The Players Tribune - Husain Abdullah: Why I retired at age 30.

[WhawhaWhat]

I skipped and went straight to the Chiefs stuff and left out a lot at the end but the rest of it is very much worth reading.

In February 2013 I signed with the Kansas City Chiefs, a first-class organization. And all the work I had done — mentally, physically and spiritually — paid off. I had a resurgence as part of a team that was building toward being championship caliber.

I played a full 2½ years without a concussion or any kind of head injury. I didn’t get dinged, I didn’t “get my bell rung” … nothing. It was mostly because of the adjustments I had made to my game.

But it was also good fortune.

***

We were playing the Buffalo Bills in Week 12 of the 2015 season. Late in the fourth quarter, in a one-possession game, I was out on the edge guarding my guy. He ran a wheel route. I turned back to the quarterback Tyrod Taylor to see how the play was developing, and I saw him scramble. I shifted into pursuit mode.

As he was barreling toward the first-down marker, I was coming downhill along the sideline to meet him. Just as he reached the marker, I closed in to put a hit on him — and not the big hit I used to go for, but the new, smarter way of tackling I had mastered.

I tackled him with my head off to the side, but one of my teammates was doing the same thing I was doing — selling out, hustling to make a play — and in the process of hitting the quarterback, he also hit me.

Tyrod Taylor didn’t get the first down.

We got the win.

I got a concussion.

I had done everything right. I protected myself. I got my head out of the way. But at the end of the day, there’s only so much you can do to protect yourself in this game.

I learned that the hard way.

***

When I got my first concussion with the Vikings in 2010, I played the following week. When I got my second concussion later that season, I sat out one week and played the next. When I got my third concussion in 2011, the next week was a bye week. I was on the field the following week.

The first three concussions I suffered, I never missed more than one game.

That’s not a knock on the Vikings. That was just standard operating procedure in 2011. That’s how teams thought about concussions — they were like any other injury. If you feel like you’re good to go next week, you’re good to go. Maybe you take a week off to get right. But if you feel ready, you’re ready.

When I was with the Chiefs and I suffered my fifth concussion, it was completely different. They went above and beyond to try to diagnose the concussion, and to try and rehabilitate me. There was a protocol — different steps you had to complete and benchmarks you had to reach before you could step back on the field. It wasn’t just, When you’re good, you’re good.

I went back to Pittsburgh to see Dr. Collins, and I was amazed at how much more knowledgeable everybody was about concussions. He explained to me that there were six different types of concussions that they were researching, and that they had been able to diagnose which kind I had.

I had what was classified as an optical concussion. Basically, the kind of concussion I suffered impacted my eyes more than anything. I became very sensitive to light. I had to start wearing glasses to read or watch television or play video games with my son. And I had never worn glasses a day in my life.

So I did a lot vestibular and ocular therapy to retrain my vision — to rehab my concussion.

I’ll admit: After suffering my fifth concussion, I thought about Junior Seau. I thought about guys like Dave Duerson. I thought about all the former NFL players suffering from CTE and other residual effects of playing the game of football.

And I got scared.

But Dr. Collins explained to me even more in-depth what he had started to explain back in 2011: If you let the fear and the depression overcome you, all you’re doing is hurting yourself. You’re only making it worse.

So like I did when I decided to take my first trip to Makkah — and later on, my Hajj — I decided to take a more optimistic approach.

***

In March, I retired from the game of football at the age of 30.

I have a lot of football left in me, no doubt. I could have come back. I could have rehabbed from my concussion and played in 2016 to try and help the Chiefs take the next step toward winning a Super Bowl.

But I did not retire out of fear. I retired because I had come to terms with my own medical history. If I had not suffered five concussions in my NFL career, maybe I would still be playing. But the fact is, I did suffer those concussions, and that tips the scale of risk to a point where the potential consequences outweigh the benefits for me.

One of the biggest reasons for that is that my wife gave birth to our fourth child earlier this year — a baby girl. And I remember just looking at her, thinking, I want to be around for you.

I want to be aware of everything going on in her life, and I want to take care of her.

I don’t want her to have to take care of me.

http://www.theplayerstribune.com/hus...t-concussions/

[Valiant]

Nothing to be ashamed for, make your money, get out before anything serious happens and enjoy life.

Very smart player, he should turn that into a career of helping other players make wiser decisions.

[ChiefGator]

Damn...

Just watched the Concussion movie last weekend, and I suspect more and more players will have seen it now as well. Stories like this will be far more common.

So, he played seven years of professional football?

[KCwolf]

That's a really good article ... thanks for posting the link

[Toby Waller]

I don't remember any concussion talk after Beckham hit the Panther player

[WhawhaWhat]

Originally Posted by KCwolf

That's a really good article ... thanks for posting the link

I really like the Players Tribune stuff. I am sure they have someone like an agent or something similar scrub the article's first, but it's still straight from the players mouth. No spin job by ESPN or the NFL or some media guy with an ax to grind.

The Eric Hosmer one from a couple weeks ago about their march through the postseason last year gave me chills it was so good.

[Buehler445]

Thanks for posting.

Gotta say I have mad respect for Abdulah. At least he's making a rational explanation based on the best information he can. He's not expecting someone else to fix his ****ups or walking around with his hand out. So many of these ****ing pukes now a days have entitlement problems (I'm not being old, most of them aren't much younger than me).

[Pitt Gorilla]

Really nice piece and helps, to some extent, explain why Morse was out for so long; the KC docs apparently don't mess around regarding concussions.

[mcaj22]

one of my favorite Chiefs that was first brought in for the Reid/Dorsey era and helped usher a miserable fan base out of the Fat Scott era.

Abdullah was the talent, depth and versatility we didn't see for years under what Fat Scott would bring in. He was a blue collar player that every good team needs to help the compliment your star players. He was a great addition and a breath of fresh after so many miserable offseasons of only getting shit players to come here.

His time here was short but it was great watching him play knowing he could do a lot of things for you in a pinch and belonged on a NFL field.

[Easy 6]

I've said before that he is one of the better stories to come along in recent years... not only as mcaj says "the kind of depth, talent and versatility we didnt get under fat scott"

But he also helped disprove the notion that midwesterners are a bunch of xenophobes (trending word), everyone had his back during the little prayer dustup

He's a sharp guy who is surely wise with his money, he is set for life and can now move on and do whatever he wants to do... I wish him the best of luck

[Cheater5]

Well written. Wonder if he will go into broadcasting?

[Urc Burry]

Abdullah's a classy dude. And the common theme with players that have left the team is the high praise for the organization. That's refreshing to see

[Mr. Laz]

2nd time he's quit football


religion and squishy melon


Now maybe we can forget his exists and move on

[New World Order]

Going to focus on jihad?

[eDave]

Originally Posted by Easy 6

I've said before that he is one of the better stories to come along in recent years... not only as mcaj says "the kind of depth, talent and versatility we didnt get under fat scott"

But he also helped disprove the notion that midwesterners are a bunch of xenophobes (trending word), everyone had his back during the little prayer dustup

He's a sharp guy who is surely wise with his money, he is set for life and can now move on and do whatever he wants to do... I wish him the best of luck

See New World Order's post. And I'm pretty sure if he did that while on another team, Chief fan would be pretty sideways about it.

I'm sure that kind of shit played into it as well.