Baseball better, says Mcmahon
Former NFL quarterback Jim McMahon, 53, is in the early stages of dementia and is part of a group suing the NFL that says the league hid the effects of concussions.
McMahon was the quarterback of the 1985 Chicago Bears world championship team and was known for his tough, reckless style of play. But he never played a full season in his career (19821996), in which he played for six teams.
In an interview with WFLD-TV in Chicago on Wednesday from his Arizona home, McMahon said he would have played baseball if he knew what concussions would do to him.
“That was my first love, was baseball, and had I had a scholarship to play baseball [at Brigham Young], I probably would have played just baseball,” McMahon said. “But football paid for everything. It still does. That Super Bowl XX team is still as popular as it ever was.
“Being injured, if you don’t play, you don’t get paid. If I was able to walk out on that field, I was going to play. Had I known about that stuff early on in my career, I probably would have chosen a different career. I was always wanted to be a baseball player anyway.”
McMahon, who said he suffered four concussions during his career, is part of a group of more than 2,000 players who said they need help from the NFL after concussions have filled their retirement with dementia and memory loss. In fact, McMahon’s teammate in Chicago, Dave Duerson, asked for his brain to be studied before committing suicide. Duerson, 50, was found to have chronic traumatic encephalopathy.