Thurman Thomas Comments on Lingering Effects from Concussions

Hall of Fame running back Thurman Thomas spoke Friday about the effects of concussions lingering into his retirement.

The Buffalo Bills legend was the keynote speaker at the District School Board of Niagara's International Concussion Summit. For the first time, he talked publicly about his concussion issues, per the Niagara Falls Review's Ray Spiteri:

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I don't discuss it at home. I don't really discuss it with my friends. It's something that I'm really not comfortable talking about because I want to get more facts about it, I want to get more knowledgeable about it.

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When I started playing football as a little kid, the last thing on my mind was, "Will I be able to walk when I'm 50? Will I be able to keep a train of thought when I'm 45? When I'm 50, will I suffer from uncontrollable mood swings? And even worse, will someday I be so depressed that I would take my own life?"

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The 49-year-old said he was unfazed about "probably" having had "a couple" of concussions while playing college football. He suggested doctors and trainers did the best they could at the time with the knowledge they had.

As for his time in the NFL, Thomas recalled a game in which his quarterback, Jim Kelly, took significant punishment and called the same play—a handoff to Thomas—five times in a row.

"I actually looked at Jim—he had this look in his eyes like, 'I'm getting ready to call the same play again,'" said Thomas, per Spiteri.   

Thomas said one of the problems he's had since leaving the gridiron is an inability to control his temperament:

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Still to this day, I can't control my mood swings. On so many days, I have to apologize to my family for them. I thank God that I have a family that understands the things that I've been through over my 13-year [professional] career, and even after my 14 or 15 years that I've been retired. They all understand that with my mood swings, sometimes I just can't help it.

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Thomas said his love for the game hasn't diminished despite the lasting impact concussions have had on his quality of life. He also said he didn't believe speaking out about concussions makes him "less of a man, less tough, less loyal to the National Football League."

"All it means is that I'm not an ignorant fool, and that I don't ignore factual evidence that this is happening to not only football players but [other athletes as well]," he said, per Spiteri.

Thomas' 14-year-old son plays football and has been kept out of games because of concussions. His wife doesn't want the teenager to play anymore, but Thomas said he didn't want to "discourage parents from letting their kids play a physical sport. The technology is getting better. We're doing more studies."

The five-time Pro Bowler also recalled a situation from a couple of years ago in which he was driving a typical route but forgot where he was. He pulled over to call his wife so he could tell her what happened.

After that scary episode, Thomas saw a Buffalo doctor who, following an MRI, explained to him that the frontal lobe of his brain looked like that of someone who had "fallen off the top of a house, on to the front of his head or [gone] through a windshield of a car several times."

Thomas said the doctor called it a "decent" outcome for someone who'd played 13 years in the NFL, but the doctor also said that his condition would only worsen over time.

Thomas said athletes with head injuries should not be allowed to decide whether to stay in a game and that doctors should make those calls because players "will always choose...to stay in the game."