Junior Seau May Have Had As Many As 1,500 Concussions

Published: 4^th May 12 4:52 pm

by Kris Hughes
College Football Network Manager

RANT It!

Junior Seau May Have Had As Many As 1,500 Concussions

Jake Roth-US PRESSWIRE

According to a major sports site, one of Junior Seau‘s former teammates with the San Diego Chargers, Gary Plummer, has claimed that the All-Pro linebacker could have suffered as many as 1,500 concussions in his 19-year career.

Plummer told a California newspaper that:

In the 1990s, I did a concussion seminar. They said a Grade 3 concussion meant you were knocked out, and a Grade 1 meant you were seeing stars after a hit, which made me burst out in laughter.As a middle linebacker in the NFL, if you don’t have five of these (Grade 1 effects) each game, you were inactive the next game.

Junior played for 20 years.

That’s five concussions a game, easily.

How many in his career then? That’s over 1,500 concussions. I know that’s startling, but I know it’s true. I had over 1,000 in my 15 years. I felt the effects of it. I felt depression going on throughout my divorce. Junior went through it with his divorce.

Now, obviously, the definition of a concussion is rather loose here, and not every hit would lead to a concussion.

Only when Seau’s brain is examined by medical professionals when the time is right will we truly know the impact of the concussions he suffered as a professional athlete.

It will be interesting also to see long-term whether football players suffer injuries at a greater rate, or of a more damaging nature, than their counterparts in other professional sports.

—

Kris Hughes is the College Football Network Manager for Rant Sports. If you enjoy his takes, you can follow Kris on Twitter, check out his personal Facebook page, or stop by his personal Tumblr page.

Connect with Rant Sports