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Is it Richard Sherman’s Fault?

January 30, 2014

It’s probably unfair to blame Richard Sherman for Jeannie’s death, but I do.

Sherman is the Seattle Seahawk’s player who tipped a game-winning pass away from The Forty-Niner’s Michael Crabtree in the final minute on the division championship game.

But shortly after that play, Jeannie made good on her year’s-old threat and committed suicide in a lonely extended stay motel just north of San Francisco.

As Sherman was exploding with a steroid induced rant against Crabtree, for a perceived insult months earlier, Jeannie was carrying out a plan she had conceived years earlier. After enduring more than 10 years of worsening depression, she felt she could not endure her own emotional roller coaster any longer.

A San Francisco native, and lifelong ‘Niners’ fan, she no doubt, watched the game, alone, as she arranged her jewelry, attaching notes to the new owners. She had traveled to the Bay Area from her home in Idaho, seeking yet another round of treatment for her affliction.

Maybe it’s not Sherman’s fault. We all share some blame. After all, I watched the end of the game at a friend’s home, less than 5 miles away from her, rooting against the ‘Niners’. As a California transplant, I just could not cheer for a team filled with what I considered a collection of boorish thugs. I’ll leave it to quantum physics to explain, but as the ad says, “It’s not crazy if it works.”

Perhaps, her friends and family should have tried harder to talk her out of her plan. But she made sure no one knew exactly what she was up to. In one of her manic moods, she went shopping a few days earlier, buying expensive new clothes and paying in advance for the alterations.

She kept an appointment with her doctor, listening intently as he explained his new treatment plan. From all accounts she was involved, although unquestioning in her resolve that this time it would work. After all, she had some periods of normalcy, even happiness, just a few weeks ago. We exchanged New Year’s greetings and she was absolutely ebullient that she had turned the corner and 2014 was going to be great.

But, like so many times in the past, it was a false hope, before her last fight from Idaho. She asked that we all respect her privacy as she dealt with the doctor and her inner demons, but that was pretty much the same routine as her previous visits. Hours before we received the call from her husband, still in Idaho, my wife and I had talked about Jeannie and considered, calling, texting, or emailing, deciding that like so many other times, she would let us know when she wanted companionship.

As we left out friend’s home, late Sunday night, we didn’t realize she would be ‘celebrating’ Richard Sherman’s athleticism by signing the papers leaving various body parts to science, particularly her brain, which is now slated for study at Harvard.

I hope it provides some help to another tortured soul. Maybe it will provide some clue of the lasting impact of electric shock treatment, or the permanent changes caused by continual cocktails of prescription medication, cooked up by pharmaceutical companies.

My wife is understandably devastated that her lifelong friend would not even consider some of the complementary techniques that others have found helpful. As best buddies from high school, their lives were intermingled: schools, graduations, parties, trips, vacations. Now, there is no one she can share those memories with.

I don’t know if Jeannie even bothered to take the new selection of ‘miracle drugs,’ before she packed her bags and wrote a final note with a carefully placed arrow pointing to the bathroom where loved ones could find her body.

Mr. Sherman, it’s not your fault, but I need someone to blame.

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NFL PR Machine

August 30, 2012

I’m sure John York, Co-chairman of the San Francisco 49ers did not see his

John York, 49ers CEO

presentation last night at the Commonwealth Club, as part of an NFL public relations roadshow, but that’s what it was.

Dr. York, who appeared with former NFL star Dan Fouts and San Diego trauma surgeon A. Brent Eastman, M.D. , was on hand to address traumatic injuries in the NFL. As head of the league’s Health and Safety Advisory Committee, his job was apparently to convince the crowd on hand that for the last 30 years the league has only had the best interests of its players in mind.

While this flies in the face of reality, particularly since over 2,000  former players are currently suing the league to seek compensation for their injuries, Dr. York insisted that the well being of the players has always been the highest priority.

Fouts was on hand to lend support with his litany of injuries, from pulled muscles

Dan Fouts, NFL quarterback

to a broken foot, back, shoulder and hand, many of which were blamed on late hits, which would not have been tolerated in today’s game. The real question might be, why were they tolerated then – when Fouts led the SanDiego Chargers in the 1980’s.

The Hall of Fame quarterback described his injuries in great detail, naming ‘assailants’ in most cases, but expressed clear disdain for the new rules implying that what  current 49er quarterback Alex Smith plays is not really football anymore. Presumably because he has only missed two seasons to injuries and is still able to walk.

Fouts, along with his friend and surgeon, Dr. Eastman seemed to contradict himself, when he supported Dr. York’s contention that the game was better off with the new rules.

York denied there was any pressure on team doctors to get players back into the game quickly, saying he knew that was the policy on the 49ers, although he could not vouch for the rest of the league. Fouts told stories of being pushed back into action despite injury, which York claimed would never happen today.

It’s not a question of a team owner calling the team doctor to apply pressure, the doctor does it on his own, beacause he knows who signs his paycheck.

This is particularly true with head injuries and concussions. These injuries have only been addressed in the last few years when the NFL finally stopped relying on a  discredited medical expert who claimed that head injuries and long term brain damage were not related. Dr. York says the issue is now being researched – most likely to buttress the League’s court defense .

The panelists may have convinced themselves but I remain skeptical, particularly since the NFL has been forced to make changes by lawsuits and owners who saw major hits to their bottom line when marquee players were out with season-ending injuries.

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