In life and in death, Mike Webster’s name is etched in the annals of NFL football.
Mike Webster made a name for himself in the world of pro football. A Super Bowl champion with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Webster is regarded as one of the–if not the–greatest centers of all time.
Courtesy: Steel City Underground
But sadly, after his NFL playing days ended, his life spun downward and eventually out-of-control. He was discovered in the back of his truck, dead at the age of 50. Later, Webster was discovered as the first football player to be a validated victim of the degenerative brain disease, Chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE.
Webster was born in Wisconsin and played for his home-state school, the Wisconsin Badgers. After college, the Steelers drafted him in the 5th round of the 1976 NFL Draft. Webster enjoyed a spectacular NFL career. With Terry Bradshaw, he became part of one of the most famous QB-center duos in NFL history. A 9-time Pro Bowl player and 7-time All-Pro, Webster was named to the NFL’s All-NFL team for two decades, the 1970s and 1980s.
But all the hits Webster gave and received exacted a steep price. After playing, Webster suffered amnesia, depression, and acute bone/muscle pain. Dementia developed. Homeless, he began living in the back of his pickup truck.
Webster’s story was featured prominently in the film, Concussion. In one scene–one of the most remember clips of the film–Dr. Bennet Omalu, the pathologist who discovered the disease, said, “God did not intend for us to play football.”
Mike Webster is one of the best players to ever play in the NFL. He’ll also be known for something else.
“I don’t know football, I never played. But I will tell you, football killed Mike Webster,” Dr. Bennet Omalu
Future of Tackle Football
I grew up loving the sport (and played one year of tackle after being asked by the coaching staff at my high school), but don’t think it [football] has much of a future. Dropping participation and lawsuits at the lowest level will continue the trend of awareness for the general public. Ultimately this will lead insurance companies to drop sport coverage at the high school and college level. The NFL will survive the longest, but the quality of athlete it procures will slowly decay. The cultural fanaticism the sport has maintained over the past 80 years is about to be challenged/changed.
It would seem that the 7% drop in football participation over the past ten years isn’t a big deal, but a closer look at the numbers suggests it might be. Football doesn’t have to hit true zero for the sport to evaporate or at least start to decline at an increasing rate. As the rate of players drops (people buying pads/helmets) and the expenses related to the pads/equipment increases (as demanded by new safety requirements), we are likely to see a huge inflationary period within the sport where it becomes unaffordable for small middle or high schools to even offer the sport. Analogous to falling dominos, once smaller schools start to drop, bigger schools will start to fall as well as they will not have teams to play, nor will they have the side of the majority supporting its inclusion in the school curriculum.
Furthermore, the sport needs at least 11 players to even field a squad. For arguments sake, let’s assume that a team needs 22 (one for each position offense/defense) to be a viable “team.” If a high school averages a 50-man roster that leaves us with 28 players to be reduced before the sport hits its floor. Assuming it loses one player per year (1-3-5% / year) the sport of tackle football will not be played in 28 years, at least at the lower levels.
This model excludes one potential catalyst to the collapse – a live test for the disease.
Science’s silver bullet: If scientists develop a test for CTE in the living (expected to come in about 5 years) we might see football go away before 2030 at the lowest levels. No way a middle school or high school can ethically justify giving its students brain damage. I am under the impression that a governmental school is intended to educate students minds, first and foremost. As science advances one will hypothetically be able to say, “this athlete got brain damage during this calendar year on school grounds.” This cannot withstand the litmus test (at least for very long). As with anything where a lot of money is stake, politicians and pseudo-scientist will emerge to try to discredit and disavow what science is informing the public. We are already seeing that in California with the “Save Youth Football Campaign”.
I foresee economic challenges related to football’s closure impacting many major Universities who have overspent and over allocated resources during the past couple decades. My alma mater, Clemson University, may be on the most adverse offenders. Sure, we are excelling at the sport, but we are relying on the sport to do most of our advertising, we have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in a sport that doesn’t look to have moral leg to stand on. Eventually the truth will bear out.