NYDN- Morris Claiborne is willing to risk his life despite the mounting research linking the degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) to football. The veteran Jets cornerback has suffered three documented concussions over the past decade, but that hasn’t altered his view about playing the game that he loves.
“A lot of people don’t believe me when I say this,” Claiborne told the Daily News in a candid discussion about CTE and concussions. “But I would die out there on that football field. This is my life. This is what I do. I give it all. I would die out there.” “If I was concussed that bad where they said you can’t go back out there or you’ll potentially lose your life, I gotta go,” he added. “I gotta go play. I gotta go play.” “This is what I do. This is all I know,” Claiborne said. “I might die lying there sitting on the couch. … I don’t want to coach. I want to play football.” Claiborne said family is an important factor, “but at the same time, they’re not there playing.” “They don’t feel the way I feel about this game,” Claiborne said. “If anybody can go through some of the things that I went through and still push on, you ain’t gonna let nothing stop you. So, I’m not going to let nothing stop me. Nothing at all.” ----- Oh, the irony. The New York Jets currently employ two defensive backs that - if you believe their own words - would literally sacrifice their life for a franchise has already murdered any possible chance they have of playing meaningful football this season. I know it takes a certain level of crazy to go out there compete against the biggest, strongest, and baddest athletes on the planet in the most physically taxing sport on earth every week, but that level of crazy is only surpassed by how nuts you would have to be not to consider the circumstances before doing so with your health at risk. In theory, the team that Jamal Adams and Morris Claiborne play for shouldn't effect how willing they are to compromise the long term functionality of their fucking brain, but in practice it absolutely should. They are currently part of some pathetically putrid means to an end, and since that end is somewhere undoubtedly somewhere amongst the 2-3 worst teams in the entire NFL, they should probably sit their asses on the bench if they have a mild headache, never mind a degenerative contusion inside their skull. Maybe (definitely not) I could see the allure of playing through the beginning stages of CTE if they were lining up in playoff games with the Patriots, but I wouldn't even play through an STD if I were a New York Jet. That's got nothing to do with toughness or competitiveness, that's just a refusal to not potentially give my ability to think clearly into my 40's to an organization that wouldn't give me the respect to make it look like they are even trying to win football games. If I were Morris Claiborne I probably wouldn't step back on the field if someone told me "hey man, a strong gust of wind might leave you braindead". He seems to have his heart set on doing so, but may I suggest that he saves his compromised cerebellum for games that might actually matter?
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