The OFFICIAL Unofficial Achewood Message Board
Trivial Pursuits => History => Topic started by: jaydub on May 03, 2012, 12:48:11 am
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Better known as "Junior", he was #55 for the San Diego Chargers from 1990 to 2002, playing linebacker. I was completely uninterested in the Chargers until I saw him play, and afterwards would make an effort to watch them just to see some of the most spectacular defensive football I have ever witnessed. In terms of competitive fire, the ability to change the outcome of a game almost single handedly, and rally his teammates though force of will he was like a rejuvenation of Lawrence Taylor, but without the borderline personality disorder.
He shot himself in the chest apparently - this is significant because it spared trauma to his brain and mimics the recent suicide by gunshot of another former football player who was suffering from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy - brain damage from repeated blows to the head. It may be that Junior also felt he had the condition, and wanted the people studying the disorder to be able to use him. I'm sure this will play out over the next few weeks.
While I never met him, he seemed through interviews and media stories to be a genuinely nice, friendly man. I had hoped he would have a long life post-football, but it appears that once the game was done with him, there wasn't any more to give.
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That's very sad and disturbing.
I wonder if one day people will look back on us and wonder how we could enjoy this sport with so much enthusiasm ostensibly without guilt. Does anyone else ever feel conflicted about this?
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My favorite writer has some stuff to say about this. (http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/05/junior-seau-is-dead/256664/) He has been writing about this issue for a while, if you look back through his archives. Damn this guy is smart. I do not know how I would feel about it as a sports fan. I avoid sports because I hate watching them, not because of some high moral decision.
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I got a high def tv way after most people, and the first day we got it I watched that Ravens Steelers game where Heath Miller (? Pits tight end) got concussed hardcore. I thought he was dead and the replays kind of made me sick. I haven't really watched much football since then.
I don't watch sports because basketball and baseball are almost never on over the air tv. It is almost worth it to get cable, and I especially always want to during this month (nba and nhl playoff month) but I don't.
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I got a high def tv way after most people, and the first day we got it I watched that Ravens Steelers game where Heath Miller (? Pits tight end) got concussed hardcore. I thought he was dead and the replays kind of made me sick. I haven't really watched much football since then.
Sounds like that was your Joe Theisman moment. Not that Joe Theisman made me stop watching football, but it was hell of nasty to see.
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That's really really sad.
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This is extremely sad. I wasn't big on NFL during my coming up days in San Diego, but you couldn't escape the fact that Seau was seen by the people around you as more than a mere mortal. Guys were going to sleep dreaming about Junior Seau and it wasn't even homo-erotic.
RIP.
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Couple o' good pieces on #55:
http://deadspin.com/5907297/the-night-junior-seau-picked-up-a-marine-captains-tab-and-serenaded-bar-patrons-with-a-ukulele
http://www.sbnation.com/nfl/2012/5/3/2995052/junior-seau-death
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As I mentioned elsewhere, I have a sneaking suspicion that there are factors other than just head trauma playing into this one, but of course I don't have any information you all don't have. It was a lot more fun to watch the Chargers back then than it has been for a while. Of course LT was fun to watch, but it's kind of gotten excruciating since then. I think Junior had a real hard time giving the game up (remember the "retirement" and subsequent team changes). This is a rough one.
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By the way, he is the eighth player from the super bowl team to die (http://m.postbulletin.com/postbulletin/pm_105559/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=fi9DlIPC).
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re: what OP said: mr. seau's family just gave permission for his brain to be studied (http://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la-sp-sn-junior-seau-brain-study-20120503,0,1280862.story)
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Walking through the zoo today, a guy carrying a toddler was telling the guy he was with how his son was going to be the in NFL.
I wanted to say, why not drop him headfirst on the pavement right now and get it over with?
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Maybe by the time he's an adult we'll stop destroying their brains.
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I know I'm a bad person for saying this, but I thought it today so what the hell: why do these things always happen to the Seaus and never the Romanowskis?
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Peter King . . . he's not a journalist. Which is fine, but he looks down on bloggers, and he's more or less a glorified blogger himself.