ASHBURN — At one point last September, when daylight continued to make his temples throb and his eyes narrow, Martrell Spaight took a permanent marker and blacked out the lenses of a pair of thick, tinted sunglasses.
It had been weeks since Spaight last participated in any type of football-related activities and the effects of a hit that he had made in the preseason lingered with him. Leaving the apartment caused discomfort. The constant motion of a television triggered dizziness.
Then the depression set in.
Spaight, for years, had been defined by football, a high school standout who had turned a stint at a community college into an all-conference selection at Arkansas.