LITTLE ROCK — Baseball better, says McMahon
Former NFL quarterback Jim McMahon, 53, is in the early stages of dementia and is part of a group suing the NFL that says the league hid the effects of concussions.
McMahon was the quarterback of the 1985 Chicago Bears world championship team and was known for his tough, reckless style of play. But he never played a full season in his career (1982-1996), in which he played for six teams.
In an interview with WFLD-TV in Chicago on Wednesday from his Arizona home, McMahon said he would have played baseball if he knew what concussions would do to him.
“That was my first love, was baseball, and had I had a scholarship to play baseball [at Brigham Young], I probably would have played just baseball,” McMahon said. “But football paid for everything. It still does. ThatSuper Bowl XX team is still as popular as it ever was.
“Being injured, if you don’t play, you don’t get paid. If I was able to walk out on that field, I was going to play. Had I known about that stuff early on in my career, I probably would havechosen a different career. I was always wanted to be a baseball player anyway.”
McMahon, who said he suffered four concussions during his career, is part of a group of more than 2,000 players who said they need help from the NFL after concussions have filled their retirement with dementia and memory loss. In fact, McMahon’s teammate in Chicago, Dave Duerson, asked for his brain to be studied before committing suicide.
Duerson, 50, was found to have chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
Speaking out
Oakland Athletics starting pitcher Dallas Braden is leaving his hometown of Stockton because of the increasing crime in the northern California city.
During an anti-violence rally at Victory Park in Stockton on Wednesday night, Braden expressed his thoughts to residents and community leaders.
Braden, 29, shouted at Stockton Police Chief Eric Jones, who asked him to quiet down so others could hear.
Jones then told Braden that if he continued yelling, “We’ll have you escorted out if you don’t wait until the end.”
Braden told Jones that he has been the victim of a car-jacking attempt and his grandmother’s apartment was broken into. He called police response to the incidents “lacking.”
“I’m out of here, because I’ve been lied to my entire life here, and I hate to see these people get lied to like this,” Braden told KOVR-TV in Sacramento, Calif.
“I’ve already put my home on the market. I’m out.
“I’ve fought for this community. I’ve given back to this community. This community raised me to be where I am today, and to be lied to blatantly by the guy who’s supposed to be running the shots around here. I can’t do anything. I have nobody to go to.”
Braden pitched a perfect game against the Tampa Bay Rays in 2010. But he has not thrown a pitch in 2012 because of shoulder problems.
They said it
Jason Smith of the NFL Network: “With the real refs back, Golden Tate’s fantasy value drops.”
From the satirical website TheOnion.com: “Rex Ryan announces Darrelle Revis has best torn ACL in NFL.”Quote of the day
“These matches are
not life and death.
Golf has to be played with a certain spirit of graciousness or it’s not golf at all.”
U.S. captain Davis Love III on the Ryder Cup
Sports, Pages 20 on 09/28/2012