Playing just didn’t add up anymore
Worried about CTE risk, Ravens lineman Urschel chooses math over football
John Urschel, the Baltimore Ravens lineman known as much for his mathematical ability as his football skills, joined a list of young NFL players who have retired from the game because of concerns about long-term damage from head injuries.
Although the 26-year-old Urschel has not commented on his reason for walking away from the game, team sources indicated his decision Thursday was related to the release of a study this week on chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a debilitating brain disease. The study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed the existence of CTE in the brains of 110 of 111 deceased former NFL players who donated their brains to research.
Urschel released a statement on Twitter saying: “It wasn’t an easy decision, but I believe it was the right one for me. There’s no big story here, I’d appreciate the right to privacy . . . I’m excited to start working on my doctorate in mathematics full time at MIT. I’m looking forward to the chance to take courses that are only offered in the fall semester, while spending time with my fiancée and preparing myself for the new challenges that will come with fatherhood. We’re expecting our first child in December.”
Urschel, a fifth-round draft pick in 2014 out of Penn State, started 13 games for the Ravens over the previous three seasons at either guard or centre. He was expected to compete with Ryan Jensen and Matt for the starting centre job after the Ravens traded three-year starter Jeremy Zuttah in the off-season.
“John Urschel called me this morning exactly at 6:22. I remember when he called, I looked right at my computer clock there. He said that he’s going to retire from football,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh said after the team’s first practice of training camp. “That was something that’s been on his mind for quite a while, throughout the off-season. That’s what he decided to do, so we respect John tremendously. Probably the rest of it is for him to answer, whatever the details are.”
Harbaugh was caught off guard by the timing.
“It was out of the blue,” he said. “He had been working hard. He was here all summer. He was working on his snaps all summer. He was doing a great job. It was definitely a lightning bolt that way.”
Urschel did not immediately reply to a call and a text message seeking comment.
The recent trend of players retiring at or near their physical primes began in 2015, when San Francisco 49ers linebacker Chris Borland walked away after just one season. Other players who followed his example included Buffalo Bills linebacker A.J. Tarpley, New York Jets tackle D’Brickashaw Ferguson, 49ers tackle Anthony Davis and, most recently, New England Patriots wide receiver Andrew Hawkins.
The study published Tuesday is considered a significant step in examining CTE in football players because it involved the largest sampling of players’ brains in scientific literature to date.
In the experiment, four independent neuropathologists analyzed brain samples from more than 200 football players with experience in the sport ranging from recreational to professional — but the doctors were not given any information about the patients’ medical (or athletic) history. They found evidence of CTE in 87 per cent of the samples, and in 99 per cent of former NFL players’ brains.
Dr. Robert Cantu, co-founder of the CTE Center at the Boston University School of Medicine, said the study’s findings were so striking that he would not be surprised if they motivated Urschel’s decision, or if they prompt other young players to retire.
“There are a number of players retiring in their late 20s and 30s now who are still able to play, but they’ve made their money and they don’t want to take any further risk,” said Cantu, who is also co-founder and medical director of the Concussion Legacy Foundation. “I’m sure one of the risks they’re thinking about is CTE.”
The study does not improve understanding of how prevalent CTE and other brain damage is among football players. All of the brain samples were donated by families who might have had concerns or seen symptoms of brain degeneration in their loved one. But it does suggest that the incidence and perhaps severity of CTE increase with more exposure to repeated blows on the field, Cantu said.
“The longer you play it, the more hits you take, the greater the chance you’ll have of getting it,” he said.
Dr. Bennet Omalu, a neuropathology professor at the University of California, Davis who was the first to publish research studying CTE in NFL players, said the study released Tuesday should encourage parents to keep their children out of highcontact sports. While he said adults should remain free to choose to participate in football or other sports, he praised Urschel’s decision to retire.
“Preventing the next blow to his head while playing football is the smartest thing he could do for himself, his family and everyone who loves him,” Omalu said in an email.
The retirements have come against abackdrop of growing concern about the pervasive and devastating effects of concussions suffered routinely by players at all levels of football.
The American Medical Association study was only the latest chapter in a story that has changed the way many athletes, parents and fans think about the nation’s most popular sport.
The fallout has included a $1 billion settlement between the NFL and former players seeking compensation for the brain injuries they suffered.
Chris Nowinski, founder and CEO of the non-profit Concussion Legacy Foundation, said the early retirements show that NFL players are better informed about concussions and are taking the evidence seriously. He does not expect head injuries to end football as we know it.
“It’s still an exciting game, great for television. And I don’t think the NFL is going anywhere,” the former Harvard player said. “Nor does it need to. These are adults, protected by a union that’s making sure they play the game they want to play.”
He hopes the greater impact of Urschel’s story and others will be on youth football.
“If one of the smartest players in the sport looks at the data and decides to walk away, I’d like parents to look at that and not let their kids play tackle football until at least high school,” Nowinski said.
Urschel had long contemplated football’s potential toll on his brain. He often spoke as if there were two people living inside his body — one the burly athlete who thrived on the hand-to-hand combat of the NFL trenches and the other a man who was happiest sitting beside a secluded river with a stack of math textbooks at his side. His Twitter handle, @MathMeetsFball, summed up his dual obsessions.
He wrote about this unusual juxtaposition in a 2015 article for The Players’ Tribune titled “Why I Play,” a direct response to Borland’s sudden retirement.
“It blends together somewhat in that there’s this unified competitive nature,” he said in a 2015 interview. “Even in math, when I’m trying to solve a problem, I get very competitive about it. But it’s different in that for football, I just love the physicality of it. In math, there’s real elegance to it. There’s beauty in taking this construct, which we have made, and using it to explain this fantastic and complex world we live in.”
Urschel is no academic dilettante. He’s spent the past two off-seasons at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology pursuing a Ph.D. in applied mathematics. He’s also published papers on mathematics and taught a class at Penn State, his alma mater. In addition to his personal studies, he has thrown himself into programs designed to get kids excited about math.
After suffering a concussion in 2015, Urschel said his ability to do high-level math problems was temporarily affected. But as recently as January on an episode of HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, he said he wanted to continue to pursue two things he loved.
“I recognize that this is somewhat irrational,” Urschel said on the segment. “But I am doing it. It’s more important to me that I’m able to do the two things I love.”
His teammates were startled by the suddenness of his decision.
“It was a pretty big shock coming right into camp,” said Jensen, who would have competed with Urschel for the starting centre job. “But I respect his decision and wish him well for his next career.”
Urschel’s teammates said they understood his perspective but would not reconsider their own careers.
“All of these studies are coming out, but I’m not too worried about it,” Jensen said. “I’m just worried about playing football and making a life for myself and helping my family out.”
Added safety Eric Weddle: “I think it’s personal preference to look into it, to not look into it. I’ve been playing tackle football since first grade and I’m as sharp as ever. I don’t really pay attention to it. I’m just trying to do my job and do the best I can and worry about that stuff later down the line.”
“If one of the smartest players in the sport looks at the data and decides to walk away, I’d like parents to look at that and not let their kids play tackle football until at least high school.” CHRIS NOWINSKI FOUNDER AND CEO OF THE CONCUSSION LEGACY FOUNDATION