This Was His Choice

It should come as no surprise to anyone that if you play football for an extended period, you will have long lasting health effects for the rest of your life. I didn’t need to have to read a study or hear it from a doctor. Common sense told me that I would have problems if I chose to play football. I chose not to play football when it came time to put pads on to play the game.

Am I the only one to come to that decision? Absolutely not. A good majority of players both current and former knew of the potential risks and yet played the game regardless. This should come as no surprise that a current football player has decided to stop playing after only one year. I’m surprised it doesn’t happen more often, but this is the age we live in where we can’t fathom someone in their mid-20s deciding to stop playing football.

This isn’t going to be a “wakeup call” or a chance to “start a conversation”. It was simply one man’s choice to stop playing a game that most of us would give up everything to do. Stop and think about that for a minute. You would give up everything right now just to play a game of professional football? Do we really know how hard it is to keep that up? Is the money and fame really worth all that?

We need to stop kidding ourselves and acknowledge Chris Borland for making his decision and willingly giving us his reasoning behind it. He didn’t have to do that. He simply could have said, “I’m done” and left it at that. For him to actually say the reason was for his health is coming from someone like me who said I won’t start for that reason.

As individuals we make choices for ourselves on a day-to-day basis and we don’t think about it at the time, but they do have long lasting effects. I’m sure for Chris Borland to come to this decision wasn’t easy, but I can’t speak for him. Looking back it wasn’t easy for me either, but I don’t regret it.

I love football, both playing and watching it, but I don’t regret the path I’ve chosen for myself. It’s time we all stop second guessing others’ paths and worry about our own.