Late Steelers center Mike Webster had been pasting his teeth with Super Glue when he died. Former right guard Terry Long drank a fatal dose of antifreeze. Justin Strzelczyk, once an offensive lineman, plowed into a tanker truck in a fatal crash.
Such tragic ends have become real-life warnings for a new generation of professional players, many of whom are more willing to confess their concussion symptoms and spend days recovering on the bench, NFL veterans and observers said Friday. More than 80 former NFL players have tested positive for CTE, the degenerative brain disease linked to repetitive head trauma.