BORLAND’S TIME TO GO

Put the game first. Put the team first. That’s always been football’s way. And now maybe it is changing, because the game and the teams didn’t put the health of their players first.

Chris Borland’s retirement at 24 after one season with the San Francisco 49ers jolted the sport this week. Borland, a solid linebacker who was a third-round draft pick just about a year ago, cited increasing evidence of lifelong damage from head injuries as a reason to walk away from a game that no one doubts he loves.

Perhaps he loves life more. Perhaps he saw too much in just one year in professional football.

“I can relate from the outside looking in that it wouldn’t make sense to a lot of people, and I’ve had close friends who have said, ‘Well, why don’t you just play one more year, it’s a lot more money, you probably won’t get hurt,’” he told ESPN. “I just don’t want to get in a situation where I’m negotiating my health for money. Who knows how many hits is too many?”

Others have also retired at young ages this spring. Quarterback Jake Locker, so often injured, opted out at 26. Another 49ers linebacker, Patrick Willis, retired due to a chronic foot injury. Linebacker Jason Worilds cited a religious calling in giving up the game. But Borland specifically pointed out the debilitating effects of head trauma.

This will reverberate through the NFL and down, through the college ranks (Texas quarterback David Ash retired after a concussion in the Longhorns’ opener last August) and into the youth ranks. If a sport is too dangerous, who will want to play it?

The NFL remains the nation’s most popular sport. How long can that last, however, if this game eats its young and leaves its old addled and in despair?
 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman .