Corey Widmer story

[Walk-on]

Well I can tell you that football isn’t even the sport that has the most concussions or brain injuries, that would be soccer. But guess what their isn’t enough money in soccer for former players to file claims, but there is in football. So all of sudden we have an epidemic in football, weird how that works isn’t it. $$$$$
You know what your getting into when you play football, just like soccer, but if you follow the money you will find the complaints and claims.

Can you honestly sit there and say the players from Widmer's era knew exactly what they were getting into? Can you really say that?

And your facts are wrong. Football has the highest concussion rate for sports played by boys/men. Girls soccer, volleyball, and basketball are higher, but if girls played football, guarantee it's at the top of the list.

And that's just concussions. Football is a high speed collision sport. Even if you don't get hurt, your joints are shot. If you do get hurt, more shot! Watch former players walk. It's awful. We shouldn't be blind and ignorant to all of this. It's important.

I know a couple former players here in Helena who basically have their health. One has never complained of anything to me, the other has some aches and pains but still played pickup basketball everyday until into his 40s. Maybe they are just being tough and not saying anything, but it's not ALL former players.

Every career choice comes with pros and cons. In Corey's case, he got to live like a rock star in his youth and then retire a millionaire by age 30. Compared to my career... I've got some very minor issues ( lower back, sciatica in one leg, and a wrist surgery) after 27 years of sitting behind a computer 40 hours a week - and I have about 10 more years before I can start thinking about retiring.
So who's career would you rather have - 40 years behind a desk with a fairly frugal retirement once you're 60... or living a life most people only dream about until age 30, never again working a day in your life, and then having serious health issues later in life? Honestly I'm not sure the answer to that. The answer is fairly obvious for guys in their 50s because you wanna be healthy wherever you're currently at in life... but I think a lot of 20 year olds would probably choose Corey's life over 40 years at a desk job, despite the health issues.

I don't mean to sound like I'm complaining, I'm not - and I'm certainly not apathetic to Corey! Just trying to point out that there are pros and cons to whatever direction you choose.

PS, I'm 100% in favor of making the game safer.
I'm kinda just playing devils advocate here, but just trying to make a point. Hopefully it doesn't come across as dooshy.

This is how I feel as well. At lot of these kids complaining would have had no shot at college and would have been working in the fields or a coal mine or construction or something and would probably still be in rough shape. Working a hard job for 20 years for 50000 a year is going to do the same to your body as 5 years at 1 million a year. I don't want to sound uncaring but its hard for me to believe that if they were to have the choice of either they would chose the longer road.

Corey was far ahead of most 18 year-old kids. He was very gifted and had much more than football going for him. Even at such a naive age, I think Corey was smart enough to take the longer road. He would have been just as successful. Sure, most of us including Corey were willing to accept the pain to play, even more so for fame and $$$. But we weren't aware of the permanent damage to the brain and nervous system. Reading Corey's quotes reminds me of how smart and intellectual he is. Plus, I can tell he isn't being a snob or aloof. He genuinely doesn't want people to see a side of him that is now uncontrollable.

[six--man]

wow
yeah football is a dangerous sport and CTE has devastating effects Can't blame Cory for holding out of the MT Hall Of Fame politically. Montana has its share of idiots that want to shake your hand.
I'm thinking the speed of the game may shut it down one day and kids will play soccer or just do recreational sports - its just not as exciting as watching the Cats play
I worked with a guy years ago who was All Big Sky and went to an NFL camp Then he got religion