Chris Borland’s decision to retire after one season in the NFL because of concerns about the long-term effects of repetitive head trauma unleashed a flood of reaction from fellow NFL players and others on social media, many echoing what Denver Broncos linebacker Brandon Marshall wondered:
Borland became the most prominent NFL player to retire from football because of concerns over brain injuries. He is the third NFL player to retire despite being age 27 or younger this week, joining Jake Locker of the Tennessee Titans and Jason Worilds of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
St. Louis Rams defensive end Chris Long tweeted in support of Borland.
Borland told “Outside The Lines” that he had been thinking about leaving football as the 2014 season went along, and wrote a letter to his parents late in the year. After the season, he consulted with prominent concussion researchers and former players to affirm his decision.
“I’ve thought about what I could accomplish in football, but for me, personally, when you read about Mike Webster and Dave Duerson and Ray Easterling, you read all these stories, and to be the type of player I want to be in football, I think I’d have to take on some risks that, as a person, I don’t want to take on.”
Borland was referring to former NFL greats who were diagnosed with the devastating brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, after their deaths. Duerson and Easterling committed suicide.
Borland said he began to have misgivings during training camp. He said he suffered what he believed to be a concussion stuffing a running play but played through it, in part because he was trying to make the team.
“I just thought to myself, ‘What am I doing? Is this how I’m going to live my adult life, banging my head, especially with what I’ve learned and know about the dangers?"”
Former Ohio State running back Maurice Clarett, now a motivational speaker, wrote a series of tweets, starting with:
And continuing:
Former NFL player Damien Woody, now an ESPN analyst, said on Twitter:
Borland played in college at Wisconsin for two seasons with John Moffitt, who retired in November 2013 in the middle of the season with the Denver Broncos. At the time, he said he’d lost the love for the game and was tired of risking his health for a paycheck.
“I’ve saved enough. It’s not like I’m sitting here and I’m a millionaire,” Moffitt said at the time. “That’s what I kind of realized. I’m sitting here and I got to this point and I was like, what is the number that you need? How much do you really need? What do you want in life? And I decided that I don’t really need to be a millionaire.
“I just want to be happy. And I find that people that have the least in life are sometimes the happiest. And I don’t have the least in life. I have enough in life. And I won’t sacrifice my health for that.”
Green Bay Packers director of player personnel Eliot Wolf, in a tweet, said that Borland’s decision hasn’t changed the number of players he sees wanting to play in the NFL.
Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez released a statement Tuesday to offer support for Borland’s decision.
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Borland"s choice gets players talking
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