A Sportswriter Wonders If He Played A Role In NFL Star Junior Seau’s Suicide

An image of football player Junior Seau in front of Qualcomm Stadium as fans arrived for a public memorial service in early May in San Diego. (AP)

During his 20-year NFL career, linebacker Junior Seau was portrayed by reporters as a superhero, impervious to injury.

But he was playing in pain, and plenty of it.

The San Diego Chargers star competed with a severe hamstring pull in 2000, even though his team was winless. Reporters ate it up, and one of them is now wondering whether he and other members of the media may have inadvertently played a role in Seau’s death at the age of 43.

“I don’t know what happened to Junior Seau. No one does,” Peter King writes in Sports Illustrated. “But I do know that it bothers me that I helped create this image of a man incapable of feeling what you and I feel. In the end he must have felt more pain than any of us could imagine.”

Sports Illustrated: All Men Are Mortal

Guest:

Peter King, senior reporter for Sports Illustrated

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Dgille

of course Peter King and the rest of the sports media are responsible for the injury problems in sports. They are quick to criticize and perceived – - real or imagined – - weakness in an athlete. Most of them have never played at a professional level and have no idea of the pressures involved – - the team, the coaches, the fans & especially the media.

This “apology” is self serving at best, but strikes me as hypocritical
http://www.facebook.com/walken.christopher Walken Christopher

Junior Seau was the best
defensive player in San Diego Chargers history.�
Seau was a legend on and off the field, especially to San Diegans
like myself who grew up with his name everywhere. Why would he feel so alone
and helpless in a city that adores him?

The suicide of former NFL superstar and
philanthropist Junior Seau earlier this month has left many of us, particularly
fans of the late linebacker, wondering why. Why would someone with seemingly
every reason to live choose to end it all?http://www.rosebudmag.com/music-entertainment/athlete-concussion-suicide-brain-seau