Former receiver Antwaan Randle El regrets playing football

He says he regrets playing football because he could still be playing baseball. He got drafted in the 14th round in baseball. So some (or most) of the regret is the fact that he could still be playing sports and possibly even lost revenue.

I wonder if he would have chosen baseball and never made the big leagues, would he then regret not playing football?

Or if his option was just to be a regular Joe or play NFL football and make all that money and get all that fame what his choices or regrets would be.

Most guys who got drafted in the 14th round are coaching HS baseball when they're 36. 

Let's interview the 1000's of guys who don't regret playing in the league. Good for him but we all make choices we 'regret' later. Just ask me after a taco bar.

I was thinking the same thing. I have trouble getting down the stairs now at 36. Maybe its because he hasn't paid any attention to his mobility work since getting out of the NFL? At least thats my problem. And also the old lady's at the church. 

He said something about doing everything right and still becoming a paraplegic. Really? Becoming a paraplegic has to do with axial loading of the spine. Thats not doing everything right. I know more paraplegic cheerleaders than I do football players and there are way more people participating in football Im willing to bet. Nobody is saying get rid of cheerleading. Its insane. 

There are alot of people whos bodies hurt when they are old because they played sports. Its called getting friggin old. 

We had a kid early this year die from riding his dirt bike in the road. From the CDC...During 2003, among persons aged <19 years, at least 245 died and an estimated 56,870 were treated in U.S. hospital emergency departments (EDs) for injuries sustained while riding a motorcycle (1)

Why is that not in the news? More people die in one year riding motorcycles than in 20 years in football. 


Researchers reviewed data from the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research and found 243 football deaths recorded between July 1990 and June 2010.



One hundred of the fatalities resulted from an underlying heart condition, 62 were due to a brain injury - typically a subdural hematoma - and 38 were from heat-related causes, according to findings published in The American Journal of Sports Medicine.



Kelly Dougherty, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, said she found the number of heat-related deaths in particular "quite alarming."

Most were heat related. I wonder how many of those were from kids not eating before practice? Most of those deaths can be prevented with common sense. 

One glaring omission from that article is how many concussions Randle El was diagnosed with during his playing career. There's not even a number of how many he thought he sustained.

I've no doubt there's a link between concussions and sub-concussive hits and CTE, dementia, etc., but you'd think the Washington Post would write a better article.

He's entitled to his opinion, I'll grant him that.

But, it was his choice to stay in the league for as long as he did and get chewed up. There are many NFL players that are talking about the severity of their injuries after their career ends but, again, it was their choice to keep playing. They had the opportunity to retire as very wealthy young men once they started to have problems but they didn't take it.

I understand having a love for the game and wanting to play as long as you can. But, that's with the understanding that you're going to walk out of the game with the physical ailments of a much older person.

And when you look up careers of many players from earlier in the NFL they tended to all be shorter than today. Not sure how the mean or median career lengths compare, but maybe players already understood that purposely getting involved in multiple car crashes 14-16 weeks a year was taking its toll on their bodies.

As an unfortunate lifetime Lions fan, I've really come to appreciate the career Barry Sanders had & understand that choosing to walk away probably was a conscious decision to ensure his quality for over half of the rest of his life was as high as possible.

The concussion issue isn't going away anytime soon ... there is way too much money to be made by lawyers attacking a billion dollar industry. Listening to Mike and Mike this morning, Golic nailed it ... let's hear from a study from football players that stopped playing the game after high school, which is 94% of us by the way. How many of us have issues or a limited quality of life because we played the game of football. CTE and the tragedies attached with it are almost 100% of former NFL players, at least from what is reported on from the media.

Also, let's take in consideration the lifestyles of these men ... is the cause of their low quality of life strictly to the game itself or the reckless behavior of these men outside of the game of football? And for those that believe football is too violent and should be abolished, then why aren't folks asking for the end of boxing, MMA, rugby, etc? It is all about the almighty dollar and attacking a sport that dominates the sports world and makes billions of dollars in the United States.

If young males do not have the opportunity to play the game of football, they will still find a way to be reckless and put themselves at risk ... we are men, we are filled with testosterone and will always participate in reckless, dumb a$$ sh!t! That's what makes us who we are ... and so the answer for those football haters is to take away OUR game which teaches them life lessons and what it means to be part of something greater than themselves! Are you kidding me??!!

The world we live in no longer has balance or requires self accountability ... it is always someone else's fault for their own failures or their own hardships. I sure hope at some point in my lifetime this discussion gets put to rest and the media and the lawyers find another sport to attack because there is no greater sport then OUR GAME. Until then, we need to continue to sell our sport by being proactive and being the best ambassadors of our sport so our young men and their parents realize that the benefits of this great game far outweigh the risks involved. WE FIGHT, WE WIN!!!!

I bet you'll hear all about that in the media.

How am I now just finding out that you were a MLB strength coach?

I have been privileged to coach two guys in football that got drafted in baseball.  One actually made it to the show and is pitching. They were great athletes and LOVED the weight room. 

Start a new thread and let's get going!

Lets compare the money for Mr.-El

NFL
Pitt (1) - Bonus $935,000
Skins - 7 yr $31 Million ($11.5 million in Bonuses)
Pitt (2) - 3 Yr $7 million ($900,000 sign bonus)

MLB
14th Rd 2002 (at the best to keep him from football $500,000??)*will not get anything better until a major league contract, if he made it.


I do not see where he regrets the money he made? I understand what he is saying now with being hurt but that is the price he paid and earned, also has a Super Bowl Ring

And let's not forget the cluster that Detroit was and still is ...megatron is about to retire too

The big message here is to players who continue to go on despite repeated concussions. look at Austine Collie and Wes Welker for instance as classic examples. Heck, Welker even came back to the Rams for a stint this season and he's an idiot for doing so.

I hope this story and others like it get much more coverage because players aren't helping themselves and are taking far too much of a liberty with their own safety, which makes it hard for us to feel as sorry for them. I'm repeatedly getting tired of watching players wear loose fitting helmets and having them coming off after standard hits.

They know the risks, they take liberty with them, and they continue to play despite them. I suffered a concussion , post concussion syndrome and then contracted epilepsy...after that I stopped and there was no way I was risking my future health for any sport. These guys have got to start realising no amount of money can make up for having to endure something like he is, or I have had to endure.

My brother had to quit playing football 4 games into his junior year of high school due to concussion issues. He was a state championship QB and all state player as a sophomore. Was leading the state in rushing yards and TD's for the first 3 games his junior year but got his 4th concussion in less than 2 years and he and my parents made the decision to end the football carer. We knew the risks, were willing to accept them to a point, and got out once the risks were too great...

Both of us now coach high school football and when we talk about playing and the risks of football, etc... all my brother ever says is that he wishes he could go back and play again, but knows that it was the best choice to stop playing. He only regrets that he got the concussions in the first place and considers himself unlucky to have received his concussions when so many other people can play the game and take more hits than he and not get the major concussions that he had.

I teach chemistry and physics and I have no sympathy for anyone who played football in the post WW2 era when 90% of the population of our students in high school have to take some sort of physics-related class where they would learn about force, mass, acceleration, and the amounts of energy those things place on objects. If you wake up the day after a football game and you are sore from the neck-down, your head feels the same way, but you don't have the ability to feel that soreness in your head like you do the rest of your body. Doesn't take a genius to figure out that the sport has risks. Too many of these players look the other way to collect a paycheck and take the fame that comes with it, then want to plead ignorance... they CHOSE to be ignorant to it because the money/fame was more important to them short-term.

Hell, I have lots of things I could have done differently in my life... the girl at school that I didn't talk to at that party, only to find out she was willing to sleep with ANYONE, not choosing to walk-on at a bigger school as a 6'1" 185 lb QB from high school and redshirting rather than going to an NAIA school because in less than 3 months I was 6'3" 240, and a million other things. Do I blame anyone else for those decisions... NO. Do I regret any of those decisions... NO. You make the decisions you make based on the information you have available (and info on how dangerous football could be has been around since they were forced to invent the forward pass because of people DYING in the early days) and have to live with the consequences. Some people are willing to risk dying early and of some really bad cancers by smoking/chewing, I am not. But I also hate all the advertisements and other media and people who badger the people who do. It is their decision and must live with the consequences.

$h!t... I would have gone into the military with my 99th percentile score on the ASVAB, but the whole, "I could get my #ss shot off" possibility kept me clear of making that decision. I'm too much of a pu$$y to get shot at.