The sport must change

When he shot himself to death at his home last month, as declared Duerson, who was 50, fired bullet in his chest rather than his head to southern Florida. He did not want to further damage his brain. He explained in text messages and a hand-written note, wanted the former all-pro safety his brain tissue studied, presumably in order to determine whether he had been suffering from a devastating degenerative disease that takes a terrible toll on what appears to be an increasing number of pro football players and other athletes.

As The Times reported, Duerson wrote, "Please see that my brain is provided for the N.F.L. brain bank".

Professional football has major, major problem on his hands, and I am not talking about the account lockout policy settings as jeopardizing the 2011 season. The game is chewing tobacco up players as a meat grinder. Proof that grow an extra number of players who are struggling with lifelong physical impotence, depression, dementia and many other serious problems linked to their playing days.

Duersons concerns are believed to have been centered on chronic traumatic encephalopathy, an incurable disease associated with depression and dementia in athletes who played violent sports such as football and boxing. A number of retired soccer players, including some who took his own life, was found to have had the disease, which can only be diagnosed post mortem inspection.

Pro Football, the country's most popular sport, ratcheting up their violence quota this year. Fans loved it, but a backlash has developed as more and more stories coming to light about horrific price retired players pay for a sport that is increasingly resembling the Colosseum-like combat. Some players escape unscathed after years of brain-rattling joint-devastating, bone-breaking, mind-changing collisions. Many are living out their lives in chronic pain, varying degrees of paralysis, and all manner of cognitive and emotional distress.

N.F.L. has taken some corrective measures, in particular in the area of head injuries. Pro Football, always violent, is now extremely violent but there is some question as to whether the violent style of play – and the consequences that flow from it – really can be changed. Paul Tagliabue, a former N.F.L. Commissioner, told The New Yorker about comments by a group of former players who had looked closely at how defensive game has changed. "They took up the idea," said Tagliabue, "that it was no longer tackle football. The all collision football. The players looked like bionic men. "

I am a big fan of football, but I get a feeling of nausea when I see one of these huge items leaving the opposing players lying as if lifeless on the turf. Or when I read about player Andre waters, formerly of the Philadelphia Eagles and Arizona Cardinals, who shot himself to death in 2006 at 44 years of age. A forensic pathologist said water on the brain tissue looked like an 85-year-old man. It turned out that he had suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a disease that Duerson may have feared.

This is a huge tragedy. So many players are suffering in the shadows. They need more help from the N.F.L., the players ' Union and countless others cashing in on a sport that has become a multibillion-dollar phenomenon. And big changes required by the rules, equipment, and culture of the sport to cut down on the carnage inflicted on current and future players.

Was once a big fan of boxing. I marveled at the breathless, carefully detailed stories my parents ' generation told of Joe Louis and the excellent Sugar Ray Robinson. I have followed Muhammad Ali career from beginning to end. I read biographies of the great boxers in the 20th century.

But I also saw TV fight in March 1962, in which Emile Griffith defeated Benny (Kid) Paret so barbaric that the couple died 10 days later. Robinson also killed a man in the ring, Jimmy Doyle, in a struggle in 1947. And it is no secret that even the biggest fighters tended to be in bad shape, demented or weakened from punishment for their trade – Louis, Robinson, Ali, as many others. I have not been able to watch the sport this year.

It is a very bad sign that chronic traumatic encephalopathy, long associated with boxing, is now linked to football. With the carnage that is increasingly emerging from the shadows, there is no guarantee that the soccer magic hold on public opinion will last. Players suffer not only, some are dying. The game must be changed.