Antwaan Randle El is 36. He is probably the most successful football player to come out of the Indiana University in my lifetime, at least. He played nine seasons in the NFL, five for the Pittsburgh Steelers sandwiched around four in Washington. Ten years ago, in Super Bowl XL, Randle El pulled off a unique play in Super Bowl history, tossing a 43-yard touchdown pass to Hines Ward on an end-around play (though a QB at IU, he was mostly a receiver in the pros). His final season was in 2010.
He has trouble coming down the stairs these days. He sometimes has to ask his wife the same question three times because he keeps forgetting the answer.
These are not uncommon stories, as you know if you follow the story or even just read this blog on occasion. But the unusual part Antwaan Randle El offered the world today was this:
Asked if he would play football if he knew then what he knows now, his answer was "If I could go back, I wouldn't."
This isn't the kind of thing you hear fromer players in this situation say. Usually it's all about how much they LOVE FOOTBALL and how much they value their teammates and the Life Lessons they learned and that kind of dialogue. If nothing else, Randle El is being unusually frank.
Randle El's regret may be amplified by the realization that he had another option. He was drafted in the 14th round by MLB's Chicago Cubs out of high school, but chose to play football because his parents insisted he go to college. While 14th-round draftees aren't necessarily likely to have flourishing major league careers, Randle El voices the opinion that he could still be playing baseball at his age, instead of struggling with staircases.
To that end it's worth considering another player who had options and chose differently. Jeff Samardzija was a receiver at Notre Dame who (unlike Randle El, apparently) continued to play baseball while in college. Even though his football career blossomed enough to make him a coveted NFL prospect, Samardzija chose to go pro in baseball. He has been a major-league starter since 2012, with some relief pitching before that. His career record is 47-61, and yet this offseason he just signed a 5-year, $90M contract to pitch for the San Francisco Giants, which will take him up to age 36. I assume his arm hurts on occasion, but Samardzija has a pretty good chance of being able to come downstairs in the morning, not to mention being able to afford a house with no staircases. That contract far outstrips what Randle El would have earned in his career even if he had finished his final contract.
I can only imagine the reaction in Pittsburgh to Randle El's interview, which appeared in that city's Post-Gazette. You will recall that the Steelers were the team for whom Mike Webster, Justin Strelczyk, and Terry Long -- three of the first players to be diagnosed posthumously with CTE -- played. I would also imagine the comment trolls of Pittsburgh and other cities are already vomiting their bile upon Randle El for being soft.
Randle El also expressed an eye-catching opinion that football wouldn't be around in 25 years or so. I don't know if that counts as optimism or pessimism.
In truth I don't know how a story like this affects me. Randle El's first year in the NFL was 2002, the year Mike Webster died. His college career was largely against the backdrop of the NFL being in full Big Tobacco mode, and the NCAA being mute and clueless. You could legitimately argue that Randle El had to be aware that his body was likely to take a beating if he had an extended career, although I'm not sure he had a reason to expect the effect to come so soon. He probably was not aware of the amount of brain trauma he might have a reason to expect. Broken body, yes. Broken mind, though?
Ultimately I'm not sure the story tells us anything new. That football breaks bodies we knew. That football breaks brains, we do know now. Why some and not others, we don't know.
Because of the timing of his career I can still feel some sympathy for Randle El. There's a cutoff point to that sympathy, though. I don't know where, but there is. Maybe it come with the NFL's admission that anywhere from 28-33% of its players can be expected to end up with some kind of long-term brain trauma in their lifetime. It's hard for me to be sympathetic from here on out.
And there really isn't anything in Randle El's story that changes my basic point of view here. I don't watch football, and I'm not going to do so. His age does point to the degree that more and more verified or apparent or possible victims of CTE are relatively young, by comparison to the mostly-over-40 victims who first came to public awareness. His expression of regret is somewhat unique, but I don't think that adds anything to my case for not watching. And it doesn't help me find any kind of ethical "out" to the question of Christian witness and non-playing participation in the football machine. Not that I particularly want one at this point anyway.
Randle El's big NFL moment
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