I wish the game I loved so much wasn’t breaking the hearts of strong men, smashing their will and ultimately taking their lives.
I wish that studies did not prove that football players at the highest level, the NFL, have triple the risk of death caused by diseases that destroy or damage brain cells compared to other people. I wish that professional football players didn’t have four times a greater risk of dying from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) or Alzheimer’s. I wish there wasn’t a link between playing football and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).
And, personally, I wish my heart wasn’t torn down the middle – one half beating out of my chest with love for the game of football, the other weeping for the men it has taken and will take.