sports," Brady said. "It’s part of people walking down the street. You run, you fall, you hit your head … but I think it’s good there’s more awareness than there’s been in the past."
"You'd hate to stop doing something you love to do cause of an injury," he added later. "I’m someone that’s a proponent [of the mentality], ‘Yeah, keep doing what you love to do, but treat your body the right way and then you’ll be able to continue doing it.’”
However, the potential consequences of remaining on the gridiron have already provided too big of a downside for a number of players. Husain Abdullah and D’Brickashaw Ferguson, both still young, retired just in the last two months due to worries over head trauma. NFL names like Keith McCants have spoken out about their growing anxiety, especially in the wake of the blockbuster film “Concussion,” which premiered in late 2015.
Brady’s words paint the picture of a league in which players continue to suit up in pads and helmets every Sunday, while arming themselves with science’s latest findings, facts and figures. But at what point is even that too little, too late? At what point (if we haven't reached it already) is that approach to the issue simply inadequate -- too much of a band-aid, quick-fix solution?
A study last fall found CTE in the brains of 87 of 91 deceased NFL players. So the question remains: At what moment does the treading-water-type mindset of keeping calm and playing on become equivalent to trying to bail water out of a sinking Titanic?
Unfortunately, we may find out the answer to that all too soon.
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