ANALYSIS/OPINION:
On the eve of this year’s Super Bowl, following the election of the late linebacker Junior Seau to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, I wondered the following:
“Who will speak for Junior Seau when he is inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, in August?”
Apparently, nobody.
The New York Times reported that the Hall of Fame will not allow anyone to speak for Seau when he is posthumously inducted next month in Canton. The move will save the NFL and the Hall the embarrassing, shameful moment of having a family member who is suing the league for concussion damages in connection with Seau’s suicide more than two years ago speak for the player.
I wondered if his former wife, Gina, might speak for Seau, and perhaps say what she told “60 Minutes Sports.”
“When he would come home from games, he would go straight to the room, lower the blinds, the blackout blinds, and just say, ’Quiet, my head is burning.’”
Or maybe it would be Seau’s son, Tyler, who said, “The NFL is taking no ownership for what they’ve done. There’s no responsibility on their part. They’re basically giving you a number and like, ’All right, there you go. We’re done.’”
Or I suggested the family may stand together and read excerpts from the lawsuit it filed against the NFL in 2013: “The NFL knew or suspected that any rule changes that sought to recognize that link [to brain disease] and the health risk to NFL players would impose an economic cost that would significantly and adversely change the profit margins enjoyed by the NFL and its teams.”
None of that is going to happen. The Hall of Fame will simply have a short video about how great Seau was, alongside, as I wrote in January, a bust of Seau on the stage, all nice and polished up, as if nothing ever happened.
But everyone knows what happened — and, despite the NFL’s continuing attempt to dig itself out of the grave of brain damage and deception that is slowly burying the sport, from Pop Warner to high school to the NFL. The Seau video, and now the absence of family members speaking for Seau on the stage, will speak volumes about the crisis the NFL faces, no matter what court settlement has been reached.
It turns out that the Hall of Fame conveniently — and quietly — adopted a resolution five years ago to have just a video presentation of anyone posthumously inducted, without any live comments from living family members, teammates or friends.
Following The New York Times’ story, the Hall issued a statement.
“The policy of the Pro Football Hall of Fame since 2010 regarding individuals enshrined posthumously provides for an expanded presenting video (longer than the videos of living inductees) followed by the traditional unveiling of the bronzed bust and no additional comments made from the podium,” it read. “This policy is not precedent setting and was implemented for the first time in 2011 when former Los Angeles Rams great Les Richter was inducted posthumously. The Pro Football Hall of Fame looks forward to honoring the careers of Junior Seau and the seven other members of the Class of 2015 during the upcoming Enshrinement Ceremony.”
This policy change just coincidentally happened when the number of concussion lawsuits against the league began turning into a mountain instead of a molehill, and someone had the vision to see a Seau moment in the future.
It’s also around the same time the NFL created a poster to be put in locker rooms warning that concussions “may lead to problems with memory and communication, personality changes, as well as depression and the early onset of dementia. Concussions and conditions resulting from repeated brain injury can change your life and your family’s life forever.”
That’s not the message the league or the Hall of Fame wants on the stage in Canton, though, where the Seau family would be evidence of just how “concussions and conditions resulting from repeated brain injury can change your life and your family’s life forever.”
• Thom Loverro is co-host of “The Sports Fix,” noon to 2 p.m. daily on ESPN 980 and espn980.com.
• Thom Loverro can be reached at tloverro@washingtontimes.com.
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