That time of year again...

It's fall and that means football. Usually, I would be super excited about that but I have to be honest that my love of football has died a lot in the last several months. Junior Seau's suicide has effected my love of football in a similar way to how the Benoit murders effected my love of pro wrestling.

Last year, Chris Nowinski appeared on an episode of Bill Simmon's podcast. The subject of the day was concussions and the impact that multiple concussions had on a person. For those that don't know, Nowinski was briefly a wrestler and had to retire from multiple concussions. He then devoted his life to researching concussions. He described the impact of a condition called chronic traumatic encephalopathy aka being punch drunk. The fallout of this condition can be depression, dementia and overall increase in aggressive behavior.

It was a real eye opening interview as he discussed how kids playing at even the Pop Warner level can do irreversible damage to their brain. Needless to say, after that interview I become very convinced that if I had a child I wouldn't let them play football or soccer. I decided the risks to their long term health were not worth allowing them to play a game for a few years.

Fastforward to this year and Junior Seau's suicide. It wasn't confirmed or anything but it seemed to fit the pattern of the guys that were suffering from depression due to the repeated brain trauma. I was just kind of just done with football at that point. I still watch some games here and there this season but I completely lack the passion that I once did for the game.

There's something about watching guys and in the back of your mind knowing that you're watching these guys damage themselves in such a way. I feel like there's a disconnect going on in a lot of ways. People mourn these guys when they pass but they don't attribute the lifestyle to the end result. I saw the same kind of reactions in the post Benoit wrestling community. There were people that gave up and there were people trying to make this weird case that Benoit the performer was not Benoit the murderer. It's a really weird case that was being made at the time.

Either way, that's my take on football currently. I still watch, I'm just lacking the diehard passion that I used to have.