https://www.sacbee.com/sports/outdoors/article217920125.html

RIP Mr. Hairston

Hopefully this will avoid politics in the current era, but I am including this link because it suggests Jason may have had CTE/concussion issues:
https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/nfl-star-jason-hairston-dies-after-hunting-trip-with-donald-trump-jr/news-story/368acb240dc6e51e97c89b33e5902c32

And yes, RIP Jason. WAY too young. As I googled his name it seems he had recently turned a love of the outdoor life into a very comfortable financial situation. Makes his passing at this age even sadder.

This is a huge loss in many ways. Jason was one of the older players when I arrived in camp, and he was one of the most athletic and intense players I've ever been around. I even had my shoulder separated by Jason while on the scout team - he could bring the wood. His business successes were truly astounding and I enjoyed keeping up on him. Thoughts and prayers for his family.

San Jose Mercury: "I played linebacker, and the way I played the game, I led with my head,” he said in a 2016 interview, according to the Daily Mail. “I played the way they tell us not to play now. I have all the symptoms of CTE.” In addition, according to his bio on KUIU’s website, Hairston sustained a severe neck injury during his junior season of college, “hard enough to break my C5 and C6 vertebrae, each in seven different places.” Hairston cited ongoing neck issues as the reason he retired from football.

This raises questions for our program.

Were the broken vertebrae diagnosed? If yes, why did we let him continue to play; if no, how did we miss it?

Why did we allow a player to lead with his head when tackling?

There was not the understanding about CTE and concussions that there is today. Tragic loss. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family.

I did not know that CTE could come so suddenly so as to kill an active and successful CEO on a hunting trip. He was a great player. Big loss to us all.

It’s a very sad situation.

Very sad twist on this story:

https://www.sacbee.com/sports/outdoors/article217920125.html

Very sad. First Wise, then this. So successful in all ventures of his life.

It has only been in the last decade or so that modern brain research has revealed the very serious and deleterious effects of repeated impacts to the head which can lead to CTE over time. I recall old school coaches actually instructing defensive players to "put your helmet on the ball" as a method to try and jar the ball loose from the ball carrier. Teams also routinely gave out "hammer awards" for the most violent hits in a game and concussed players were often expected to "shake it off" and reenter the game as quickly as possible.

We now know just how dangerous all that was and the rules of the game are changing to help protect the players and strict concussion protocols are in place for all sports. We will continue to see more rule changes in the future to help protect the players, such as the possible elimination of kickoff and punt returns, and, hopefully, we will continue to see significant advances in safer equipment for the players as well. We will never be able to eliminate all the risks of playing any contact sport but it is imperative in this day and age that we always move forward with the best interest of the the safety of the players first and foremost before all else.

I understand.

But did we let a student-athlete continue playing after 2 disks in his neck were broken? Did we x-ray, or not?

I'm not privy to any information concerning Hairston's injury but I feel quite certain that, here at Davis, he was given the best medical advice available at the time and, was at some point in his recovery, cleared by the medical staff to play again. Most of the documented cases of football related CTE have come from autopsies of professional players and Hariston only briefly played in the NFL. We do know that lingering depression, suicidal ideation, anger and impulse control have been associated with CTE and Hairston was quoted as saying he felt he had symptoms of CTE. There's a lot about CTE that we still do not know and, unfortunately, CTE is the elephant in the room with the game of football.

Soccer does not get the attention football does when it comes to CTE, but I expect it will get more in the future. Headers, knocking heads when going for a header and also unprotected heads hitting the ground first when a player legs are taken out from under him add up to a lot of concussions. I just talked to a friend who’s daughter plays club soccer. She has missed this week of school due to a severe concussion she got last weekend playing soccer. She hit heads with another player and then landed on her head. She also needed stitches on her lip.

Odd that rugby might have safer rules about tackling and contact with players. Have to "wrap them up," no blocking, have to enter scrums or rucks from the back, no high-tackles.

I played a little bit of very poor football for a very poor high school team many, many years ago. Yes, we had helmets. Not, they weren't leather. Based stricly on being slow and the least small person on the team (at 185 lbs.,) I played on the line(s). On offense we were taught to block using a triangle...the three points being forearms and the forehead. I could make a joke or two, but this is neither the time or place.

Soccer has really come under scrutiny lately as you noted. The scary thing about CTE is that it isn't necessarily just the big concussions that are damaging but it appears that the repeated smaller hits to the head like heading the ball in soccer can create a cumulative effect over time. Our brain simply wasn't designed to be repeatedly bumping into the interior of our skull.

New $2,000 helmets are supposed to help.

I only played a couple of years in high school before it became crystal clear to me that ramming into players who weighed up to 130 pounds more than me was going to get me killed! I got knocked silly several times and saw stars floating around but they were inside my head.

Our coach even had a drill he called "head knocking" that we all hated. He'd have us form two lines: one with the big guys facing the other line with the smaller RB's and receivers etc. Then he'd place two cones about 10 feet apart and then he would throw the ball to small guy and we'd have to run head on into the bigger guy barreling straight at us and stay within the cones. Obviously, the laws of physics favored the big guys every time and I always took a wicked hit. Being the smallest guy on the team, I was nearly ready to puke each time he'd make us do that. Eventually, I swallowed my pride and decided I'd have more fun with cool cars and pretty girls...

That's good to hear. A lot of things are changing with equipment and rules so, hopefully, the game will continue to become safer for the players.

Isn't there a bull ring drill?

Bull in the ring isn’t part of modern football practices. We never did it under Sochor back In the early 80’s, and I doubt it ever showed up in Davis after. It’s kind of a youth football thing where coaches don’t know how to run an effective practice

Davis Enterprise article: Former Aggie Hairston dead after CTE battle

Excerpt: “There’s a lot of people that use fear and excuses of things not to do something. It’s all possible. Whatever you want to accomplish in life is totally possible. I’m a perfect example,” Hairston said just two years ago. “Am I the most talented football player in the world? No. Am I the most talented business person? No. But if you just focus on doing all these little things, the big things can actually open some day.”

Hairston’s Dixon-based company thrived. Some put its value at $50-60 million.

https://www.davisenterprise.com/sports/former-aggie-hairston-dead-after-cte-battle/

Another excellent article about Hairston from the Enterprise a couple of years ago:

Former UCD linebacker succeeding off the field

Excerpt: His top choice was Stanford, who offered him a scholarship, but backed out at the last minute after signing someone they preferred.

By that time, that late in the recruiting process, Hairston had few options left other than to field a call from UC Davis head coach Bob Biggs.

Biggs had earlier attempted to recruit Hairston, but the SoCal native rebuffed the efforts due to the program’s status as a D-II non-scholarship school.

After considering a late scholarship offer from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo nearly two months after signing day that Hairston didn’t love, he finally visited the UCD campus.

“It was the most underwhelming recruiting trip I’ve ever been to,” he said. “We didn’t have a locker room, we didn’t have a weight room, the facilities were terrible, (Toomey Field) was ugly, it was like a high school football stadium. It was cold, it was foggy. And my gut told me this was where I was supposed to go. I just followed it and decided to go play football at UC Davis.

“And it was by far the best decision I’ve ever made in my entire life.”

https://www.davisenterprise.com/sports/former-ucd-linebacker-succeeding-off-the-field/

Not from a giant of journalism, but on the personal side of this incident:

https://people.com/sports/jason-hairston-wife-speaks-out-about-cte/

Oh man, what a tragic, heartbreaking story. CTE has become the curse of this great game.

Another sad article:

Jason Hairston Had CTE Symptoms Before Death — Here Are Other Football Players Who Had the Disease

https://people.com/sports/prominent-nfl-players-diagnosed-with-cte-the-degenerative-brain-disease/

Hairston Funeral, Sacramento Bee

https://www.sacbee.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/hometown-report/article218294860.html