Football

• “Only instead of focusing on the Class of 2006, I couldn’t keep my eyes off the players from the past. Their bodies, which served them so well for so long, had let them down. Quite a few required assistance just to reach the stage, and they were still relatively young men, in their forties and fifties. I had been around pro football for more than thirty years, seeing plenty of players in tremendous agony in their locker rooms after every game, but by the following week, they were ready to place their bodies on the line again. The men in Canton would not get that chance. It was not the first time I saw the toll pro football takes on a human being—one of my clients lost a kidney, another a foot—but observing these wounded warriors together, in one place, made me more aware of that toll than ever.”  The Agent: My 40-Year Career Making Deals and Changing the Game (Steinberg, Leigh; Arkush, Michael)- Kindle Location 172-178
• “During a scrimmage against the San Diego Chargers in August of 1987, Mike’s second year with the Cowboys, he fractured his tibia and fibula, the bone in his right leg breaking like a pencil through the skin. Danny White, the Dallas quarterback, was so affected by the gruesome sight he asked to be excused from the rest of practice. The doctors inserted a metal plate and eight screws into his leg, which occurred without any input from me. Mike was gone for the season. The following March, while jogging on a beach in California, Mike broke the tibia again in nearly the same spot. A few months earlier, the screws and plate had been removed, but it was too early; the bones were not hardened enough, leaving the leg more susceptible to a second break. Mike would sit out another year, and another after that. He never played for the Cowboys again.”  The Agent: My 40-Year Career Making Deals and Changing the Game (Steinberg, Leigh; Arkush, Michael)–page 195
• “Troy was hit after throwing a touchdown pass and knocked to the ground. Blood came out of his ear. Hits like that occur in every game, if not every quarter. The dazed player moves one part of his body at a time, slowly regaining his senses. That wasn’t the case here. Troy, flat on his back, didn’t move one inch. I was terrified, every fear imaginable racing through my brain. It felt as if Troy were on the ground for an hour. It was perhaps five minutes. I never felt so powerless. I realized that from then on, I would need a pass to gain access to the locker room immediately if another of my players was injured. Troy finally got up, the crowd at Sun Devil Stadium cheering warmly, and the game proceeded, most people, I suspect, not giving the hit a second thought. This is football. Players get hurt. Here comes the next play. I thought about it, for the rest of the day, and longer. Such a severe blow to the head, I assumed, must cause serious damage to a human being’s brain, and what is the damage if there is another blow, and another after that?”  The Agent: My 40-Year Career Making Deals and Changing the Game (Steinberg, Leigh; Arkush, Michael)–page 194
• “In 1987, Curt Marsh, one of the cheeriest players I represented, retired after six seasons with the Raiders. It was a testament to his remarkable endurance and will that he lasted as long as he did. He underwent twelve operations, including four on his right ankle and right foot. The pain did not go away once he quit the game. It never does. In September of 1994, his right foot was amputated. I was devastated. Curt, I am relieved to say, was comforted by his strong faith in God and has lived a very productive life. What happened to Kenny was just as frightening. In the spring of 1988, as he was taking a routine physical in Phoenix after the Cardinals acquired him for quarterback Kelly Stouffer, doctors discovered a serious kidney ailment. The trade was called off, and Kenny, only twenty-nine, was forced to retire. When Kenny called to say he flunked the physical and had only about 7 percent function in his kidney, my immediate reaction was, how was it possible the Seattle doctors were not aware of his condition before? Kenny might have died if he hadn’t been traded. He went to dialysis three times a week and in 1990 received a kidney transplant. He later sued the Seahawks, claiming his kidneys were damaged by the ibuprofen the doctors recommended he take to cope with any discomfort after ankle surgery. Kenny ingested about thirty a day. Amazingly enough, a wide assortment of pills was kept in large, open containers in the Seattle locker room; players were free to scoop up whatever they wanted. With Neil Lomax, the problem was a bad hip, misdiagnosed by the Cardinals as a groin injury. Neil started to limp during the 1988 preseason, though he managed to throw that year for nearly 3,500 yards and 20 touchdowns. By the next preseason, the hip was much worse, and the Cardinals put him on the injured reserve list. Perhaps sitting out a whole season would allow the hip to heal. It did not. In 1990, Neil retired, and a year later, he received a new hip.”  The Agent: My 40-Year Career Making Deals and Changing the Game (Steinberg, Leigh; Arkush, Michael)–page 197
• “One night, I visited a client in his darkened hospital room hours after a game. He was alone and looked confused. “Where am I?” he asked. “In the hospital,” I replied. “You had a concussion.” “Did I play today?” he asked. “Yes,” I responded. “Did I play well?” “Yes, you threw three touchdowns,” I said. His face brightened. Five minutes passed as we talked more about the game. He then asked, “Where am I?” and “Did I play today?” and “Did I play well?” I gave the same answers I did the first time. Ten minutes later, it happened once more. I finally wrote a narrative on a piece of paper so he could glance at it whenever he became confused. It was terrifying to witness how delicate the line was between full consciousness and dementia. This was one of my closest clients. At dinner the night before, he had been his usual witty self.”  The Agent: My 40-Year Career Making Deals and Changing the Game (Steinberg, Leigh;Arkush, Michael)–page 200
• “From these sessions, I learned a great deal, such as the danger of second concussion syndrome, which is when the first diminishes reaction time and sets the brain up for a second. Thus, an athlete who returns to play too quickly after the first has a higher risk of a second concussion, and two in close proximity can cause even more severe consequences.”  The Agent: My 40-Year Career Making Deals and Changing the Game (Steinberg, Leigh; Arkush, Michael)–page 201
• “Dr. Lovell designed a program for baseline testing that checked the cognitive skills in athletes prior to a season. If the athlete was concussed, a second test was given that determined how much damage had occurred. For the first time, there was an objective way for a trainer, doctor, or coach to judge whether a player was asymptomatic at rest, on an exercise bike, and at practice before being cleared to play. Players told me they intentionally answered questions incorrectly when they took the original test so that if they were to suffer a concussion, any similar responses the second time would not raise concerns about their mental state.”  The Agent: My 40-Year Career Making Deals and Changing the Game (Steinberg, Leigh; Arkush, Michael)–page 202
• “In another series of conferences held in 2006 and 2007, we learned even more. Doctors concluded that three concussions appeared to be a marker for exponentially higher rates of ALS, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, premature senility, dementia, and depression. Their research uncovered a condition called chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which stems from concussions and can lead to depression and suicide. I called these developments “a ticking time bomb” and an “undiagnosed health epidemic” and predicted we would have an outbreak of symptoms that would be unprecedented.”  The Agent: My 40-Year Career Making Deals and Changing the Game (Steinberg, Leigh; Arkush, Michael)–page 202
• “I once asked Steve Young how many concussions he had in his career. “You mean official ones?” he responded. “What’s an official one?” I asked. “That’s when you get knocked out and carried off the field. But I have many times every game where I get hit and am woozy for a while. I still knew what plays to call.” On a number of those occasions, Steve would keep his distance from the coach so he couldn’t be pulled from the game.”  The Agent: My 40-Year Career Making Deals and Changing the Game (Steinberg, Leigh; Arkush, Michael)–page 203
• “It became clear to me that the phenomenon of subconcussive hits must be endemic to the game. When an offensive lineman hits a defensive lineman, the force of that collision has a stunning effect that alters brain chemistry. No one talks about the damage that occurs play by play, game by game. If a player starts in high school, continues in college, and then practices and plays sixteen games a season in a long NFL career, with an average of 70 offensive snaps a game, it is possible he will leave football with 10,000 subconcussive hits. None of those hits might knock him out, or even be recorded as a concussion, but the cumulative impact must be staggering. More frightening is the fact that this danger exists in any sport that has collisions: hockey, baseball, field hockey, boxing, MMA, cycling, even youth soccer.”  The Agent: My 40-Year Career Making Deals and Changing the Game (Steinberg, Leigh; Arkush, Michael)–page 203
• “When Tom Brady’s father publicly said he would be “very hesitant” to let his son play football if he were to start today, it showed the real threat the sport is facing. If it can’t find a way at the youth level to teach safer techniques, many parents will reach the same conclusion. The NFL should fund research and development into every possible protective device.”  The Agent: My 40-Year Career Making Deals and Changing the Game (Steinberg, Leigh; Arkush, Michael)–page 204
• “Some purists argue players should not have the right to dictate where they start their pro career but aren’t college graduates who don’t play football allowed to choose where they want to work and live? The draft was not handed down by Moses as part of the Ten Commandments. The draft, let’s be honest, is a control mechanism designed to prevent college athletes from exercising the same freedoms everyone else takes for granted and to limit their leverage in contract negotiations. It is important to separate the honor of being selected from the concept of not being given the freedom of choice. Just because athletes are well compensated doesn’t change the underlying principle.”  The Agent: My 40-Year Career Making Deals and Changing the Game (Steinberg, Leigh; Arkush, Michael)–page 232
• “The care and feeding of young quarterbacks—when they play, how often they play, what they are taught in film study—usually determines whether they will make it in the pros. I’ve always thought that, given the critical nature of the position and the money teams invest, further study of the ways to best develop a quarterback is needed.”  The Agent: My 40-Year Career Making Deals and Changing the Game (Steinberg, Leigh; Arkush, Michael)–page 235
• “Also different in today’s NFL is the purpose of training camp. Years ago, offensive linemen arrived in camp with huge potbellies. Plenty of players smoked. They used the camp to get in shape, although you would never know it by what they ate once they arrived, the most unhealthy food one could imagine. The training tables now list the grams of fat and carbs and the number of calories in every appetizer, main course, and dessert, and with the money, they could lose, few players risk reporting in poor condition. They rest for a week or two after the season ends and go back to their private gym or the team’s indoor facility. There is no off-season.”  The Agent: My 40-Year Career Making Deals and Changing the Game (Steinberg, Leigh; Arkush, Michael)–page 241