Frank Wycheck, former Pro Bowl tight end with the Tennessee Titans, fears that he may have CTE. Former NFL players all over have come forward to express their concerns about CTE stemming from the concussions they sustained during their playing days. With the past player concerns, the NFL has taken proper steps towards preventing any future players getting similar injuries and then having some future issues with their health.
Looking at the situations with players like Jovan Belcher, Justin Strzelczyk, Dave Duerson and Junior Seau, the concerns ex-players have are legitimate. With a new lawsuit filed by former NFL players against the league last year, the second lawsuit former players filed against the NFL, there are serious issues with some CTE-related health concerns.
Paul Kuharsky of ESPN wrote about the recent statements his friend Wychek made on a Nashville radio station.
Former Titans tight end Frank Wycheck told ESPN that he fears a scenario that has played out for other football concussion victims.
“I worry about, I’m scared about the time if I actually get to that point where these guys [who have committed suicide] have snapped,” he said. “What has made them snap? And that is what I am scared of, that there is something that is going to come over me that is going to make me snap.
“I don’t think I am going to do it, but those guys you would never think in a million years would. And that’s the scary part about it. There is no one that can tell you really anything. It’s just, the damage is done.”
Despite migraines that he’s sure are a result of concussions and blows to the head and issues with anxiety and depression — for which he takes medication — he said he would not change his life in football. He would have liked more information but would have played even if commissioner Paul Tagliabue and his medical advisor, Elliot Pellman, “didn’t lie.”
“I don’t want this to be a pity party, ‘Oh poor Frank,'” he said. “I wouldn’t change anything in the world. I’ve had a blessed life, great opportunities to meet great people, raise my family and be able to take care of my family the way I could. I couldn’t do that without football. And it was the thing I had as a goal since I was 5 years old.”
Wycheck plans to donate his brain to the Concussion Legacy Foundation for study after he dies.
