Football and Suicide: Are We Too Quick to Place Unwarranted Blame?

A quick Internet search shows that the suicide rate for NFL players is six times the national average, according to gamesover.org, and there are many fingers being pointed toward concussions and post-retirement problems. Is this justified, though?

The National Institute of Mental Health lists a number of risk factors for suicide on its informative and helpful website. The first one is depression, which millions of people battle every single day who don't play football. Another risk factor is exposure to violence in the family. Who knows the history of a football player before he came to the NFL? There are plenty of abusive families that would leave a future athlete scarred because of physical or sexual abuse.

While the recent death of Junior Seau is a crushing loss not only to the football community but the world in general, we are jumping to conclusions far too quickly by attributing it directly to his career in the NFL. He hit with and was hit in the head thousands of times during his career, but we must not immediately say all that contact put him in a suicidal frame of mind.

If you are good enough to play professional football, you're taking a risk. There is no denying it. However, you're also being very well compensated for that risk that millions of people wish they had the talent to take. Consider all the people who have life-altering injuries with little money and bad health plans. It's just part of the deal. 

The other argument is that NFL players aren't set up for success post-football, which I find absolutely ridiculous. These guys make more money during their careers than most people could ever dream of, and they get to do it playing a game. They sacrifice and work hard, but why are they so special that we make excuses if they struggle during retirement? If they've gone bankrupt because of cars and houses and taking care of other people financially, they must not look any further than a mirror to place the blame.

People retire from careers everyday that they spent their lives working in and they do it gracefully, moving to Del Boca Vista to play golf and relax. An athlete who spent every waking minute working in his profession is no different from a military member or business man who did the same.

The problem is, nobody knows when to call it quits anymore. I understand it must be hard to know you can no longer compete at the level you once did, but that's life. I can't do the same things I could do when I was younger, and older folks can make the same claim tenfold.

Can anyone name a legend who left when the time was right lately? Jerome Bettis did it. Reggie Miller did as well. However, for every one of those guys there's a Terrell Owens or Randy Moss hanging on to the game for dear life. Nobody will ever forget seeing Brett Favre limping off of Lambeau Field wearing Vikings' purple, being booed by the fans he once gave so much. Even Michael Jordan tried a third comeback.

The point is, if you're going to let your inability to still compete drive you to such depression that you're contemplating suicide, there is a strong possibility your head wasn't right to begin with. That same athlete might have had the same result if he retired from a desk job he loved because mentally he just wasn't that strong.

Suicide is an awful thing to do to yourself and those around you, but it is something many people deal with, athletes or not. It has touched someone very close to me, and my intention is not to put down those who have dealt with it. However, before we change the game of football more than we already have, let's make sure the sport is really to blame for such an awful act that someone may have committed regardless of career path.