Soon-to-be-inducted Pro Football Hall of Famer Terrell Davis pays attention to the latest findings in CTE studies, and he admits that it’s all worrying to him.
Davis said Friday that everyone who played the game is a little unsettled by studies that find the disease as prevalent as it is, such as a recent Boston University study that found the disease in 110 of 111 NFL player brains studied.
“I can’t lie, we’re all scared,” Davis said, via Nicki Jhabvala of the Denver Post. “We’re concerned because we don’t know what the future holds. When I’m at home and I do something, if I forget something I have to stop to think, ‘Is this because I’m getting older or I’m just not using my brain, or is this an effect of playing football? I don’t know that.
“Yeah, I’m scared, so I try to stay as active as possible, keep my mind as sharp as possible. But I also know the game has gone through great lengths to change, from Pop Warner to the pros. People ask me the question, would you let your kids play? Yeah, I would. Now, 10 years ago I may have said something different. But now, the way they’re teaching kids to tackle, the fact that they identify concussions a lot faster, they sit you out a couple plays, you’re not going to practice as long. All that stuff is helping the game of football. But, yes, I’m concerned.”
Davis admitted that he thinks about his three-touchdown performance in Super Bowl XXXII, which earned him MVP honors — played with a migraine that prevented him from even seeing at one point.
“I think about that moment a lot because if they had the rules in place then, I don’t go back into that game,” Davis said. “And that changes a lot. Am I here, at this podium? Thank God it didn’t happen like that.”
These studies are impacting current players as well. Awareness is certainly higher than it has ever been before.
