"I feel largely the same, as sharp as I've ever been. For me, it's wanting to be proactive," Borland said. "I'm concerned that if you wait 'til you have symptoms, it's too late. … There are a lot of unknowns. I can't claim that X will happen. I just want to live a long, healthy life, and I don't want to have any neurological diseases or die younger than I would otherwise."
Americans routinely assume far greater physical risks for far less money and fame than the risk/reward of playing in the NFL.
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) March 17, 2015
Mike Florio, you fucking idiot. First of all, the first three are not even occupations. Those are just stupid things people do that may result in several injuries, including head trauma. High School, college, and professional motorcycle teams aren't out there telling kids they can earn a living riding a motorcycle without a helmet. What are you even talking about, man? Chris Borland just doesn't want to be a drooling puddle of flesh and bones when he's 50, no need to start humping the to serve and protect crowd and weekend warriors.@kdf617 . . . Riding motorcycles without helmet, jumping out of airplanes, climbing rock walls, working as police officers, firefighters.
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) March 17, 2015
One guy retiring doesn't mean football is doomed. There are a ton of players who want to play. But it has to be concerning.
— Pete Prisco (@PriscoCBS) March 17, 2015
Oh, that's right. What were we thinking. The NFL is a fucking awesome place to work, what with its fully guaranteed contracts, no risk at all of losing your job should you be injured, which is, like, not even an issue really, because no one ever gets hurt, and, oh man, It's like being a teacher. You just work 17 weeks out of the year, and never have to do anything in the offseason. You can just let yourself get fat and slow every year and then just come into training camp to get in shape—that's what it's there for! The best, though, is once you retire after making all that not-imaginary-at-all money, you just sit back and chill out for the rest of your life and definitely don't point a shotgun at your chest because you just can't fucking take what's going on inside your brain anymore.My friend the lawyer works 80 hours a week and makes a fraction of what these guys make and would swap places in a heartbeat.Chris Borland was scheduled to make $530K this year, plus $10K workout bonus. Not many jobs pay 24-year-olds $540K for 6 months of work.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 17, 2015