Jim McMahon Dementia

The Chicago Bears have won only one Super Bowl in 1985. The 85 Bears were the grittiest, meanest team in the league, and they were led by quarterback Jim McMahon. He was known for his crazy and rock star attitude on and off the field, but the biggest problem for him now is dementia. When I was watching a ESPN special on McMahon it focused on the importance of player safety. Back in the 80’s and 90’s if you could walk you could play, and that is the mentality McMahon played with. During one game against the Lions McMahon was slammed on his head and the Bears trainer at the time told the Chicago Tribune, “He had a concussion, but it cleared by halftime.”  Although much more careful now the NFL and many other leagues did not take concussions seriously. Because of all the head trauma that McMahon faced while playing in the league he has a bad case of dementia. His short term memory is awful, when friends call him and leave messages he deletes them thinking he will call them back, but after 10 minutes he forgets they even called. A teammate of McMahons David Duerson was found dead February 17, 2011. Duerson had killed himself because he was suffering from CTE otherwise known as Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. He was hit in the head so many times that he was getting constant headaches, couldn’t remember anything, and the most dangerous symptom was aggression. Duerson got so angry from the head trauma that he took his own life. The fact is that concussions are more serious than people think they are and we need to keep developing are research on it.