After 15 seasons as an NFL safety, Brian Dawkins is deeply concerned about the fate of a couple other longtime NFL safeties.
Former Bears safety Dave Duerson and former Eagles safety Andre Waters both committed suicide, and some have linked those suicides to depression caused by brain damage suffered on the field. Dawkins calls that a wakeup call.
“Sometimes things are not just hitting home but smashing you in the face,” Dawkins told Philadelphia Sports Daily. “Like when tragedy happens, it makes you think about things on a different plateau, you begin to think about things on a different level. It’s a concern, and it should be a concern to everybody.”
Dawkins said he has no idea how many concussions he’s had in his NFL career, but he said that’s not even what concerns him most. What concerns him most are the major incidents when a head-on collision causes him memory loss. And he said that has happened to him four times.
And Dawkins is right: That should be a concern to everybody.
