League of Denial

Last night on Netflix I found a Frontline documentary called "League of Denial". It is about all the brain damage that people have suffered from playing pro football. The reason I put this in the Steelers section is because the first 30-40 minutes of it deals exclusively with Mike Webster. I know his struggles were pretty well documented but this showed me things I didn't know. It even shows his autopsy photos apparently and they are not for the faint of heart. They said that his feet had been cracking so bad that he was using duct tape to hold them together! His family said he had been using superglue to put his teeth back in also. I was just curious if anyone else had seen this? It interviews a lot of 70s players and it's pretty good. My only thing about it is how could brain damage cause all that other stuff? It shows an excerpt from an interview with him where he just rambles on and can't even answer a simple question no matter how hard he tries. I could see how that could stem from brain damage but I was just curious if anyone on here that has seen it considers it sort of a "hit piece" on the league.

 

I've seen that. Messed up

 

Yap. They talked about him tasing himself on there too. This guy said that Webbie asked him to do it and he said "well the guy was my hero so I couldn't tell him no." Dang, that's bizarre.

 

Is that the same Frontline specoal someone linked to in the threads about Webster? If it is I watched it very shocking stuff not only the stuff abut Webster but also what the leaguest did to the ME who initial discovered post concussion syndrome. Just horrible stuff.

 

It's weird they would have Will Smith play the part of that Dr because the Dr is sort of like a middle eastern looking guy when you actually see him. The Dr asked who Mike Webster was and the other people at the hospital thought he was crazy for not knowing. LOL. Us Steelers fans just think everyone must know everything about the Steelers. So does the movie plan to sorta vilify the league or something?

 

The shocking part to me is the behavior by the league. Tagliube(sp) appoints the Jets team doctor to head his commission looking into concuconcussions. The guy doesn't believe concuconcussions have a lasting affect on players and isn't a neurologist and this is the guy you hand pick to oversee this study? Shameful

 

There's no telling, but it's Hollywood so it will be embellished to some extent.

 

The NFL failed Mike Webster more than any other veteran in the history of the league. Junior Seau is up there too, but he wasn't homeless at the end of his life from what I've heard. It's a DAMN shame how much these gentlemen give to the league, and are $hit on after they're done playing. The way war veterans are treated by the government is what I'd compare it to...disgusting

 

Call me wussy all you want! I Tried watching it, couldn't do it! Very sad!

 

My guess is the foot and teeth problems aren't from concussions or brain damage. My guess is steroids. That is probably also a significant factor in the brain damage. Probably even more so than concussions.

We need one of the abundant medical professionals who are on here to speark (type?) more in depth.

 

Yeah it's definitely not easy to watch and it's not even so much that he's a guy that's a legend from our favorite franchise. Even if it were just a story of some guy that barely ever saw the field it's just hard to watch from a human level.