“Everything starts with yourself; with you making up your mind about what you’re going to do with your life. I tell kids that it’s a cruel world, and that the world with bend them either left or right, and it’s up to them to decide which way to bend.”
Tony Dorsett

In recent weeks news surfaced that renowned running back Tony Dorsett is suffering from the symptoms of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) that has long been associated with head drama, multi stage dementia, prolonged depression, and suicidal tendencies in athletes with numerous concussions and brain injuries.

While research continues to expand in the study of head trauma as well as long term effects, definitive evidence proves that many aging NFL athletes suffer or will suffer from brain damage incurred during their career. The epitome of mental toughness and football confidence, Dorsett is now struggling as his brain fails him with simple memory tasks and controlling of his emotions.

The study of aging football athletes allows for more knowledge to be gained about head injuries, and precautions taken to prevent current and future athletes from long term effects of ferocious hits and blocks.

Sports psychologists have long associated brain trauma with long term emotional difficulties. Suicide is a definite consideration for anyone suffering from CTE, much less someone known for their strength slowly beginning to feel out of control and useless.

The late linebacker Junior Seau who tragically committed suicide in 2012 is one of many retired NFL athletes who suffered from depression attributed to CTE.

Dorsett admits that there are feelings he is not comfortable with when he says, “I’ve thought about crazy stuff, sort of like, ‘Why do I need to continue going through this? I’m too smart of a person, I like to think, to take my life, but it’s crossed my mind.”

Dorsett is among the 4,500 plus plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit filed against the NFL that settled for upward of $765 million. Their argument stems from the NFL concealing any link or research between brain damage and playing football. As part of the agreement, the NFL retains the right of no admission of wrongdoing.

The game of football is violent, and the athletes who find success must be both physically and mentally tough. However, treatments of injuries, especially head trauma, must progress so that these professional athletes are not trading their retirement years away in the process of playing a game in their prime.

Dorsett, Hall of Fame offensive lineman Joe DeLamielleure, and retired All Pro defensive lineman Leonard Marshall all volunteered for a brain study of former NFL players at UCLA. All three showed significant forms of CTE. Although deemed incurable, Dorsett is hopeful that scientists can utilize today’s aging players who suffer to make significant gains in treatment and prognosis.

”One thing I’m not doing, is being inactive. I’m being proactive, trust me,” Dorsett said in August. “I’m trying to cut this stuff off at the path, if it can be cut off. I ain’t just sitting around. I got young daughters. I got a 10-year-old, believe it or not. If I’m alive and healthy, I want to be coherent and know what the heck I’m doing.”

The sport of football needs to take necessary precautions to protect current players from long term effects of head trauma. Hopefully the world of medicine can find successful methods of treating today’s retired athletes who suffer from CTE so that they are able to live quality lives in retirement.