The 1985 Chicago Bears embodied hard-nosed football, but three decades later their equally tough-minded Hall of Fame coach — who once famously declared, "If God had wanted man to play soccer, he wouldn't have given us arms" — is rethinking his game plan.

That's right: Even Mike Ditka is questioning the violent nature of the sport in the wake of advancements in concussion research and his own experience with veterans plagued by health problems.

"If you had an 8-year-old kid now, would you tell him you want him to play football?" Ditka asks Gumbel.
When Gumbel answers that he wouldn’t, he returns to the question to Ditka. Ditka shakes his head no.
"Nope — and that’s sad," Ditka said in the piece. "I wouldn’t. My whole life was football. I think the risk is worse than the reward. I really do."

Dent outlined the team's use of painkillers and alcohol as postgame treatment and describes himself as "damaged goods." Meanwhile, McMahon suffers from early onset dementia and says he understands the suicide of teammate Dave Duerson, who suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/mike-ditka--risk-of-playing-football--worse-than-the-reward-155554897.html
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