Posted: April 20, 2016

What separates Hogshead-Makar from other Olympic greats, however, is her work after her distinguished swimming career ended. She is the founder of Champion Women, an organization that advocates for girls and women in sports. Prior to founding her organization, she was the Senior Advocacy Director at the Women’s Sports Foundation, a lawyer at Holland & Knight, and was a law professor at Florida Coastal School of Law. Often her work has brought her to testify before Congress on behalf of women’s rights. She’s been honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Women Owned Business Association, the Title IX Advocate Award from the Alliance of Women Coaches, NOW’s Courage Award, and induction into eleven halls of fame.

During the VA Brain Trust Summit in Washington, D.C. held Wednesday, April 20 by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Hogshead-Makar announced she is pledging her brain to the Concussion Legacy Foundation’s My Legacy campaign. The setting was significant to Hogshead-Makar, who has three uncles who served in World War II, one of whom is still living, and a nephew who is a Second Lieutenant in the Army.

Hogshead-Makar has always found that sports helped prepare her for life and she wants to make sure future generations have the same opportunity. We asked the Olympian, lawyer and advocate why she’s pledging her brain in pursuit of that goal, and what she wants her legacy to be.

Why are you pledging your brain to the Concussion Legacy Foundation? What are you hoping comes from it?

All of sports need to band together on the issue of brain health, concussions, and safety measures. Yet while doing so, we don’t want to scare parents into withdrawing their kids from sports altogether; we all want to affirm the importance of youth sports for kids, letting families know that they can play safely. Donating my brain is part of the effort to make sure youth sports are safe.

What do you want your legacy to be?

I am a civil rights lawyer. I concentrate on issues of girls’ and women’s participation in sports;  things like girls and women having equal participation, scholarships and treatment, free from sexual violence and abuse, and LGBTQ and employment discrimination. Part of that comes from wanting to increase the opportunities for all kids to be able to play sports, and to do so safely. I’m committed to increasing opportunities for kids to play … in safe ways, in ways that lead to positive-life outcomes like more education and employment, more STEM graduates and better emotional health measures.

Years ago, I noticed the concussion discussion was very football-centric and very much centered around men’s high-profile sports. I wanted to make sure that women and youth sports were in the messaging, so when new safety measure emerged, they weren’t limited to a small segment of sports.

We know, in the aggregate, that sports provide really unique educational and growth opportunities for kids. I always say the least important thing I got out of my swimming career is my Olympic gold medal. Don’t get me wrong— it’s very important to me — but the most important thing swimming did for me was learning about winning and losing, postponing short-term gratification for long-term rewards, and teamwork – things that are hard to learn on a blackboard. It’s what I want my kids to get out of sports. Sports participation isn’t just associated with better college graduation rates and more full-time employment; it’s been shown to cause these positive outcomes.

With clear scientific research, all of sports, whether it’s swimming, gymnastics, soccer, football or anything else, need to stick together and take a stand for the future of youth sports, by making sports as safe as possible.

How will pledging your brain affect youth sports?

By pledging my brain, I’m hoping to encourage others to do so. We must get as many athletes as possible to pledge their brains to make youth sports better and safer.

Would you like to see more prominent female athletes step forward and pledge their brain to research?

Of course. And I think they will when we get the word out. The importance of the Concussion Legacy Foundation mission will lead to more athletes, both women and men, pledging their brain for this important cause of brain health.

You’ve been a huge advocate of physical fitness among children. How will pledging your brain help promote that cause?

Anything I can do to be part of the team to increase brain health is a worthwhile endeavor, including pledging my brain.

My goal is to have more kids involved in sports, regardless of socioeconomic status or zip code. I’d hate for football to become like boxing; keeping the same rules and relegating the sport to kids with very few life-alternatives. I’ve read that participation numbers in youth football are going down. My hope is that these kids aren’t dropping out completely, and have safe sports alternatives to football.

At the same time, it is impossible for any activity or sport to be concussion-free. My niece got a concussion on the 4^th grade playground, just horsing around. It took her out of school for almost four months, and she benefitted from the research from the Concussion Legacy Foundation. We’d have a concussion every third year on our team, as someone whacked the wall coming in from a hard backstroke set, or fell on the wet deck. All sports, including non-contact sports, need to be aware of brain health.

You have an illustrious post-athletics career in advocacy, namely for women and children in sports. What took you in that direction?

Without a piece of legislation called “Title IX,” I would not have had my college athletic career or my Olympic medals. No matter how good I was— American and world records – that no matter how hard I worked – I was in the water four hours a day, lifting weights and running – none of that would have mattered if it hadn’t been for this statute which said that schools that received our tax dollars had to provide men and women with the same educational opportunities. I was lucky; I graduated from high school in 1980, hitting the new flood of collegiate sports opportunities and scholarships at the right time. Unlike those that have always known opportunities, I was acutely aware of my good fortune, and I wanted to make sure many more women had that opportunity.

A good sports experience can set a person up for future success in life in every way; physical health, emotional health, and economically productive. A high school sports experience means at least a 40% decrease in breast cancer. It is the best proven way to reduce adulthood obesity. I could go on and on about the research here, but the point here is that these are outcomes that are good for everyone; for our country.

The solution to the new research on brain injuries and brain health is not to throw out these long-lasting benefits with the cleats, saying goodbye to the playing field altogether. Instead, our common goal is to eliminate head injuries as much as possible, and treat them the right way at all levels of sport, so kids can continue to play sports in a safe way. The question becomes: how do you make concussion safety universal in youth sports, so more and more kids can be involved in a safe way? I think donating my brain, being here today is the best way to accomplish those goals.

Posted: March 3, 2016

Hundreds of thousands of youth, high school and college soccer careers were inspired by Chastain’s left-footed boot in 1999. A soccer lifer, she continues to be involved with and give back to the sport. Chastain is a Volunteer Assistant Coach at her alma mater, Santa Clara University, and is a vocal advocate for Safer Soccer, the campaign that encourages delaying the introduction of headers in youth soccer until high school.

The soccer icon isn’t stopping there, however. Chastain has pledged her brain to the Concussion Legacy Foundation as part of My Legacy. During an age in which we’re seeing an ever-increasing need to prevent, manage and treat concussions and brain damage from soccer, one of the sport’s biggest legends is giving all she can to help make the sport safer for future generations.

Why are you donating your brain to the Concussion Legacy Foundation?

With more information, the greater public can make better choices. I won’t be witness to the results when I donate my brain, and I hope that day is a long way from today, but I’m hoping that my donation helps change things for the positive. I hope my experience in soccer and what I am able to give back helps put soccer in a better place than it was when I started.

Having played soccer since I was little, I can’t even attempt a guess at how many times I’ve headed the ball. It’s a significant number. It’s scary to think about all the heading and potential concussions that were never diagnosed in my life, but it’s better to know.

How do you envision this research being used and making a difference for future generations?

Making a pledge like this, ultimately I’m thinking about the players. How do we evaluate what happened in my brain – when I started doing things like repetitive heading – and then take those results to improve the way we coach our young players? Can what we learn help change rules even more? Maybe by the time they study my brain, we’ll have other testing for things that aren’t even in our vision at this time. To move forward, you have to examine what’s happened in the past and see how we can change things for the future.

What do you want your legacy to be?

My experiences through sports have all been amazing, and I’m so grateful that I lived in a community that supported me participating. Because of my experiences, I have an opportunity to influence other coaches, players, and parents. Through working with Chris Nowinski and Dr. Robert Cantu I’ve learned a lot about the health and wellness of our athletes in a way that I never thought about before. We’ve asked questions that no one ever posed before. Because of these conversations and these interactions, as a parent I see my legacy changing from a soccer player to an athlete ambassador. I want to protect my kids – and it’s not just my kids, but every kid who steps onto the soccer field. I want to protect them and make sure that they get to have the kinds of experiences I had through soccer, while being safer and cared for.

You’ve been very involved with the Safer Soccer campaign to eliminate heading for kids under 14. That campaign saw a victory in November, with U.S. Soccer announcing its new rule prohibiting heading for players under 11 and limiting headers for players aged 11 to 13. What was your reaction to that news?

It’s a positive step that there’s been an amendment on the age, but there’s still a long way to go to provide a safer soccer environment for our kids, and for all of our players. We’d love U.S. Soccer to stand up and say, ’11 is still too young. Let’s protect these kids even longer.’ And what we’re pushing for doesn’t just apply here in the U.S., it’s really on a global scale. Soccer has a great influence on the world, and it has the opportunity to stand up and make a statement that as a unifying organization it wants to really make a difference in the lives of people, especially the youngest and most vulnerable people playing its sport.

Is donating one’s brain to research something that you’d like to see catch on among other former athletes?

This is such a personal issue, but what I would encourage is that everybody who’s had experience in sports should feel compelled to participate in helping make their sport better. If you have been a player who’s had multiple concussions or repetitive heading, to me it makes sense to donate and to be a part of a solution.

For so long, players with concussions have in many ways had to be in the dark on their own, dealing with symptoms, diminished capacity, or eventually experiencing the pain of having to step away from their sport. When you feel vulnerable and you feel like there are no answers, you feel alone. This is a chance to be empowered. By knowing that we’re not alone, and by working together and getting more people to follow suit, maybe in the future, we have less reason to worry about concussions. Ultimately, that’s where we want to get to. We’d like to be out of the job of talking about this.

RELATED: Pledge your brain to research

Below is a full transcription of Brandi’s interview:

WHO IS BRANDI CHASTAIN?

My name is Brandi Chastain. I’ve been in three World Cups and three Olympic Games.

ON THE CULTURE CHANGE IN SOCCER:

When I was with the national team as a player we talked about the legacy that we would leave and what we were doing on the field and how it would impact the game. Initially, it was about playing hard and being a team and, you know, setting goals and learning leadership skills and all the things that you need in life to be successful. But no one ever talked about being safe.

ON WHETHER KIDS SHOULD BE HEADING:

I don’t think anybody below the age of 14 should head the ball. Being more knowledgeable about what can happen to a small person whose musculature is not developed enough, and their brain is not developed enough, they don’t have enough life experience. They don’t understand space and time and awareness. These things that really allow a professional player to make good decisions and to protect themselves that these young kids don’t they just don’t possess these tools yet. Every sport has a chance to evolve. I think this is a part of our evolution.

ON SAFER SOCCER AS HER LEGACY:

Safer Soccer is the legacy that I’m hoping to leave for the long haul, for the future of this game, where we’ll have more people who will start the game as youngsters and play the game longer because they’ll be safe.

Posted: February 11, 2016

I played highly competitive tackle football for nearly a decade. My playing days were at the tail end of the concussion-ignorance era. Concern over concussions was new territory, with little information and little support. Back then, there were no real tests except for balance and the presence of headaches. To this day, I’m not sure if I had repeated concussions (mostly from football), or if I had a few that I simply never healed from. Regardless, I stopped reporting (e.g., caring) after my 6^th concussion made it to the medical report.

Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t the stereotypical jock who lived and breathed football. I was in the church band, an honors student, and an aspiring writer. I could remember anyone’s name and little details about them years later. My friends hated that I could bring up an old memory just to embarrass them around their girlfriends. But I was also 16, barely a sophomore, and just wanted to play ball.

In 2009 (concussions, a torn ACL, and a fractured back later), my playing days were over. I had a few recruitment letters collecting dust on my desk, but I had another set of contact info on top of them: the Concussion Legacy Foundation (called the Sports Legacy Institute at that time). They had made some small ripples in the sports community touting Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) before anyone would accept its existence. I emailed them, and found out there was no way to diagnose CTE in a living person.

Since then – despite the advances amazing doctors and researchers have made – the only way to officially diagnose CTE is still post-mortem. They open the brain and look at the tissue in search of build-up of an abnormal protein called tau.

Most readers probably know about CTE or have seen the movie Concussion (disclaimer: I haven’t yet, mainly out of fear I’ll cry in the theater). According to the Concussion Legacy Foundation, symptoms of CTE can include “memory loss, confusion, impaired judgment, paranoia, impulse control problems, aggression, depression, and eventually progressive dementia. Symptoms can begin to appear months, years, or even decades after trauma has ended.”

I love sports and being active. I love football and the glory that came from hitting a quarterback. I love barreling down Mt. Hood on my snowboard and riding a jet-ski at 40 mph on the Columbia River.

But I hate the headaches, I hate the days my eyes can’t focus, and I hate the ringing in my ears. I hate no longer recognizing people that have played significant roles in my life. I also hate the idea of kids not being able to enjoy life, living in some computerized bubble, because parents are (rightfully) afraid of them developing CTE like Junior Seau, Frank Gifford, or Tyler Sash.

That’s why after considering the future of the next generation, I’ve pledged to donate my brain to research. I don’t want to hit my mid-50s and no longer recognize my kids.

By pledging to donate my brain, I’m pledging that I want my legacy to be just one of the ripples making sports safer. I want to be remembered for making a difference, helping future generations be able to be healthy and active. I want my legacy to be that I helped save lives and revolutionize brain safety.

My future and the possibility of CTE is not something I can dwell on, but it’s something that I have to live with. So until we find a solution, let’s stand up – let’s not live in fear, but strive to make a difference. Do everything you can for yourself, or for someone that you love who has gone through multiple concussions: raise awareness, fund-raise, or even pledge to donate your brain.

We all have a responsibility for today, tomorrow, and tomorrow’s tomorrow. That’s my legacy. What will yours be?

Posted: February 5, 2016

As a star tight end at Syracuse University, he quietly and peacefully made inroads into the discrimination that permeated society, building lifelong friendships that transcended ethnicity and socioeconomic backgrounds.

With the Baltimore Colts, John revolutionized the tight end position and was selected to the Pro Bowl five times, accomplishments that earned him a place in the Pro Football Hall of Fame and praise from Mike Ditka as “the greatest tight end to ever play the game”.

As the first president of the National Football League Players Association following the merger of the NFL and AFL, he fought for better pension and disability benefits for players, and gained the right to free agency that today’s NFL players still enjoy.

John’s advocacy efforts – his determination to give back – didn’t stop with the NFLPA or end with his NFL career.

He partnered with Jack Kemp to launch a non-profit that gave educational assistance to disadvantaged children. He actively supported the civil rights movement that changed the course of history. He reached out to others, whether it was to offer guidance on career choices or to advocate for recognition of an under-appreciated teammate.

That’s the kind of person John Mackey was.

Although dementia robbed John of his powerful voice, his private battle with the disease became the public face of the link between head trauma and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). He was the catalyst for the 88 Plan that provides financial assistance for those affected, for the advocacy and fundraising efforts of his Baltimore Colt teammates that helped so many former NFL players, and for my own involvement in the Concussion Legacy Foundation. When John died on July 6, 2011, the widespread media coverage focused as much on these later-in-life accomplishments as on any of his achievements earlier in life. Even in illness and in death, he changed the world.

That, I believe, is John Mackey’s greatest legacy.

Sylvia Mackey
Mrs. #88

Posted: December 23, 2015

As an outspoken advocate for player health, Winston made headlines this season by calling out the shameful execution of concussion protocols by the St. Louis Rams on November 22 when quarterback Case Keenum took a vicious hit to the head and struggled to get up off the ground. Showing clear signs of concussion, Keenum was not removed from the game and evaluated, but instead dangerously stayed in the game for his team’s potential game-winning drive.

Winston is taking his commitment to player safety a step further. He has pledged his brain to the Concussion Legacy Foundation for CTE research when he passes away as part of the My Legacy campaign. So what’s it like being the president of a union, how does he view concussion awareness among NFL players, and what kind of legacy is leaving by pledging his brain?

Why are you donating your brain to the Concussion Legacy Foundation?

Research on this issue is moving at such a fast pace, but each additional piece of scientific data helps inform players about the risks and allows us to make decisions about making the game safer. Ultimately, I want to be a part of that process that helps the next generation of athletes at all levels have a greater understanding of what science says about head trauma and hopefully that will lead to better treatment and prevention.

What do you want your legacy to be?

First, I want to be known as a player who did the right thing and approached my career in a way that helped other players. I love the game of football and all that it has done for me and my family, but when I look back years from now, it is important that other players appreciate the positions we are taking to make things better for them. Hopefully I’ll be using my brain for a lot longer – I’m hoping I get another 60 years out of it. But if contributing to this research can just help move the needle some, then I will leave the game better than I found it. I really believe in that.

 

Cincinnati Bengals player and NFL Players Association President Eric Winston has pledged his brain to the Concussion Legacy Foundation for research. Others can do the same. To learn how to pledge your brain, click here.

I’m sure your role as President of the NFLPA has given you a perspective that you might not have had before. What has that experience been like – what’s the most important thing you have learned?

Whenever you have a responsibility like this, you realize how much effort and work it takes to make even minimal gains. I have always felt that I have a responsibility to our players – past, present and future – but when you’re president of the union it adds that weight to it and people look to you to continue a legacy of building upon what has been done in the past. The challenges are very real, but I learned that the best way to improve things for the lives of players is to be uncompromising about certain principles, and health and safety is one of those. At the end of the day, I want to leave this union better for the next guy that comes in, and I think that’s really what it’s always been about. We should be proud of what we have accomplished over the past few years, but we also know we have a long way to go.

Do you think incidents like the Case Keenum concussion playing out in front of a national audience will help spur action in the right direction?

If I have my way, then yes, I hope it will change something and inspire additional improvements. That’s the thing – it’s not just about Case, it’s always about being better. We have made important changes and to the NFL’s credit, they have been willing to work with us on those changes. At the same time, we know that the main reason why they want to work with us on these issues is because we hold them accountable to certain standards. We want the NFL to now hold the teams accountable to the protocols that are in place. Accountability and responsibility cannot fall squarely on the shoulders of players; the same standards that apply to us should apply to the teams, and to everyone. The trainers are professionals, the doctors are professionals, everyone in this league is a professional. We want greater accountability to the hard work and improvements that we have worked together to implement, otherwise it means little. There’s no such thing as a perfect system. There are always going to be things that we fix, and we keep getting better at, and that’s what we’ve got to keep doing.

Read the USA Today article covering Winston’s pledge to the Concussion Legacy Foundation.

Imagine you were a rookie coming into the league again. What would you tell the 22-year-old Eric Winston as he was starting his career?

I could probably write a short book about everything I would tell myself both on and off the field. Over the last ten years I’ve learned so much. In a lot of ways, I’ve become an adult. When I say adult, I mean a real professional. What it means to be a pro, to carry that responsibility. I’m married and have a family now, so when I look back to when I was 22, I look at myself almost like I was a silly kid. While some of that was fun, at the same time it’s almost like I was a totally different person. So in a lot of ways I wish I could have sped that process up. Because you look back and say “oh man, if you were just a little bit better of a pro” – so I would tell myself to learn what it means to be a pro as fast as possible. Because it took me a little bit, and once I got it I think I really ran with it.

How much have players’ perceptions of concussions and head trauma changed since you first entered the league?

I think especially those in my class who were drafted in the mid-2000’s and played for a long time, our careers have run alongside this concussion legacy. When I came in the league, it was still at the point where you might hear, “here’s some smelling salt and get back out there.” There were still lots of big hits over the middle. ESPN was still rolling “Jacked Up” when I was in the league. So a lot of that was still going on. We didn’t understand a lot of it. And in the mid-point of my career, we’ve switched and we’ve changed, and started to understand this whole thing. Even in the last three years it’s evolved. The guys that are coming in the league now, and are two or three years in, are way different than the guys that are 10 and 11 year vets. No one ever wants to leave a game due to injury and risk losing their job to a replacement, but guys these days are willing to risk it in the sense that they know this isn’t a sprained ankle. This isn’t a hurt knee. Their outlook is totally different, and it’s because of this awareness and all the information we’ve been pushing. And that’s a very good thing.

Do you think NFL players are properly informed about the risks of head trauma?

I think we have done a great job of making the information available to players. At the end of the day we want to make sure we are fully transparent about what we know. It is scary to think how fast information on this issue is flowing and often times it is hard to separate the fear from realities of what is out there. When I first got in the league no one was talking about anything. Now, there are movies, documentaries and books coming out, there’s so much information out there and that’s a good thing. Players need to hear from us, namely the NFLPA, about what science says about the risks and then players have a choice to make about what to do. In the long run, we know that embracing, supporting and funding research can help us learn more.

To learn how to pledge your brain for research, click here.

Posted: December 22, 2015

Now 61, Fencik still lives in Chicago and serves as a Partner and Head of Business Development at Adams Street Partners, a global private equity firm. True to his character, Fencik’s forward thinking has provided one more line for his resume: future brain donor. He has pledged his brain to the Concussion Legacy Foundation as part of the My Legacy campaign, to be studied for Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) after his death.

In this interview, Fencik spoke about his playing days, his thoughts on concussion and CTE awareness, and the legacy he hopes to leave by pledging his brain to research.

Why are you donating your brain to the Concussion Legacy Foundation?

If there is some contribution that I can make to the research that might lead to improving the chances that other athletes in the future don’t have a problem, I’m proud to do that.

Do you think the idea of brain donation is catching on among athletes?

I think there is still a lot of awareness that needs to be done. I don’t know how many players are really aware that they can make this contribution. Or you’ll wait until it’s too late, you pass away, and then no one knows that you wanted to make a contribution. So it’s something that I’ve given thought to. It reminds me a little bit of when we were playing and going on strike. When you’re in your twenties people are talking about how you need better retirement benefits, and you’re going, “what are retirement benefits? That’s something that’s going to happen to me way down the road.” I think it’s pretty easy just to delay that decision. Even though you might want to make a contribution, you say you’ll do it “someday.” I’ve just reached that point where “someday” is today.

What do you want your legacy to be?

I’ve been very fortunate to have a great life. To go to Yale, certainly you don’t think about the NFL when you go to an Ivy League school. So to have a great career, win a Super Bowl for my hometown team, I feel very fortunate. Playing football and just having a great experience with so many fantastic athletes, I’m very thankful for that. And I think as you progress into your career and toward retirement, you start to think more about making a contribution back. And I would hope this will be part of my legacy and my contribution back.

During your NFL career, did you have an eye on making sure you had a plan after your career?

I think the players of my era did not have the benefit of free agency, and so most of my teammates worked in the offseason, or went to get another degree. Bob Thomas, who was our kicker, is today a Supreme Court judge in the state of Illinois. Alan Page, a Hall of Famer for the Vikings who finished his career in Chicago, today is a Supreme Court judge in Minnesota. I had a teammate who became a dentist. You had to work, because the dollars weren’t sufficient where when you were done with your playing career, you’d be in a position to potentially not have to work the rest of your life. So things were quite different back then.

I also had the benefit of having almost a parallel life where I had my Yale buddies who were going to business school, law school, and med school, and recognizing that at some point when this career ended, that I was going to need another degree to pursue whatever I was going to do after football.

You are a prime example of a successful transition from the NFL to a post-league career. What has allowed you to make that transition so smoothly?

Well, I don’t know that I felt it went smoothly at the beginning. I think the difference is that when you’re in your twenties and everyone is switching jobs, it’s very natural to do so. But if you are fortunate enough to play until you’re 30 in the NFL and maybe you have a wife and a couple of kids, the idea of taking three to five years to transition and see what you want to do when you ‘grow up’ is a different path, and a very lonely one. I was fortunate that I did go to business school while I was playing, and while I had some idea of what I wanted to do, as I look back, it still was a difficult transition.

What do you miss the most about playing in the NFL?

You have a goal every week that you’re either going to be good enough, both personally and as a team, or you’re not. It’s that immediacy and that certainty that you are going to play at noon, and by four o’clock you’re going to know whether your team was good enough that day. You rarely see it in business outside of sports. Things get postponed, decisions get delayed, it’s just much different than the certainty of a decision in the NFL.

I think one of the other things I miss is just being paid to work out. [Laughs] Now, I might work out after I spend a full day or travel somewhere, whereas in the NFL, they’re paying you to work out and stay in the best shape of your life, and you’re just having fun.

What do you miss the least?

I don’t miss the injuries, I don’t miss the aches, and I don’t miss icing my knees after every practice. Every single practice from the time I was injured in about my fourth year to the time I retired eight years later, I had to pack my left knee with ice after every practice as the regimen of staying in shape. I certainly don’t miss that.

How would you describe your style of play?

I was a wide receiver at Yale, so the transition to defense was a challenge. I learned through watching other players on the team, and from Doug Plank in particular, who I played with for six years. He really helped me become more aggressive. I think that at some point, most players stop thinking and simply move to a different gear, and I was fortunate to get that opportunity to do so. I certainly was known as a pretty good hitter, but I would say that my success in the NFL was predicated on having a defensive coordinator in Buddy Ryan who put a high degree of importance on playing smart. So I definitely saw myself as being a smart football player.

The awareness of concussions and CTE right now is probably higher than it has ever been. Did you ever think about all those hits adding up while you were playing?

No. I never gave it any consideration at all. I only had one concussion where I had to leave the playing field. I hit [Hall of Fame running back] Earl Campbell, and it wasn’t even a particularly good hit, but I had a 33-inch waist and Campbell had a 34-inch thigh. I came back and finished that game, and I think I tackled him or tried to tackle him the last three plays of the game, and although I got credit for the tackles, I was on the bottom every time. But I didn’t have any repercussions after that game. I can’t really recall that I had headaches after the game. So I feel very fortunate today.

Do you think about the potential effects of head trauma a lot now that you have retired from the game?

Going forward, all of us are concerned not about the shoulders or the replaced knees. Everybody’s just worried whether or not there may be a time where you start to develop symptoms as a precursor to CTE. I would say that there was a clear demarcation line in my life where my teammate Dave Duerson died by suicide. After that, there was no hiding or being evasive about the potential impact that this could have on the quality of my and all of my teammates’ lives going forward.

It struck me to see Mike Ditka say earlier this year that he wouldn’t let his hypothetical child play football. Your team, the Bears of the mid-1980’s, is one of the best NFL teams of all time, and these are football lifers who are now reconsidering the place of football in their lives. Is that a strange feeling?

I’ve talked to a lot of my teammates and a lot of people who I’ve played against and with, and I don’t know that anybody wouldn’t do it again. But my hope and expectation is that there’s going to be better protocol and better procedures to increase awareness. We’ve got to find the best way to modulate – you know you’re not going to eliminate them – but hopefully reduce the multiple concussions that could lead to significant problems in your adult life. And unfortunately, for some athletes it’s impacted them even sooner. And that’s really a tragedy.

Your daughter, now a college student and soccer player, has really dug into the issue of concussions. What has that been like for you?

It’s extraordinary to me that my daughter, who I thought was going to be an English major, is a neuroscience major now as a result of an internship with the Concussion Legacy Foundation. It completely changed her outlook in terms of what she wanted to focus on in college, and I’m very proud of what she’s doing. So I’m glad it had such a positive impact on her. I think the more people are educated in terms of concussions, they’re just going to make smarter decisions, whether it’s for themselves in sports, or for their children.

Does having kids of your own change your perspective on safety in sports?

When you talk about youth sports, I have a really high degree of confidence that people are getting smarter and technology is going to improve the ability to monitor these injuries. Instead of applauding and cheering pee-wee football players hitting one another, I think there are smarter ways to go about enjoying yourselves at a young age without having to put pads on. I don’t know anyone who, at the age of 8 or 9, said they aspire to play left guard. [Laughs] I coached flag football for my son and my daughter. I think with the fun of football, there’s so much you can do –– learn the rules and the importance of a huddle, and teammates, all of those things you can do without putting pads on.

To learn how to pledge your brain for research, click here.