When Kyle Turley(notes) reflects on the most significant concussion of his nine-year NFL career, he has to work hard to suppress his laughter.While playing for the St. Louis Rams in 2003, the ultraphysical tackle took a blow to the helmet and lost consciousness on the final play of the third quarter. He spent the rest of the game – which seemed, to him, like it lasted five minutes – on the sideline in a daze. He wanted to wave to his wife, Stacy, but was unable to remember the location of the luxury box where she was regularly stationed and eventually gave up. At game’s end he retreated to the locker room with his teammates, and then things got even blurrier.
Late last month Turley, with no apparent cause or warning, collapsed while listening to music at a club near his Nashville-area home and passed out for several seconds. Shortly thereafter, while battling vertigo, he began vomiting uncontrollably as Stacy rushed him to a nearby hospital. After being admitted to an emergency triage unit, a disoriented Turley was in and out of consciousness for the next several hours.Nearly four weeks later, what’s even scarier to Turley is the notion that his nightmare may have only just begun. Though doctors haven’t been able to give him the conclusive cause of the episode he experienced that night – or of the migraine headaches, dizzy spells and disorientation which have followed – the presumption is that he’s feeling the effects of the head-related trauma he endured during his playing career.
One expert even fears that Turley could be on the road to contracting Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), the degenerative neurological condition that, researchers think, contributed greatly to the violent deaths of former NFL players Andre Waters and Justin Strzelczyk.
Now here’s perhaps the most disturbing information of all: Turley, relative to his peers, had no sense that he was a particularly likely candidate for such a daunting diagnosis.Turley, who believes he was given inadequate medical care during his career by the three teams for which he played, plans to contact a lawyer about the possibility of suing the NFL. “We could be talking about a class-action suit,” he says.
Turley’s concern comes at a time when awareness about brain injuries finally seems to be gaining traction among NFL players, team physicians and league and NFL Players Association officials. A league-sponsored players’ health and safety summit on mild traumatic brain injury was held in Chicago in 2007, followed by another concussion-specific conference at the league’s New York City headquarters this past May.
Among the promising developments: a move toward uniform terminology and testing policies among team medical personnel; enhanced helmet technology; recent rule changes regarding helmet-to-helmet and other dangerous hits, and the elimination of the kickoff wedge; a “whistle-blower” hotline for players to report unsatisfactorily addressed head injuries; and an apparent push by newly elected NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith to make player-safety issues more of a priority than they were under predecessor Gene Upshaw.
One expert even fears that Turley could be on the road to contracting Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), the degenerative neurological condition that, researchers think, contributed greatly to the violent deaths of former NFL players Andre Waters and Justin Strzelczyk.
Now here’s perhaps the most disturbing information of all: Turley, relative to his peers, had no sense that he was a particularly likely candidate for such a daunting diagnosis.Turley, who believes he was given inadequate medical care during his career by the three teams for which he played, plans to contact a lawyer about the possibility of suing the NFL. “We could be talking about a class-action suit,” he says.
Turley’s concern comes at a time when awareness about brain injuries finally seems to be gaining traction among NFL players, team physicians and league and NFL Players Association officials. A league-sponsored players’ health and safety summit on mild traumatic brain injury was held in Chicago in 2007, followed by another concussion-specific conference at the league’s New York City headquarters this past May.
Among the promising developments: a move toward uniform terminology and testing policies among team medical personnel; enhanced helmet technology; recent rule changes regarding helmet-to-helmet and other dangerous hits, and the elimination of the kickoff wedge; a “whistle-blower” hotline for players to report unsatisfactorily addressed head injuries; and an apparent push by newly elected NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith to make player-safety issues more of a priority than they were under predecessor Gene Upshaw.
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