Head injuries and Football.

See the relevance now?

In an apparent murder-suicide, a Kansas City Chiefs player shot himself in the head in front of his coaches at a team training facility after earlier shooting to death his girlfriend at her residence, police said.

Kansas City, Missouri, police spokesman Darin Snapp identified the player as linebacker Jovan Belcher, 25, according to NFL.com.

The player took his life in the parking lot near Arrowhead Stadium as officers pulled up to park and saw him with a gun to his head talking to coaches, Snapp told reporters.

About 20 minutes prior to his suicide, the player shot his girlfriend in her nearby home, Snapp said.

The NFL.com reported that Snapp said the mother described the relationship as "on-again, off-again."

Also, Snapp told NFL.com that before his suicide, the player was talking to Chiefs general manager Scott Pioli, coach Romeo Crennel and an unnamed Chiefs staff member. Pioli and Crennel "neve r felt like they were in danger," Snapp said.

The player thanked the general manager and coach for all they had done for him, according to NFL.com.

When officers arrived, the player walked away from the three Chiefs personnel and "a couple seconds later, they heard the gunshot," Snapp told NFL.com.

The Chiefs are scheduled to play at home against the Carolina Panthers on Sunday.

Wow, that's a big leap. Murder suicides happen every day to non football players. Ridiculous to try to connect two things that can't be connected.

smh....

Obviously the player had some neurological damage. It isn't a "big leap" as you suggest to make the correlation, in fact how much do you want to bet something comes out in a number of days linking football, head injuries, and questionable behavior.

A murder-suicide is an irrational act. Head injuries can be sustained from Football and if nothing is done to correctly treat the injuries and they are ignored, that can lead to irrational acts.

'fish, I'm sorry but the attitude of toughen up is out-dated. When you are hurt, you are hurt. A head injury is way more serious than most football injuries (i.e. pulled hamstring, tweaked ankle, broken collarbone, etc.).

Trust me on this.

Or psychological damage. Which could come from anything.

Ya I think that is a pretty big leap. I mean I had a buddy kill himself and he probably never picked up a ball of any sort in his life. I know there is a correlation between concussions and mental disorders but to say yup thats why he did it is a little bit of a rash decision. Now if it turns out that he was complaining of concussions for a while then i'll apologize but right now I don't think we can put a suicide on anything but a disturbed young man.

Belcher sustained a Head Injury in week 10 of the 2009 season. He was labled as "Probable", this was BEFORE the caution over head-injuries was emphasized. It sucks but the players union is going to have a Field-Day with this.

Yes, I had a buddy kill himself too. I couldn't see the immense depression that he was in before the event either because I just thought it was "normal" and he'll be fine. But after the fact, I now see it. He constantly tried to cover up his feelings by bringing home waitresses, drinking, and smoking pot. It sucks having lost him and sucks even more knowing that I "could" have done something about it. I put "could" in quotation marks because odds are pretty good that he would have just blown me off and said that he was fine. He was an athlete growing up, including playing football in Florida in High School (which is no where near the same level as the NFL). I really don't kno his history that well but I'm pretty sure that he experienced a head-injury growing up. I'm thinking car accident but am unsure.

There is no way to prove that this head injury in 2009 lead to the events of this morning but there is also no way to prove that it did not. However, the fact that head injuries are extremely serious and prior to the NFL's emphasis on head injuries people used to say things like: "he just got his bell rung", "all he needs is to shake the cob-webs out", etc. makes a good case for the players union.

fishgoblue22 wrote:

Wow, that's a big leap. Murder suicides happen every day to non football players. Ridiculous to try to connect two things that can't be connected.

MichiganFootball13 wrote:

Ya I think that is a pretty big leap. I mean I had a buddy kill himself and he probably never picked up a ball of any sort in his life. I know there is a correlation between concussions and mental disorders but to say yup thats why he did it is a little bit of a rash decision. Now if it turns out that he was complaining of concussions for a while then i'll apologize but right now I don't think we can put a suicide on anything but a disturbed young man.

"But in terms of the study’s findings on repeated routine hits, this is not good news for the NFL. Lawyers told the Daily News that the study will bolster the lawsuit filed earlier this year by thousands of former players and their families against the NFL, which claims the league hid information that linked head injuries to long-term brain problems."

Really? I'll wait for the APOLOGY.

http://articles.nydailynews.com/2012-12-03/news/35576750_1_bedford-va-medical-center-brain-trauma-brain-bank

BTW, I have every right to be arrogant about this after the way that I was treated for merely mentioning this possibility.

I see your point, but please explain the thousands of suicides around the world by people that don't play football. He was unstable, IMO.

PEOPLE!!! I believe bo is saying that the history of head injuries is not a factor to be overlooked in sorting this out. I don't beleive he is saying it is THE reason this happened. However, to ignore the possiblity is to be unnecessarily dismissive and short-sighted.

dwoody wrote:

PEOPLE!!! I believe bo is saying that the history of head injuries is not a factor to be overlooked in sorting this out. I don't beleive he is saying it is THE reason this happened. However, to ignore the possiblity is to be unnecessarily dismissive and short-sighted.

Finally, someone gets it! Thank you dwoody!!!!!!