Former NFL receiver Antwaan Randle El regrets ever playing football

[DaKCMan AP]

Former NFL receiver Antwaan Randle El regrets ever playing football

Former Washington Redskins and Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Antwaan Randle El is perhaps best remembered for his 43-yard touchdown pass in Super Bowl XL that aided a Pittsburgh win over Seattle, but a decade later, the physical and mental drawbacks have been so significant that he regrets ever playing in the NFL.

“If I could go back, I wouldn’t” play football, he told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in a Steelers-themed project posted Tuesday. “I would play baseball. I got drafted by the Cubs in the 14th round, but I didn’t play baseball because of my parents. They made me go to school. Don’t get me wrong, I love the game of football. But right now, I could still be playing baseball.”

Randle El, who played in Washington from 2006 to 2009 between two stints in Pittsburgh, said he regularly experiences trouble walking down stairs — “I have to come down sideways sometimes, depending on the day” — and has serious memory lapses.

“I ask my wife things over and over again, and she’s like, ‘I just told you that,’ ” Randle El told the Post-Gazette. “I’ll ask her three times the night before and get up in the morning and forget. Stuff like that. I try to chalk it up as I’m busy, I’m doing a lot, but I have to be on my knees praying about it, asking God to allow me to not have these issues and live a long life. I want to see my kids raised up. I want to see my grandkids.”

In 2013, Randle El and three other former players filed a lawsuit against the NFL in a Manhattan federal court alleging the NFL “has done everything in its power to hide the issues and mislead players concerning the risks associated with concussions,” according to The Village Voice. In 2015, after that suit was consolidated with more than 2,000 others, he was one of more than 5,000 players that received more than $900 million in settlement money from the NFL to resolve a concussion lawsuit.

Since retiring in 2010, Randle El helped to found the Virginia Academy, a Christian high school in Ashburn, where he serves as the school’s athletic director. Originally, he was a proponent for the development of a football program at the school, but he has no remorse after it was cut two years in when it became too expensive.

“The kids are getting bigger and faster, so the concussions, the severe spinal cord injuries, are only going to get worse,” he said in the interview. “It’s a tough pill to swallow because I love the game of football. But I tell parents, ‘You can have the right helmet, the perfect pads on, and still end up with a paraplegic kid.’

“There’s no correcting it. There’s no helmet that’s going to correct it. There’s no teaching that’s going to correct it. It just comes down to it’s a physically violent game. Football players are in a car wreck every week.”

Randle El is not naive to the profitability of the sport or the impact it has on society, but with the concussion and life-long injury issues getting more attention than ever before, the nine-year veteran thinks the end may be near.

“Right now, I wouldn’t be surprised if football isn’t around in 20, 25 years.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...ying-football/

[Discuss Thrower]

Originally Posted by Otter

Karate is more of a stand up sport. I'd be more worried about catching a foot to the dome.

Judo, Jiu Jitsu, wrestling I'd think you're more likely to get taken down head first on the mat.

It's not about going down head first.. It's about your skull moving one direction rapidly and the brain not accelerating accordingly.

[temper11]

Originally Posted by Otter

I recently read, can't recall where, that wrecking on water skis over a period of time is a really easy way to get a consecutive series of minor concussions that add up to be just as bad as a couple bad hits.

If you picture your brain and how it sloshes around on impact and how quick and violent a water skiing accident is it doesn't seam that unreasonable.

PS - I'm not doctor

But here's the problem... football, soccer, water skiing, wrestling, snow skiing, snow boarding, etc, etc. We can't live in a f'ng bubble. I absolutely hate the fact that the NFL tried to, and successfully did, bury research on long term effects of concussions. But I don't think football should stop, or anything else for that matter. Research should continue and people should be informed of everything there is to know, as it becomes known, so they can make their own educated decisions and be at peace with the consequences.

There are many fantastic things that come from competitive physical sport, and if we limit that to curling and badminton, we will be losing more than just CTE.

[DenverChief]

Originally Posted by KCChiefsFan88

USA Today Sports Columnist/general blowhard Christine Brennan is another member of the media who uses every opportunity to attack football and its "inevitable downfall" because of concussions/CTE.

At the same time she is also an unabashed champion of women's soccer, and wrote several drooling columns after last year's Women's World Cup about the great future for the sport.

Why doesn't Christine's concern for concussions/CTE transfer from the NFL to women's soccer? Again women's soccer has a higher rate of concussions than football and also a higher rate of more severe concussions as well.

Where is Christine's outrage about concussions and women's soccer?

It's just a money grab on her part. She knew the risks of journalism and the potential of landing a crappy job writing about women's soccer for USA Today. So she has latched onto the gravy train. She probably has financial problems and is likely out shopping right now despite her financial woes.

[Otter]

Originally Posted by temper11

But here's the problem... football, soccer, water skiing, wrestling, snow skiing, snow boarding, etc, etc. We can't live in a f'ng bubble. I absolutely hate the fact that the NFL tried to, and successfully did, bury research on long term effects of concussions. But I don't think football should stop, or anything else for that matter. Research should continue and people should be informed of everything there is to know, as it becomes known, so they can make their own educated decisions and be at peace with the consequences.

There are many fantastic things that come from competitive physical sport, and if we limit that to curling and badminton, we will be losing more than just CTE.

Agree 100%. You can't take away competitive sports from young men and women. It's part of the successful growing process of how to handle discipline, success and failure for a large portion of youth.

Being vigilant and aware of concussions is pretty much the only answer. Much like any other medical condition we're going to have to learn to address it before it becomes a problem or at least before it becomes a life altering problem.

[HMc]

Studies have demonstrated, and it was kinda obvious anyway, that eliminating the helmet will alleviate these issues to a large degree.

Give the players an incentive to protect their heads and they'll generally do so. Give them a helmet and they have a false sense of security.

[Discuss Thrower]

Originally Posted by HMc

Studies have demonstrated, and it was kinda obvious anyway, that eliminating the helmet will alleviate these issues to a large degree.

Give the players an incentive to protect their heads and they'll generally do so. Give them a helmet and they have a false sense of security.

Rugby has concussion problems.

[bricks]

I don't feel sorry for them.

I hate to sound like a cold hearted bastard but these guys make millions and millions of dollars. They have enough money to hire the best doctors, surgeons, receive the best medical treatment necessary, hire the best consultants, you name it! And to top it off, they can still support generations of families.


These aren't your average joes that worked physically demanding jobs and barely have enough money for retirement saving or receive little to no benefits.

**** them. They made the choice. They knew the consequences that were involved with the sport. DEAL. WITH. IT! You have the money, move on and take of yourselves and stop complaining to the rest of the world about your problems!

[Discuss Thrower]

Originally Posted by bricks

I don't feel sorry for them.

I hate to sound like a cold hearted bastard but these guys make millions and millions of dollars. They have enough money to hire the best doctors, surgeons, receive the best medical treatment necessary, hire the best consultants, you name it! And to top it off, they can still support generations of families.


These aren't your average joes that worked physically demanding jobs and barely have enough money for retirement saving or receive little to no benefits.

**** them. They made the choice. They knew the consequences that were involved with the sport. DEAL. WITH. IT! You have the money, move on and take of yourselves and stop complaining to the rest of the world about your problems!

NFL players aren't the problem in the eyes of the public.

Kids who got ****ed up with CTE but never got beyond HS are the problem.

[Chief Pagan]

Originally Posted by Otter

I recently read, can't recall where, that wrecking on water skis over a period of time is a really easy way to get a consecutive series of minor concussions that add up to be just as bad as a couple bad hits.

If you picture your brain and how it sloshes around on impact and how quick and violent a water skiing accident is it doesn't seam that unreasonable.

PS - I'm not doctor

Yikes. I spent my adolescence doing that.

[ShortRoundChief]

I thought the gazillions of dollars these barely literate bastards made was compensation for the damage to their bodies.

These guys have been playing a damn game their whole lives. It's given them grade A educations. It's given them a high ring of social status. It's made them rich. Now in the end it's coming to collect and they're screaming foul. **** them. You knew it was a violent sport when you first played tackle.

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by J Diddy

I thought the gazillions of dollars these barely literate bastards made was compensation for the damage to their bodies.

These guys have been playing a damn game their whole lives. It's given them grade A educations. It's given them a high ring of social status. It's made them rich. Now in the end it's coming to collect and they're screaming foul. **** them. You knew it was a violent sport when you first played tackle.

Now that's the kind of compassion I'd expect from a psychologist

[Hammock Parties]

"Barely literate bastards" is a little unfair.

I mean, we have a future MD playing RG.

[Demonpenz]

The only reason I like football or hockey is the physical aspect. Oklahoma drills and awesome.

[Saccopoo]

It was worse at one point in history...

[Direckshun]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

Now that's the kind of compassion I'd expect from a psychologist

Please tell me J Diddy is not a psychologist.