Patrick Willis may retire

[Chadman]

Sorry for the rant. It just struck a nerve. That's what I like about this board; we can agree to disagree without the fear of being banned.....well, with some exceptions.

No need to be sorry mate. I don't take offense easily.

[NorthCoast]

Expect that these unexpected retirements will continue to increase. Once you become a millionaire with more income than you and family will ever need to live, you begin to focus on 'those other things in life'. Unless of course football is your obsession.

[Slapstick]

It does sound like Borland knew the risks.

Prior to entering the draft.

The 49ers used a draft pick that they cannot get back on a player who clearly had misgivings about his career choice. It's probably something that he should have revealed prior to a team investing in him.

The point you overlooked wasn't the car driving scenario, but using 4 noted cases of unfortunate illness due to injury to justify the decision, while ignoring the thousands of unreported non-illness cases in comparison.

I believe the argument that he might, one day, possibly suffer an injury, because those 4 guys did, is a pretty weak argument when put against the heavy majority of former NFL players who go on & lead pretty normal lives after their career.

I'm not against him retiring. That's fine. But his reason is pretty poor. If he just said "I don't feel any passion for the game", at least he wouldn't be casting some kind of bad light on the NFL to the general public. As it stands now, the average non-NFL follower will see "Borland quits because of long term injury fears" and will have every justification to believe that the NFL is an unsafe, unfair work environment.

These guys know what they sign up for.

Because he might feel passion for the game. He just might feel more passion for his own mental faculties. Perhaps he thought it wouldn't be a problem until he suffered the concussion in camp, but felt committed to seeing the first year through. Again, if he had somehow suffered a career ending injury, or worse, sucked at football, no one would be feeling sorry for the 49ers and their lost investment. We'd be saying that $#!+ happens. Well, $#!+ happened, only this time the player gets to walk away and not suffer the early onset of Alzheimer's.

Just as I do not begrudge Dick LeBeau for wanting to continue in the NFL, I cannot begrudge Chris Borland (or Jason Worilds or Jake Locker) for not wanting to continue in the NFL.

[Discipline of Steel]

Agreed Slap but i think i see Chadmans point here too. I seems like theres an ulterior motive at work. We shall see in a few months i guess.

[SanAntonioSteelerFan]

Even if he had an ulterior motive, even if he knew the day he signed that he was leaving after a year ... understanding the disappointment of fans and employer, so what? He's exercising the same rights to terminate an NFL contract early that happens dozens of times every year, except this time it's not the team that's doing it, it's the player. Everyone knows the team would cut him in a N.Y. minute if it were in their interest.

Maybe his dream was always to play in the NFL, and now he did, and he's moving on. He didn't steal anyone's money, he got paid for a good days work.

[Slapstick]

What would the ulterior motive be? Money? More money than he would make in the NFL?

[SS Laser]

What would the ulterior motive be? Money? More money than he would make in the NFL?

Not sure if or what motive there is? Champion for safety in the nfl? Not sure were that will go? Don't think it is a $ motive really? Maybe easier money though some how? Making money in the NFL is not easy or "safe". Wonder what his degree is in? How does that tie into this discussion?
Look he has the right to quit. But the motive seems fishy. He had a chance to set his family up for many years to come. There are thousands of men and women that work very dangerous jobs just to have a home and food. He has a skill that many will see as wasted now. Many of us who see this as such a weird decision would love to be in his shoes! Sue us for thinking he is crazy to walk away! Another way I look at this is would I love to take the chance on a head/brain injury to play in the nfl YES. Would I love to walk in to a burning building as a professional firefighter. NO! Police officer in any major city. NO! Work in a deep mine some were. NO. I could keep going but you get my point I figure. There are a ton more dangerous jobs then playing the NFL.

[Slapstick]

From what I understand, Borland family is well off. The Borland Group is an investment firm in Dayton, OH, where Chris now works:

But before his rookie season even began, Borland had told his family it might be his one and only year in the NFL.All five of Borland's siblings made sure they attended at least one game in 2014 because they knew it might be their only chance to see him on the field. Jeff and Zebbie, Chris' mom, also attended games and saw how their son could succeed at the highest level of the game, all the while realizing the potential dangers of the game were on his mind.
Jeff Borland, who didn't allow any of his sons to play football until high school because he "knew they'd like it," certainly understood his son's apprehension.
Jeff said one of the things that makes him proud is that Chris gave the [URL="http://www.foxsports.com/nfl/san-francisco-49ers-team"]Niners[/URL] a full effort while mulling his future.
"He's been quite introspective. He's reasoned it out on his own," Jeff Borland said. "The thing he's repeated is the decision itself was simple. You're just not made to take that kind of contact, that kind of trauma to our heads. If this goes on, it can't be good.
"It's all of the things you talk about around it: the money, the team, the big stage, bright lights — all the things that go with it that make the decision harder. The fact of the matter is you're being privileged to do something that most people don't get the chance to do. And you can't forget the fact that playing the game is fun. It just has repercussions."

[RuthlessBurgher]

If the family's already well off and he has a job lined up at Daddy's investment firm, then the decision makes some sense.

After all, you never see boxers that come from wealthy upbringings.

[RuthlessBurgher]

NFL doctor says CTE is being “over-exaggerated”

Posted by Mike Florio on March 18, 2015, 11:36 AM EDT

We’ve known about the condition known as “Chronic Traumatic Encephelopathy” for several years now. From time to time, CTE takes center stage. And then it fades into the background again.

That’s partially because the condition remains largely shrouded in mystery, especially as it relates to the symptoms and consequences of microscopic changes to brain tissue resulting in the accumulation of tau protein. In an October 2013 item published at Deadspin, Dr. Matt McCarthy explained that there’s still no clear link between football and CTE, and more importantly between CTE and various cognitive problems that occur as football players age.

“At the 4th International Conference on Concussion in Sport . . . world experts gathered to discuss the state of head-trauma science,” Dr. McCarthy wrote at the time. “At the end of the conference, a consensus statement was released that said the following: ‘A cause and effect relationship has not as yet been demonstrated between CTE and concussions or exposure to contact sports.’

“The statement runs counter to almost everything you have read about CTE, but it received virtually no media attention in the United States when it was released,” Dr. McCarthy added. “In part, that’s because it speaks to the far higher burden of proof in the scientific community than the one in the public consciousness. But that’s the point. The popular consensus has far outstripped the science.”

For some, the popular consensus has become that playing football at any level means that the person who has played football at any level already has CTE, and that CTE is a time bomb that eventually will trigger the implosion of normal brain function. In the wake of the Chris Borland retirement, some in the media who don’t particularly like football and/or who would prefer that other sports overtake football in popularity and profitability and/or who believe that they can tie their own personal legacies in some way to the death of this American Goliath have trotted out the notion that football is inherently unsafe because in the normal course of playing football, head contact occurs, all football head contact results in CTE, and all CTE results in brain damage.

The NFL, which has suffered plenty of blows to its credibility in recent months, has given the football-always-leads-to-brain-damage crowd ammunition for influencing skeptics and undecideds by trotting out a long-time NFL neurologist who downplayed on NFL-owned TV the prevalence and the risks of CTE.

“I think the problem of CTE although real is it’s being over-exaggerated and it’s being extrapolated to youth football and to high school football,” Dr. Joseph Maroon said on Tuesday’s NFL Total Access.

He then shared some statistics that were a bit confusing, to say the least. I interpreted it to mean that 63 cases of CTE were found in youth football players over a 59-year period from 1954 through 2013, when 30-to-40 million kids played football. It wasn’t clear what Dr. Maroon was actually saying about CTE in youth football, and if the NFL plans to try to sell that all is well with doctors on the NFL payroll, anything any NFL doctor says needs to always be clear.

“It’s a rare phenomenon,” Dr. Maroon then explained. “We have no idea the incidence. There are more injuries to kids from falling off of bikes, scooters, falling in playgrounds, than there are in youth football. Again, it’s never been safer. Can we improve? Yes. We have to do better all the time to make it safer. But I think if a kid is physically able to do it and wants to do it, I think our job is to continue to make it safer. But it’s much more dangerous riding a bike or a skateboard than playing youth football.”

Despite the knee-jerk resistance to any self-serving thing the NFL says on this or any topic, it’s accurate assessment of the risks, even though the Fainaru-Wadas of the world now cling to the subtle-yet-disingenuous suggestion that risk of an accident is fundamentally different that the risk of head injuries resulting from playing football. Again, the popular (but flawed) argument has become: (1) football entails head contact; (2) all head contact results in CTE; and (3) all CTE results in brain damage.

Dr. McCarthy’s article from October 2013 suggests that the popular argument (which instantly has gotten far more popular in the wake of the Borland retirement) is incorrect. The problem for the NFL becomes, given the perception/reality that the league routinely sprinkles fertilizer over the public on matters of significance, that folks will now be disinclined to accept at face value whatever any NFL doctor or other NFL employee has to say on the matter. Which means that the NFL needs to tread lightly when trying to push back against a popular consensus regarding CTE, even if the popular consensus is fundamentally flawed

That’s not to say that anything/everything Dr. Maroon said was incorrect. But if Dr. Maroon’s assessment is indeed accurate, it becomes critical for the NFL to get the truth out in a way that won’t invite those who view anything/everything the NFL says with skepticism.

[URL]http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/03/18/nfl-doctor-says-cte-is-being-over-exaggerated/[/URL]

[Slapstick]

That’s not to say that anything/everything Dr. Maroon said was incorrect. But if Dr. Maroon’s assessment is indeed accurate, it becomes critical for the NFL to get the truth out in a way that won’t invite those who view anything/everything the NFL says with skepticism.

Who is responsible for the existence of "those who view anything/everything the NFL says with skepticism"?

The NFL is.

They had the opportunity to get in front of the problem years ago but instead chose to cover it up.

Those proverbial chickens are coming home to roost.

While I don't think it will kill the NFL quickly, I do think that it will be a death by 1,000 paper cuts over the next few decades...

[feltdizz]

From what I understand, Borland family is well off. The Borland Group is an investment firm in Dayton, OH, where Chris now works:

Maurice Clarett summed it up perfectly.

[URL]http://columbus.suntimes.com/cbus-sports/ohio-state-buckeyes/7/98/120465/maurice-clarrett-chris-borland/[/URL]

In regard to Chris Borland.They should do a study on his upbringing and education. See how he defines success. He probably has a backup plan

Lots of guys don't have a backup plan. They get shuffled thru the college ranks and only see football as an option to succeed.

They often tolerate the trauma for the paycheck.... No one is right or wrong. It all comes down to quality of life for each individual.

For college players having a "degree" is not enough. It's VERY easy for a school to graduate players with "nonsense" degrees.

Lots of these universities push classes on players that they would never allow their own children to take.

Kids earn schools millions. Let's forget about paying to play... Conversation should be actually educating them so they can be of some value

Kid misses practice and he's Criticized and punished to no end.... Kid signs up for "nonsense" classes and no one says a word.

Practice, Weightlifting and sprints are valid until about 30 if you're lucky. Education helps to assist family, community, friends etc etc

I know he is bitter but he also makes some GREAT points. I wouldn't be surprised if Borland ends up working as a lobbyist or some other field that has to do with fighting the NFL over CTE.

I know some of you will say "but no one is forcing these kids to take weak classes in college but that isn't actually true. Anyone who attended a legit D1 football factory knows most of these kids are here for 1 reason. If you try to take hard classes you will get resistance from coaches unless they are 100% sure you have the smarts to pass. They aren't going to risk academic probation because you weren't given a scholarship for hitting the books.

[K Train]

Borlands family is pretty wealthy I believe, Im sure he will be fine with his history degree.

[Slapstick]

Clarett seems to have matured over the last decade...

[Slapstick]

This is an interesting addition to the discussion:

[url]http://www.drivethedistrict.com/2015/02/05/checklight-save-football-players-brain-damage/?utm_source=taboola&utm_medium=gannettcompany-freep[/url]