Former NFL star Dave Pear is sorry he ever played football

[The Straight Story]

Former NFL star Dave Pear is sorry he ever played football

Dave Pear has a message for you.

"Don't let your kids play football," he says. "Never."

It is an odd thing, hearing these sort of words from a man like David Louis Pear, University of Washington standout, Pro Bowl defensive lineman for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Super Bowl champion with the Oakland Raiders. His five-year NFL career was one thousands of high school and college athletes would envy -- charging out of a darkened stadium tunnel, 70,000 fans screaming for you, loving you, praising you, idolizing you.

"You wanna know the truth?" says Pear.

The question lingers -- the 56-year-old ex-athlete preparing to unload one more skull-splitting hit.

"I wish I never played football. I wish that more than anything. Every single day, I want to take back those years of my life ..."

The words are not subtle. They spit from Pear's mouth, with a blistering contempt normally reserved for drunk drivers. We are speaking via phone. I am in New York, sipping a hot chocolate, leaning back in a chair. My two young children are asleep. A Pretenders song, "2000 Miles," plays in the background. No worries, no complexities. Pear is sitting at his home in Seattle. His neck hurts. His hips hurt. His knees hurt. His feet hurt. When he wakes up in the morning, pain shoots through his body. When he goes to sleep at night, pain shoots through his body. What does Pear do to stay active?

"My life is simple," he says. "It's hard to get out of bed, but eventually I do. I try and do a little walking on the treadmill. I take naps. I go to physical therapy once per week. I read my Bible."

He is, in basic terms, a train wreck -- a football-inflicted train wreck. Pear walks with a cane and, often, simply doesn't walk at all. He suffers from vertigo and memory loss. Over the past 18 years, he has undergone eight surgeries, beginning with a Posterior Cervical Laminectomy on his neck in 1981, and including disc removal and rod fusion in his back (1987), arthroplasty in his left hip (2008) and, earlier this year, four screws removed from his lower back. Though he chalks up his physical ailments to snap after snap of punishment, he pinpoints the biggest problems back to 1979 and '80, his final two NFL seasons. While playing for Oakland, Pear suffered a herniated disc in his neck that never improved. Despite the unbearable agony, he says the Raiders urged him to keep playing.


Throughout North America, many of Pear's retired football brethren hear his words and scream, Amen!

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/jeff_pearlman/12/18/pear/index.html?cnn=yes

[Ron Green]

1. I work with people every day who suffer that kind of pain, but all they have to show for it is

a logging job or a mill job that went away, leaving them without health insurance or skills that will transfer to the new Information Economy.

At least NFL guys have the chance to put away a stout chunk of change for their eventual decrepitude.

[virgogal]

2. Damn right- He should have been a miner or a commercial fisherman.

Poor baby.

[asdjrocky]

3. That is a very good point sir.

I was going to offer to let him fabricate sheet metal like I did for 3 summers in a row. If he doesn't find that to his liking he can do some roofing with me, I did that every summer for 4 years.

[GoCubsGo]

8. Yeah, but the NFL guys are the lucky ones...

What about the ones who don't make it there? That's what he's getting at. The game makes everyone decrepit, but the vast majority who play it don't make it to the NFL. Heck, a lot of 'em don't even make it onto a college team. Yet, their bodies are still being torn to shreds. even at the high school level.

[roguevalley]

10. it causes brain injuries each time they are hit and it can cause death

or illnesses like parkinsons. There is no safe limit or gear for getting hurt.

[Pithlet]

20. Yes, Football is bad. There's been a lot about it in the media lately. I had no idea.

I read an article in Sports illustrated a few months ago that really opened my eyes and have since seen other media pieces since then. It's very bad. I'd urge anyone who is having a hard time with the article in the OP to do a little digging and really learn what it does to their bodies. Yes, the football stars do make lots of money but they're a minority. And if they regret it despite the money and fame, then that should really tell you something. I'll never let my kids play. Never in a million years. Anything but football.

[tblue37]

52. I warned my tall, thin son as he approached puberty that I would never consider letting him

play football. Fortunately, he never showed any interest in it.

[tabbycat31]

27. my dad was offered a full football scholarship

that he had to turn down because he suffered a career ending injury in HS.

[callous taoboy]

28. We lost a middle school student last year on the football field after

he was hit and had a brain aneurysm. If Pear's statement can prevent another kid from putting himself in peril like this all the better.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

30. I Had Lunch With Him Back In 86 Or 87 When He Was Looking For A Job

He worked for a paper compnany in Washingston state,Weyerhauser I believe, and wanted to move to Orlando. I was thrilled that I could sit down and have lunch with a former NFL player. He was the nicest, quietest, most unpretentious man you would want to meet.

There are a lot of tough jobs out there that are hard one one's body but I don't know many jobs beside professional soldier, boxer, and football player that can leave you with traumatic brain injuries.

[Bucky]

32. Interesting point. With football, he got 30 years of physical abuse in 10 yrs.

I also wonder if his medical situation has left him with much of his millions of dollars. If you have little money, you might get by on disability or insurance coverage. If you have millions like an ex NFL star, I bet you end up burning through a lot of that cash early on before realizing you have problems that won't go away.

[MilesColtrane]

37. Pear missed out on the really big money.

I'd be surprised if he made more than 300k total for the five years he was in the league.

[pipi_k]

38. Thanks for pointing that out...

Everything he listed...all his aches and pains....I suffer from on a daily basis, and have for a long time.

I never played football. Or worked in a factory or mill.

There's a family history of Fibromyalgia and Arthritis and other similar disorders, and I suspect that's what's going on here.


Unlike NFL stars, I don't have a huge bank account to make up for the pain, and I can't afford therapy or other expensive treatments.


Not that I don't empathize with him over his pain, but he chose to go into football...I didn't choose what happened to me.

[endless october]

4. i got out of football during high school.

spent every night looking over at the tennis courts; jealous that they could go home at 6:30.

i got hurt, but not badly. joined the tennis team for the rest of high school.

then after high school, i discovered music kicks the shit out of running full speed into some testosterone-overdriven jerk. should have spent high school in a rock band. have tried to make up for that since.

[Journeyman]

5. My neighbor's son had an opportunity to try out with Tampa Bay . . .

After considerable thought, he turned them down.

When I asked him why, he explained he was an interior lineman, not a very charismatic man, and unlikely to create a post-football career from his time in the big leagues. He'd also had surgery on his knees while in college. It was more important, he believed, to be able to walk when he was 50 than to look back on a short career in the pros, no matter how exciting that time might prove to be.

"If I went into that training camp," he told me, "every man there would know more about my knees and my injuries than I know myself. Why? Because the reason I'm there is to try to take away their job, or one of their friend's jobs, and they're not going to take kindly to that. So they'd key on my knees, test to see how strong I am, intent to break me or make me prove I deserve the slot. And frankly, much as I love the game, it isn't worth it. Because even if I made it through my rookie year, the toll on my body would eventually add up to a life of misery."

I've never looked at football the same since.

[hadrons]

6. When I was 27, I dated an ex-cheerleader (she was 23 at the time) ...

and she still had bad knees 5 years afterwards (it was High School) ... and she was just a cheerleader at the game

[undeterred]

34. Those young figure skaters go through a lot of pain too.

Its like putting a lifetime of wear on your bones in a couple of years.

[GreenPartyVoter]

46. Yep. Ditto with gymnasts. The ones that train for most of their young lives never really grow quite

right. :(

[GreenPartyVoter]

45. Cheering is really rough on the joints, especially the more competitive sort.

[Raster]

47. I promise: No kneepad jokes!

[nightrain]

7. knr. Football is a brutal corporate business that takes its toll on bodies and emotions.

[soleft]

9. Have you ever noticed how Howie Long walks in the truck commercials

it looks like every step pains him.

Well, it ain't just football. I'm about to have my 3rd knee surgery in 4 and a half years and I just play softball on weekends. I once read in a book that athletes do not what it's like to have a day without pain.

[1]

11. life is a hard job that takes its toll on all of us. football player, laborer, truck driver...

ballerinas...

sucks to be you, mr. superbowl. i hurt too, just like you. but i never got the ring and the big paychecks.

so, nutt up, pear. or shut up...

[Hekate]

12. To all you unsympathetic ones: Maybe he's talking to the parents of high schoolers? Ya think?

Pear directs his comments right at the parents, who have some say over their kids' activities. He's warning them about this "glamorous" sport.

Head injuries are common, and several concussions add up to long-term brain damage for young players. Decades ago I read an article in a medical journal about overeager coaches who taught a method of tackling that led to snapped spines and permanent paralysis for some of their high school players. I don't know if that's been banned or if it's still going on.

So go ahead and snark at the man because he had the short-lived fame and glory, and others in hazardous jobs never got either one. He's trying to tell you something about professional football that maybe should be more widely known.

Hekate

[1]

13. i wasn't snarkin'. unless you sit on your ass in a cubicle all day, work will fuck with you...

and even if you sit on your ass in a cubicle all day, work will still fuck with you.

dude hurts. boo hoo. i hurt. most everyone my age hurts. a lifetime of physical work will do that to you. regardless of your profession.

kids activities are kids activities. high school, even college football is not a thing like the nfl. are there injuries? yes. are there injuries in almost everything kids participate in? yes. are there injuries in almost every aspect of everyday life? yes. do we sit meekly in chairs enveloped by bubblewrap to avoid this? that's not my definition of life.

so this crybaby wants to piss and moan about how getting old means pain. really? boo hoo. the rest of us hurt too. its called getting old. we did what we did and got your pain too. but this dude got the paychecks, got the ring, and now this dude is bitching...

sorry. no sympathy from me. join the club, mr. superbowl. getting old just sucks...

[Pithlet]

14. In one ear and out the other... n/t

[1]

16. get old, cupcake. then you can join the rest of us...

[Pithlet]

17. In the meantime, at least I can comprehend a point and not miss it completely.

Hope that doesn't go away...

[1]

18. ah. you can comprehend a point. even if the point is complete bullshit. good for you...

this word "comprehend."

i do not think it means what you think it means.

heh...

[Pithlet]

21. You know, maybe if you stopped shaking your stick for a minute, you'd see it.

Suffering is suffering, whether you made millions of dollars or not. And it would make sense that if that job made millions and also happened to attract lots of young starry eyed youth to that same profession, that person might want to warn them, huh? It would be a noble thing to do, wouldn't it? Warn them. Tell them it isn't all glamour, that it can lead to the surgeries and years of suffering. Why on earth would someone want to shout "Shut your yap!" at that, like you are? Tell others that it's silly and no one should pay it any mind. Makes no sense to me. I'd think it's rather noble of him to do, myself.

[1]

25. if football were the only way to wind up hurt, i might agree with you...

but what about just about every other job on the planet that will fuck you up in old age too?

its noble that this ingrate former bigtime moneymaker is pissed because he hurts? that is noble to you?

starry eyed youth enter every profession. every fucking profession. auto workers to bullriders. big fucking deal. you don't like football (obviously) so you hail mr. superbowl and his complaints about that one profession. he is noble. so if he didn't play football and got fucked up as an auto mechanic or a longshoreman he would be noble bitching about that work too?

it is you that is shortsighted here. maybe if you would stop being so positional, you'd see it...

[callous taoboy]

29. I wholeheartedly agree, Pithlet. n/t

[callous taoboy]

26. You must not live in Texas, where football is idolized beyond imagination and

where many, many youngsters in full pursuit of being an idolized football star have died / gotten paralyzed as a result of injuries received on the field. Our town lost a middle schooler last year due to a brain aneurysm after a hard hit during practice. While I understand your point that getting old is the great punishment we will all face I think you do miss the point that football is a guaranteed way to fuck your body up, and that this information has been muted for far too long. I applaud all of the NFL dudes that have spoken out recently, or in the case of one star whose wife had to do the talking for him because of his dementia due to the many head injuries he received during his career.

[jmowreader]

48. You're talking about spearing

It's illegal as hell and has been at least since the 1970s, but some coaches teach it.

I have an article on my screen about spearing. It says 87 percent of New Jersey refs call three or fewer spearing penalties per their season--and an average NJ ref works 27 games.

I used to work for a man who was a very good ballplayer in high school and college--good enough he was recruited by the pros. If you need anything from him now you need to ask for it before noon; at lunch he drives home, takes a lot of pain pills and has his wife drive him back to work. By the time 2pm comes around he's completely stoned.

[flvegan]

15. My high school begged me to play. I refused.

Glad I made that choice. Sorry, Dave Pear. I knew better, and today I know even better.

[LeftyMom]

19. My sister had more injuries in cheerleading than football or martial arts.

Just be glad you didn't look cute in a skirt or you too could have chronic knee problems. ;)

Then again, I messed up my feet wearing heels for 12+ hours at debate tournaments, so I guess we all suffer for whatever it is we choose to do.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

31. But Cheerleaders Don't Get Traumatic Brain Injuries

There have been studies that show early onset dementia is much greater among former football players than the general population.

[LeftyMom]

44. Has anybody looked?

I actually wouldn't be surprised if they did- all those flips do whip your head around pretty good.

[Mudoria]

22. Enjoyed every moment I spent playing football

from Jr High thru High School. May not have enjoyed the practice a lot times but the games were a blast.

[Username 12]

23. I hope he's got plenty of dough left

'cause, if he's looking to our glorious leaders for any kind of help with his health, he's fucked!

[Bucky]

33. I imagine his medical conditions ate up a lot of it.

When you first get physical ailments, you don't always realize that you're facing a lifetime challenge. If you have a lot of money and have been conditioned by your job to expect first class treatment, there would be a huge, easy temptation to try and buy the most expensive and personalized options for treating your growing menu of disabilities. I wonder how much of his fortune he might have burned through before he realized he was never going to run again.

[rabs]

24. NFL Bengals quarterback predicts a player will die

Saw this article at the beginning of the NFL season and it was flat scary. Whenever a player goes down on the field and stays down, it reminds me of what Palmer said. I hope it never happens.

------------------------

Said Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer at one point during the conversation: "The truth of the matter is . . . somebody is going to die here in the NFL. It's going to happen."

"Guys are getting so big, so fast, so explosive,'' Palmer said. "The game's so violent. Now that they're cutting out the wedge deal on kickoff returns, those guys coming free, and at some point somebody is going to die in football. And I hope it's not anyone at this table, and I hope it doesn't happen, obviously. Everyone talks about the good old days, when guys were tough and quarterbacks got crushed all the time, but back in the day, there weren't defensive ends that were Mario Williams -- 6-7, 300 pounds, 10 percent body fat, running a 4.7 40."

The worst-case scenario will happen when two guys moving at maximum velocity crash their bodies together at, for one of them, an angle and position that shatters the bones around the top of the spine and severs the cord that those bones protect.

More:

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2009/09/08/carson-palmer-predicts-a-fatality/

(In comments, Palmer caught a lot of heat.)

[Fumesucker]

35. People die on the job every day..

And most of them don't make millions of dollars and have groupies begging to sleep with them any time they please.

You make your choices in life.

I understand the thrust of the article, trying to warn kids not even to start in football, but kids are immortal and invulnerable and very few of them are going to listen. Also too, enough of the parents are living their dream vicariously through their kids that a lot of them don't want to hear the message either.

[Kolesar]

39. The men load up with steroids early in life and become massive

Then they run across the field and, BOOM!, strike a ball carrier at full tilt.

This makes me feel guilty for my favorite Sunday afternoon bloodsport.

thanks for the link.

[TheMightyFavog]

40. Already happened

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/08/21/national/main789026.shtml

Thomas Herrion of the 49ers died after a game in '05.

There was that guy in the Arena League who died as a result of an injury he suffered while making a tackle.

Korey Stringer of the Vikes died of heatstroke during training camp a few years back.

Chuck Hughes of The Bears had a fatal heart attack on the field back in the 70s.

[KharmaTrain]

36. Many Athletes Pay A Price...

and that includes Ballet dancers. I have an acquaintance who danced for nearly 30 years and suffered numerous injuries to his knees, ankles and even broke his arm. Today he has troubles walking or standing for long periods and said that he's in constant pain from the onset of athritis. The price one pays to chase a dream.

Many other people who use their bodies for a living suffer similar problems. Many baseball catchers have knee and hip problems from years of crouching behind the plate. The other day the local paper had the findings of an autopsy on a hockey player who recently passed and found he had suffered from brain damage (he played in the days before helmets).

Sports medicine and awareness has come a long way from my childhood when you "played through pain", but today's athletes are bigger, stronger and put their bodies through more stress. It's the price one pays for doing something they love.

[dysfunctional press]

41. what about boxing?

that is one 'sport' that should be outright illegal.

[lies and propaganda]

42. I dont even bother with commenting on sports threads anymore.

Circle jerks of everyone telling eachother how you must be a redneck, mouth breather, cousin fucker to enjoy them.

[Karmadillo]

43. K&R

nt

[girl gone mad]

49. Onr of my friends is one of the..

biggest rising stars in the NFL. I hate hearing and reading this stuff. He loves the game, but I told him my thoughts: make as much money as you can now and retire ASAP.

[tabasco]

50. If he had just sat his ass on his couch for all those years

he would be dead by now.

[tonysam]

51. This article is as much about the NFL's rotten disability policy as anything

n/t