When Trent Green takes his first regular-season snap as the Miami Dolphins' starting quarterback next week, he insists he won't think back to the ferocious hit he took one year ago in the Chiefs' opener against the Bengals.
That's partly because Green was knocked unconscious for about 11 minutes and doesn't recall a "20-25 minute window they said I won't ever recover."
The concussion also wiped out half of his season.
But despite the recent horror stories in the media that seem to link former players' depression, Alzheimer's disease and even suicide to repeated concussions, Green said he isn't too concerned about another mind-numbing hit.
"The number one thing for me coming back to the field, because I know how scared my family was when that whole thing happened, was I had to have assurance from the doctors that I was at no greater risk going back in that Raider game (Game 10) as I was going into the opener against Cincinnati," said Green, a 37-year-old father of three who sat out eight weeks and was unable to regain his Pro Bowl form of 2005 when he returned.
"I think the majority of those studies that have been done are on multiple concussions and on recurring concussions happening in a short time frame-guys come back too quickly."
Whether NFL players think they "signed up for this and it's part of it," like Dolphins defensive end Jason Taylor, or if like middle linebacker Zach Thomas they consider concussions "like a muscle strain, you just can't keep getting hit so you have to sit out until it clears," they don't seem to be terribly concerned about the cumulative effects years from now.
That's a mistake, says agent Leigh Steinberg, who has been a crusader for concussion research and awareness for about 15 years.
"It is one thing to know that playing football will make picking up your child at age 40 painful in the knee or back, it is another not to be able to recognize that child," Steinberg said. Two of his clients - Hall of Fame quarterbacks Troy Aikman and Steve Young - were forced to retire because of repeated concussions.
In 2005, Dr. Julian Bailes and the University of North Carolina Center for the Study of Retired Athletes tested 2,500 retired NFL players and concluded that players who had at least three concussions had triple the risk of clinical depression and/or mild cognitive mental impairment-a precursor to Alzheimer's disease-than those who had no concussions.
More recently, the chief medical examiner of San Joaquin County (Calif.), Bennet Omalu, examined the brain tissues of four recently deceased NFL players between the ages of 36 and 50 - Andre Waters, Mike Webster, Terry Long and Justin Strzelczyk. Waters and Long committed suicide.
Omalu issued a report that said they all suffered from brain damage similar to that found in "punch-drunk" boxers, and he linked the players' depression and/or dementia to concussions received in the NFL. The league disputes the findings.
This summer, HBO's Real Sports reported these findings and interviewed former players who are showing signs of dementia, including recently retired Patriots linebacker Ted Johnson and former Dolphin Gene Atkins, who at 42, couldn't recite the months of the year in sequential order.
Among those watching the show was seven-time Pro Bowl selection Thomas, no stranger to concussions.
"I thought I was going to have to retire after my fifth year because I kept having them time after time," Thomas said, now in his 12th season. "I realized you've got to rest."
Although Thomas says he now recognizes the value of sitting out after a concussion, the players suffering from dementia didn't make an impression on him, even his former teammate Atkins.
"Lots of older men who haven't played football have depression and Alzheimer's," Thomas said. "All studies change every couple of years. People talk to me and say this guy could be a little slow, but that's just the way I've always been.
"It's not from football. I got held back before I ever got to kindergarten," Thomas added with a chuckle.
Thomas admitted that he's had former coaches, such as Jimmy Johnson, who abided by the machismo code of the locker room: You can't make the club from the tub.
"If you don't play you're going to lose your job, but the thing is you have to be smart because you're putting yourself at risk," he said.
Thomas said he has suffered from several concussions early in his career, including one during the 2001 season and another in the preseason of 1999, but the only game he missed during those seasons came in the 2001 season finale against Buffalo when he had a cervical and shoulder strain. He may, however, have missed practices during those years.
Although the NFL is beginning take steps to address the danger, the league does not concede any connection between repeated concussions and brain function later in life.
Dr. Ira Casson, a neurologist and the NFL's co-chairman of its committee on mild traumatic brain injury, disputes the other studies, saying he considers them more surveys than scientific research.
"Our (six-year) study has shown that players who have two or three concussions over a year test no differently neurologically than those who had one," Casson said. "There is no evidence of long-term effects on the brain in active players who have had concussions in the NFL."
Many players aren't worried about which scientific study says what, they are more concerned with keeping their jobs, Dolphins cornerback Andre' Goodman says.
"Who wants to be the guy who doesn't want to go back in the game because I got a headache? It's the pressure of the game," said Goodman, who staggered to the wrong sideline after taking a knee to the head while playing for South Carolina.
"The trainer asked me a basic question like how much is two plus two, and I can't remember. What day is it? Man, it's college football so you know it's Saturday, and I don't know.
"But I finished that game and next week I practiced."
Taylor said he's played through "a couple of concussions" and wouldn't concern himself if another player, trainer or coach wanted someone to play hurt.
"It's really none of my business, is it, or anyone else's business," Taylor said. "If the league is really concerned about our well being they'd change some of the rules we have to play with. They don't want the quarterbacks to get concussions, but they could care less about the rest of us or they'd take away the crack blocks and all the other crap that goes on in the league, so I think we're just putting a Band-Aid on some things."
So what is the NFL doing?
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announced last spring that all players would be given baseline tests during training camp that could help diagnose concussions later.
He implemented several other new policies, including whistleblower provisions for players to report if they're being forced to play while experiencing concussion-like symptoms.
Also, the league and NFL Players Association have created the 88 Plan, named for the jersey number of Hall of Fame tight end John Mackey, who suffers from dementia. The program will contribute up to $88,000 per year to former players suffering from forms of dementia. NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said since the HBO show aired, 60 applications have been approved and 15 others are pending.
At least two teams, the Oakland Raiders and Indianapolis Colts, have purchased portable CT scanners that can diagnose head trauma within minutes on the sidelines.
One player who is paying close attention is Carolina Panthers linebacker Dan Morgan. The former University of Miami standout has had at least five concussions in his six years in the league, including one last year that limited his season to one game.
Although the love of the game brought him back for a seventh season, he says his eyes are open.
"One more (concussion) and, really, I don't know what would happen," Morgan said. "Then it would be up to me to make a tough decision. But to make a smart decision. I'm not stupid. ... It's not like I just went to one (specialist) this time and said, `OK, I've been cleared to play.' I've put in a lot of time learning about this stuff.
"And learning it the hard way."
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(c) 2007 South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Distributed by Mclatchy-Tribune News Service.