Former NFL receiver Antwaan Randle El regrets ever playing football

[DaKCMan AP]

Former NFL receiver Antwaan Randle El regrets ever playing football

Former Washington Redskins and Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Antwaan Randle El is perhaps best remembered for his 43-yard touchdown pass in Super Bowl XL that aided a Pittsburgh win over Seattle, but a decade later, the physical and mental drawbacks have been so significant that he regrets ever playing in the NFL.

“If I could go back, I wouldn’t” play football, he told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in a Steelers-themed project posted Tuesday. “I would play baseball. I got drafted by the Cubs in the 14th round, but I didn’t play baseball because of my parents. They made me go to school. Don’t get me wrong, I love the game of football. But right now, I could still be playing baseball.”

Randle El, who played in Washington from 2006 to 2009 between two stints in Pittsburgh, said he regularly experiences trouble walking down stairs — “I have to come down sideways sometimes, depending on the day” — and has serious memory lapses.

“I ask my wife things over and over again, and she’s like, ‘I just told you that,’ ” Randle El told the Post-Gazette. “I’ll ask her three times the night before and get up in the morning and forget. Stuff like that. I try to chalk it up as I’m busy, I’m doing a lot, but I have to be on my knees praying about it, asking God to allow me to not have these issues and live a long life. I want to see my kids raised up. I want to see my grandkids.”

In 2013, Randle El and three other former players filed a lawsuit against the NFL in a Manhattan federal court alleging the NFL “has done everything in its power to hide the issues and mislead players concerning the risks associated with concussions,” according to The Village Voice. In 2015, after that suit was consolidated with more than 2,000 others, he was one of more than 5,000 players that received more than $900 million in settlement money from the NFL to resolve a concussion lawsuit.

Since retiring in 2010, Randle El helped to found the Virginia Academy, a Christian high school in Ashburn, where he serves as the school’s athletic director. Originally, he was a proponent for the development of a football program at the school, but he has no remorse after it was cut two years in when it became too expensive.

“The kids are getting bigger and faster, so the concussions, the severe spinal cord injuries, are only going to get worse,” he said in the interview. “It’s a tough pill to swallow because I love the game of football. But I tell parents, ‘You can have the right helmet, the perfect pads on, and still end up with a paraplegic kid.’

“There’s no correcting it. There’s no helmet that’s going to correct it. There’s no teaching that’s going to correct it. It just comes down to it’s a physically violent game. Football players are in a car wreck every week.”

Randle El is not naive to the profitability of the sport or the impact it has on society, but with the concussion and life-long injury issues getting more attention than ever before, the nine-year veteran thinks the end may be near.

“Right now, I wouldn’t be surprised if football isn’t around in 20, 25 years.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...ying-football/

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by Why Not?

The NFL has done about all it can to safen up the game.

[DenverChief]

Originally Posted by KCChiefsFan88

I'll bet the Washington Redskins wished he didn't play football either after wasting a big free agent contract on him.

Randle El probably currently has financial issues, and since he already went to the concussion gravy train once (with the concussion settlement), he is now looking for more sympathy money.

.

[Marco Polo]

I'm actually surprised that some of these athletes aren't playing baseball. Longer careers, guaranteed contracts...it's just not as cool in younger culture but it is far more rewarding and better for your body.

[Beef Supreme]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

That's a ridiculous analogy.

That person had a choice. I'm sure that he/she had the option to go to junior college, to attend university, to do something other than work at a meat packing plant. WE ALL DO.

I played elementary, junior high and high school football. NEVER ONCE did anyone mention that you could get BRAIN DAMAGE from playing. No one. Broken bones, torn muscles, sprains, even paralysis but brain damage?

Nope.

You don't have to feel "sorry" for anyone. But I'm absolutely certain that armed with the information that we have today about CTE (in which the NFL willingly withheld), more and more people will choose NOT to play the game.

It's pretty simple.

I'm sure Randle El had the opportunity to do something other than work at a NFL Football plant. WE ALL DO.

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

Football is far more fun and entertaining, but I too wonder if it'll exist in 25 years, at least in its current form.

I seriously doubt it will exist in its current form.

Personally, I think they need to go helmetless and adopt soccer's Red Card rules.

The game can still be exciting and fun without guys spearing, like we saw on Saturday, or guys getting serious head and neck injuries on the field.

People will still watch because there's no other sport like it in the world.

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by BigChiefTablet

I'm sure Randle El had the opportunity to do something other than work at a NFL Football plant. WE ALL DO.

And had he known the implications of playing in the NFL, he would have chosen to play baseball.

Reading comprehension is your friend.

[Chromatic]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

Football is far more fun and entertaining, but I too wonder if it'll exist in 25 years, at least in its current form.

It absolutely won't. I'm seeing more and more people saying they won't let their kids play football than ever before. The people I hear saying that seems to double every year.

They'll have to change since the participation and talent pool is already starting to decline.

http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/...-causal-factor

[KCUnited]

Takes a lot of years, if ever, to get paid in baseball.

[Baby Lee]

Originally Posted by Cave Johnson

If by sympathy money you mean monetary damages for injuries incurred due to the NFL's decade-long attempts to cover up the impact of football on the brain, then yes.

I'm perfectly on board with people expressing regret over the toll their profession took on their body. But this 'gimme money for trying to cover up' shit is specious. It right up there with 'I believed cigarette makers when they said cigarettes were good for me.'

We have a societal interest in rooting out fraud wherever it occurs [doctoring groundwater purity results, asbestos, investment decisions], but when you come to premises as obvious as 'inhaling smoke might hurt your lungs' and 'banging your head around all day every day might hurt your brain' the obviousness of the risk outweighs the nefariousness of denial.

[Beef Supreme]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

And had he known the implications of playing in the NFL, he would have chosen to play baseball.

Reading comprehension is your friend.

I comprehend just fine. He would have chosen baseball, probably never sniffed the majors, and still be asking his wife wtf she just said.

Or, he still would have played football, because, let's face it, that's probably what he would do.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Chromatic

It absolutely won't. I'm seeing more and more people saying they won't let their kids play football than ever before. The people I hear saying that seems to double every year.

They'll have to change since the participation and talent pool is already starting to decline.

http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/...-causal-factor

That's really interesting.

The NFL has massive money and influence, but I'm not sure what they can do about parental decisions at the peewee level.

There'll always be people who play. The game is fun. But it looks like the talent pool may decline over time. It'll be an interesting battle between smaller talent pools and ever-improving training and nutrition to see how the NFL product changes over time.

I want to conclude that a smaller talent pool could be the NFL's demise, but I don't think it will be. I don't know that we as viewers would be able to discern the impacts of a smaller talent pool. It seems like the only way to kill the league would be a regulatory ban, but you'd have not just the NFL fighting that, but every Division I college. I don't think you can kill it via regulation, either.

So can the NFL be killed? Maybe not. Maybe the long-term fate is that interest fades since fewer people grow up playing the sport, and it declines back into the pack of other sports as opposed to being the 600-lb. gorilla. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but then it would make the league more vulnerable to being killed by internal issues such as the concussion lawsuit.

[Baby Lee]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

And had he known the implications of playing in the NFL, he would have chosen to play baseball.

Reading comprehension is your friend.

That's a little simplistic. It's more 'had he known FIRSTHAND what he dismissed in the abstract' he would have chosen different.

That said, I fully endorse his right to publicize his personal experience to drive the implications home to present and future generations.

[Baby Lee]

Originally Posted by headsnap

Regrets, everyone has them...

I've had a few, but then again. . .

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by BigChiefTablet

I comprehend just fine. He would have chosen baseball, probably never sniffed the majors, and still be asking his wife wtf she just said.

Originally Posted by BigChiefTablet

Or, he still would have played football, because, let's face it, that's probably what he would do.

That's complete and utter speculation. Guys all over the country are walking away from football due to the CTE and concussion issues.

For you to make his decision for him is outright dumb.

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

There'll always be people who play. The game is fun. But it looks like the talent pool may decline over time. It'll be an interesting battle between smaller talent pools and ever-improving training and nutrition to see how the NFL product changes over time.

In many people's mind, the talent pool has dwindled over the past generation but the TV ratings are higher than ever and continue to climb.

The NFL has Fantasy Football to thank for its increasing audience and would be wise to continue an effort to make the game safer each and every year, otherwise, it'll lose that audience.

Originally Posted by Rain Man

I want to conclude that a smaller talent pool could be the NFL's demise, but I don't think it will be. I don't know that we as viewers would be able to discern the impacts of a smaller talent pool.

32 teams have difficulty fielding a 45 man game day roster in 2016. If the NFL is really serious about reducing injuries and especially concussions, they need to raise the game day roster to 53, the full roster to 60 with a practice squad of at least 10.

That would allow healthier bodies in games and practice, would allow players to develop while reducing injuries.