FORT WORTH, Texas — When Marion Barber died last week, many former players, and his ex-teammates, speculated that the game he played with Godzilla ferocity was a root cause.
Without access to the brain, we will never know exactly what happened to Marion Barber. His family said that he did not want his brain available for study.
His former teammate, defensive back Terence Newman, told Tyler Dunne of GoLongTD.com he bumped into Barber three years ago and, “He looked bad. He looked like he wasn’t there, like he was a different person, like he couldn’t function. ...
“When I tell you I was scared, I thought he might swing on me. I was actually scared.”
Barber died at the age of 38. The cause of death remains unknown.
“I guess he had so many concussions that it really impacted him,” Newman told Dunne. “I think that had to play some type of role in whatever happened to him.”
In 2002, when Barber was a sophomore at Minnesota, Dr. Bennet Omalu discovered what is now known as Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) when he examined the brain of Hall of Fame Pittsburgh Steelers center Mike Webster, who died earlier that year.
Barber was part of the “in between” generation that started to become aware of the potential life-altering affects of playing a game that players, and fans, cannot quit.
When Barber died, a lot of former players whose career ended before his began immediately “knew.” Even if they don’t know, they know.
They also know that while the game will not stop, efforts to curtail brain trauma now forever linked to football should only increase.
Rico Petrini is 49, and between high school and his four-year playing career at Oregon State he figures he played nine years of high-contact football. He was a linebacker at Oregon State from 1991 to ‘94.
He participated in a study by the University of Utah’s TBI and Concussion Center, a part of its Department of Neurology School of Medicine.
“It takes CTE to know CTE,” Petrini said in a phone interview. “You are not going to see that on Fox, or ESPN, or CBS or NBC.”
He named the NFL’s primary broadcast network partners.
Petrini estimates he suffered more than 20 concussions in his playing career. His ailments related to the game, “Broken back. Ankles. Broken neck. Knees. Broke my thumb. Wrist surgery, and then the concussions,” he said. “It’s a high price to pay for what you get out of it. For me, that was an education.
“When I played (his teammates) joked that if you look at the cost of education, versus the time spent practicing, playing and training, it was like working at Taco Bell. I could have had the education without the bang up.”
Petrini said he has suffered some of the brain-related ailments associated with CTE. Forgetful. Short temper. Wild mood swings. Headaches. Sometimes light can hurt.
He moderates a private group on Facebook that people who have suffered CTE-related symptoms use as a support center.
“Guys are dying and they are dying in silence,” he said. “(Last week) a guy called me who played for the Buffalo Bills. He says, ‘I can’t handle this any more.’ It was the pressure on his head.”
He said with treatment he is better, but every single day requires a multi-point checkup, similar to a car inspection, to see how he’s feeling.
He does not lobby for the game to stop.
It’s not realistic. He still likes the game too much.
Two of his sons play football. He cites the time spent with his teammates at Oregon State as some of the best experiences of his life.
He acknowledges, mostly out of the fear of litigation, the concussion-related measures the NFL and the NCAA have adopted help.
“There needs to be standard protocol; right now, they’re just guidelines (in the NCAA),” he said. “They need to get rid of kickoffs; those plays are crash-up derbies. Put all linemen in two-point instead of a three-point stance. The three- and four-point stance guarantees a head on collision.
“And we have to remember we’ve only been studying this for 20 years. That’s not that long, not enough for older players.”
He figures he was a part of the generation of players who played in that “dark time.” Players who were not aware of the potential damage of “getting your bell rung.”
The generation of players right on the edge of the advancement in nutrition and weight training. Players today are bigger, faster, stronger; as a result, the collisions are potentially terrifying.
When he played inside linebacker at Oregon State as a senior in 1994, he was listed as 6-foot-1, 224 pounds.
Oregon State’s two current starting inside linebackers are both listed at 6-foot-1; their respective weights are 242, and 236, pounds.
The differences in weight is not fat.
To further counter some of these realities, Petrini recommends former players put in their wills that their brains are available for study.
“I am a card-carrying member of the concussion brain bank,” he said. “It’s not going to do you any good when you’re dead. The more we know about this the better.”
The Concussion Legacy Foundation Global Brain Bank in Boston was founded in 2007.
Its stated mission is to “accelerate research by collaborating with leading scientists at brain banks around the globe to understand, prevent, treat, and eventually cure CTE and other consequences of sports-related brain trauma.”
Marion Barber made a decision not to participate in any such study.
“Maybe he thought it would hurt his legacy,” Petrini said.
A legacy that should never have ended at 38.
