When I started writing, I thought about the movie Concussion, an American biographical sports thriller and medical drama film starring Will Smith and portraying Bennet Omalu, the forensic pathologist who fought against efforts by the National Football League to suppress his research on the brain damage suffered by professional football players. Will Smith mentioned that when I received this screenplay, I was conflicted. I don't want to be that guy, the guy who reveals that playing football could potentially cause brain damage." The movie couldn't have come at a better time, as I decided to write about domestic violence and CTE trauma concerning professional football players. I thought that although the two are different medically, they still have much in common as it pertains to emotional damage and the pressure to be the best through emotional pain.
The jilted is suddenly rejected or abandoned, and trying to get over a relationship that ended painfully, or in chess, principle #7, creates weakness. The NFL knows to some degree they could be courting for the jilted, which starts as early as when scouts are on the field recording video, watching plays, and deciding who's going to get the potential million dollar contract if they make the NFL first-round pick (or second-round national draft pick). Players gear up for this potential relationship at the high school and college levels. Before clubs select a single player, NFL football operations go through an exhaustive process of verifying players’ draft eligibility (not including a mental health screening or chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a neurodegenerative disease that has been associated with a history of repetitive head impacts). The NFL’s player personnel department researches and verifies the educational and athletic participation histories of thousands of players that may be eligible for the draft (www.NFL.com).
Once clubs have made the most important draft pick, round one, all the rounds seemingly don't matter. Potential players have worked hard mentally and physically, training on an intense basis to be the best. I’ve heard, watching interviews, that black players say they train with the intention of one day feeding their families, and in the interim, many aren’t emotionally prepared for the letdown of not making the first-round draft picks. It’s almost the same question that domestic violence experts ask victims: when is enough enough? The intensity of these relationships leaves no room for feeling, which means players are unaware of the pressures of becoming a jilted lover—sudden abandonment or rejection in a painful relationship. The "work hard, play hard" module is in full effect.
The soon-to-be jilted makes the first-round NFL draft pick and proceeds forward to sign the million-dollar contract with extensive training that doesn’t include a mental health screening or CTE scan because, according to some experts, there's no way to test for this in the early stages of the draft pick. Why the mention of a mental health screening or CTE screening at this stage of the game? The NFL is not fully aware of particular players that could become jilted lovers, but the players are unaware. The NFL is not fully unaware of the jilted lover who has underlying issues from a household or environment where domestic violence or trauma is prevalent and or too many concussions before age 18.
In many cases, players who have experienced family domestic violence, intimate partner domestic violence, abandonment, or some other traumatic event have never sought help from a mental health professional, and those who could potentially have CTE have no way to be tested in the prime of their football careers. Instead, the trauma is treated with a signing bonus, all the while the NFL is not fully aware of the jilted lover. And taking no interest in participating in mental health and/or CTE screening to help prevent potential jilted lovers from feeling abandoned, etc.
Ray Rice was born in New Rochelle, New York, to Janet Rice and Calvin Reed. Calvin Reed was killed in a drive-by shooting when Ray was one year old. Rice's cousin, Myshaun Rice-Nichols, was killed by a drunk driver when Rice was ten. These are two traumatic events that may have caused Rice to feel abandoned or hurt, but the death of his father could have been the pressure he felt to become a man quickly. Football became the relationship in which he excelled, but football also became the relationship that abandoned him suddenly.
Ray Rice was indicted for aggravated assault after first being charged with simple domestic violence. Then punishment from the NFL looked like suspension, then a permanent discharge. Ray, the now jilted lover, was abandoned by the death of his father and by the NFL, who was not fully aware of how his past could affect his future.
Aaron Josef Hernandez was an American football tight end for the New England Patriots of the National Football League and a convicted murderer, found guilty in 2015 of first-degree murder for Odin Lloyd. His upbringing was traumatic; he lost his dad, and according to Hernandez's brother, D.J., Hernandez was also sexually molested as a child by a teenage boy. And in a jailhouse phone call conversation, Hernandez accused his mother, Terri, of failing to obtain medication for his attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, which he said caused him to struggle in school.
Medical evidence showed that 27-year-old Aaron Hernandez suffered from one of the most severe cases of CTE found in a person his age. He was diagnosed with a mental disorder, and Dr. McKee, the head of BU’s CTE Center, which has studied the disease caused by repetitive brain trauma for more than a decade, called Hernandez’s brain “one of the most significant contributions to our work” because of the brain’s pristine condition and the rare opportunity to study the disease in a 27-year-old. His violent history is now linked with an ongoing CTE crisis in the NFL.
The NFL Player Care Foundation (PCF) is an independent organization dedicated to helping retired players improve their quality of life. But what about having care and prevention for the jilted lover before they sign the million-dollar contract? “Although college athletes tend to receive good physical care, their mental well-being is not always seen as a priority” (Hansen, 2015). Mental Health of America offers several different screenings that could potentially prepare players to deal with any unresolved trauma before they become the jilted lover. Not to mention, putting in early detection screenings for CTE will help the NFL understand early warning signs of trauma for the prevention of brain damage and suicide.
Granted, this process could cost the NFL millions of dollars before players get on the field, but it can also save the NFL millions of dollars after contracts have been signed. (b) The NFL will get recognition for prevention methods for mental health and CTE and potentially save the ridicule of the jilted lover. (c) Just like Will Smith's character in the movie, I do not want to be the person who calls the NFL out when they make players jilted lovers through abandonment for their trauma that they are not fully unaware of, but it must be talked about for the safety of football and its players.
Aaron Hernandez suffered from most severe CTE ever found in a person his age
