The word never came up Sunday when Rob Ninkovich announced his retirement from the New England Patriots and the NFL.
But you can be sure that the people in that room where he held his news conference had the word on the tip of their tongues.
Concussion.
How much do you want to bet that one of the reasons Ninkovich felt it might be time to walk away was that he realized that at age 33, he was one of the lucky ones. Oh, sure, he’d been hurt a few times. He even got caught in the steroid/PED net and missed the same four games last year that Tom Brady missed.
But at age 33, he had his faculties, and there was no indication that anything that had happened to him during his career that jeopardized his brain functions. At his age, maybe you quit while you’re ahead.
Now, it’s probably not fair to suggest that he get up there in front of his coach, his owner, and his teammates — all of whom are one or two blows to the head away from being in real danger — and talk about his concern about the same thing happening to him.
But it would shock me down to the nail on my big toe if the thought did not cross his still-functioning mind.
Just last week, concussions as they relate to football were back in the news when a study showed that of the 202 brains donated by NFL retirees and their families, 177 of them showed graphic scars confirming the presence of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a debilitating disease that often can mask itself to resemble amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). And even among people who watch and enjoy football (and I’d count myself among them) it has to be obvious that we’ve either reached, or are reaching, a point where the size and strength of combatants today in all sports are beginning to outdistance the protections the sports have set up. It’s a pretty sobering thought, when you think about it.
I played football for a few years when I was in high school. I even got kicked in the head during a football practice (it happens; it’s nobody’s fault). But in 1968, when I played, there were no concussion protocols, the way there were two months ago when an errant throw at a North Shore Navigators game found the back of my head.
I’m not even sure anyone helped me up after I was kicked during that practice. I know I got up, and within maybe 15 or 20 minutes of being kicked, I was on my knees, sick. I was not allowed to leave the field. I finished the practice.
Then I missed a week of school. Nobody said anything to me, but piecing it all together, it’s not hard for me to understand, now, what happened.
This stuff is real, and anyone who thinks it’s exaggerated or phony is seriously walking down the wrong path.
In another month, we will embark on another high school athletic cycle. It so happens that two of the worst sports for concussions — football and girls soccer — will commence before the end of the month (the worst sports collision I have ever seen, by the way, occurred at a high school girls soccer game between St. Mary’s and Classical, so bringing that sport into this isn’t an exaggeration either).
These days, the schools are doing everything they can possibly do to make sure their athletes are well-served by their various administrations, and that’s as it should be. Beth Adams of Swampscott is an expert in the study of concussions. She stresses, in the latest issue of the magazine 01907 (in an article I happened to write) that you cannot be too careful when it comes to head injuries. If you err at all, it’s on the side of caution.
The stakes are not simply athletic. In my case, it was a week of school. In other cases, it could be more. These kids aren’t at school for our entertainment only. Head injuries create a ripple effect that can seriously set their victims back.
So when Rob Ninkovich announced his retirement Sunday, all I could think of — whether he wanted to say so publicly or not — that here’s a man who wants to grow old with the best chance possible of being able to live, and fully enjoy, his life.
And you know what? The Patriots will miss his presence dearly. It doesn’t matter. He’s doing the right thing.
