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Former Chiefs Tight End Sean McGrath Isn’t Alone As Other Young NFL Players Retire

Former Chiefs Tight End Sean McGrath Isn’t Alone As Other Young NFL Players Retire

By Terez A. Paylor, The Kansas City Star (TNS)

Late last July, a young tight end walked slowly into the Chiefs’ training camp dormitory at Missouri Western in St. Joseph, sporting his trademark beard and a hat.

The smile that had been plastered on Sean McGrath’s face the previous season was gone; instead, he appeared emotionless as he disappeared inside the building on this bright, sunny day.

No one — not the reporters nor his teammates standing nearby — knew the message he would soon give Chiefs coach Andy Reid and general manager John Dorsey.

McGrath, 27, was retiring from professional football.

Seven months later, McGrath attends art classes at Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, where he played college football. He’s working on a master’s degree, according to his agent.

And seven months later, McGrath isn’t alone in his decision. Several young, established players, not unlike McGrath, have recently left professional football.

At the top of the list is San Francisco linebacker Chris Borland, 24, who made national headlines this offseason when he retired after a 100-plus-tackle rookie season because of his concerns about the long-term effects of concussions.

Also this offseason, Pittsburgh linebacker Jason Worilds, a Jehovah’s Witness, retired at age 27 to work for his religion, and Tennessee quarterback Jake Locker, 26, retired because of what he said was a loss of passion for the game. Before last season, former Arizona and Pittsburgh running back Rashard Mendenhall, 26, retired because he wanted to pursue writing as a career.

McGrath, by all accounts, loved football. But the Chiefs and McGrath’s agent, Richard John Owens, said other passions — particularly art — overtook his desire to play. Before he quit, McGrath was a solid contributor on the Chiefs’ depth chart, catching 26 passes for 302 yards and two touchdowns in 2013.

“We sat and talked for an extended period of time,” Dorsey said of McGrath at the NFL’s annual meetings last week in Phoenix. “And part of that was to see, truly, is this what you want to do in life?

“Because if you don’t have it inside your soul, if you’re not totally committed to execute what you want to execute, it’s not going to work.”

Owens said he speaks to McGrath roughly once a month, in addition to receiving pieces of art from the former player. McGrath gave Owens a piece of pottery at his pro day workout in 2012.

But Owens remains surprised by his client’s decision. He said McGrath remains a “bit of a different guy.”

“The main reason, he told me, is that the idea of art was drawing him away from the game,” Owens said, adding that he gets the impression McGrath wants to teach and be part of an art gallery. “But I still, to this day, scratch my head.

“Sean, to this day, absolutely loved the game, and I think he still does. I’m just as baffled, probably, as you are.”

By last July, based on what he told the Chiefs, McGrath’s commitment level had fallen off.

“He said, ‘I’m not totally prepared.’ But you applaud him because he didn’t at least come out there and try to fake it. Nobody has time for that,” Dorsey said. “So you applaud him for at least standing up, realizing where he was in his career and ultimately making the toughest decision of his life.”

Reid, who has been an NFL head coach for 16 seasons, said his reaction to McGrath was simple — he told him you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.

“I listen to him, and then, if I feel like he wants advice or wants to talk through it, options, I’ll give him the options,” Reid said. “But normally if you’re in that position, if they’ve come to you with it, they’ve probably thought it through pretty good.”

When asked directly, Owens said McGrath did not retire because of concern about his long-term health, or any other reason. But safety is exactly why Borland’s retirement made such a splash this month.

According to ESPN, more than 70 former players have been diagnosed with progressive neurological disease after their deaths, and numerous studies have shown connections between the repetitive head trauma associated with football and issues such as depression and memory loss. The NFL implemented five rule changes at its annual meetings directly related to player safety, including a few aimed at protecting players against concussions.

But multiple coaches quizzed at the NFL meetings seemed largely unconcerned about whether Borland’s decision — and the decisions of others to put other interests and passions ahead of football — will soon become a trend.

“I don’t think so,” said Borland’s coach in San Francisco, Jim Tomsula. “The game’s getting safer, man. It’s going back to safety. I’m excited about where it’s heading that way.”

Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin — who was surprised by Borland’s decision “considering the energy and effectiveness in which he played” last season — agreed with Tomsula.

“It’s a hot topic right now, but I imagine it’s been going on since the beginning of time, guys choosing to walk away from the game seemingly at an inopportune time when they had youth and health,” Tomlin said. “It’s the flavor of the month.”

Still, Borland’s story is a cautionary tale for teams trying to build a championship roster. The 49ers, after all, spent a valuable second-round pick on Borland and got only one season from him.

“It makes the job harder, truth be told, because you’re going to weigh those components in your decision-making,” Dorsey said.

But Dorsey also said it’s really not that hard to find players who love football. This month, the NFL held a veterans combine in which 120 players paid their own way to work out in front of all 32 teams in hopes of landing a job.

“Is there a story there? I don’t know,” Dorsey said. “Are we trying to create something bigger than it is? Possibly could be.”

When Owens first heard about Borland’s retirement, he couldn’t help but think about McGrath.

“You see a retirement from a guy who has played a short period of time in the league, a guy who probably could play in the league for years,” Owens said. “But it’s Sean’s life. Not many guys like that could be able to walk from the game on their own terms.”

But Owens also wouldn’t rule out whether McGrath might decide to return to football.

“He’s still working out, he’s still in phenomenal shape,” Owens said. “We’ll see what happens.”

Photo: Anthony Roderman via Flickr

Inaction Feeds Crisis Over Mississippi River, Environmentalists Say

Inaction Feeds Crisis Over Mississippi River, Environmentalists Say

By Greg Gordon, McClatchy Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — Decades of shortsighted decisions by industry and government have put the Mississippi River’s future at risk, and degradation at its southern Louisiana delta is contributing to “the greatest land loss on the planet,” a five-state environmental coalition warned Wednesday.

As much as $50 billion will be needed to secure Louisiana’s port system, but “there is no hope in the current budget of the United States. Zero,” said Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, who addressed a diverse group of political, environmental and private-sector leaders at a conference in Washington on the river’s future.

Despite a $14 billion federal infusion after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the state in 2005, Landrieu said, southern Louisiana is losing land masses the size of the nation’s capital to the Gulf of Mexico every year.

“New Orleans is going to be very close to being under water,” she said. “If you don’t have wetlands around you and a healthy delta, you just can’t live there.”

The conference, sponsored by America’s Wetland Foundation, laid out the findings of forums attended by more than 400 government, nonprofit and private-sector leaders over a 12-month period in Minneapolis, Chicago, St. Louis, Memphis, Tenn., and New Orleans, all cities that are in states whose economies depend heavily on the river.

Attendees spoke of galvanizing a coalition of mayors up and down the river to muster enough clout to win a massive federal financial commitment to save the river and the Gulf Coast, especially in southern Louisiana and southwestern Mississippi.

Among the findings from the forums:

—The construction of locks and dams along the river to control flooding and facilitate shipping has resulted in a glut of silt along its northern stretches, reducing the flow of crucial, nutrient-containing sediments to the delta and impairing the growth of wetlands that shield the coast.

—Agricultural runoff has polluted the river with high levels of nitrogen and phosphorus that are running into the Gulf of Mexico, contributing to an oxygen-depleted zone that can’t support marine life.

—Levees along the river have severed its connections to floodplains, reducing their water-retention capabilities and exacerbating floods and droughts.

However, building a coalition to address those and other threats has been difficult because interests are localized, various regions bear the consequences of inaction unequally and the states have lacked a systemic view to motivate action, the forum found.

Environmentalists back a plan to divert the silt that’s flowing beyond the Outer Continental Shelf back to shore, but they need money.

Landrieu has proposed allotting a portion of the federal royalties that oil and gas companies pay for Gulf of Mexico mineral leases to address the problem, perhaps $2 billion annually.

R. King Milling, the wetland foundation’s chairman, said after the meeting that he thought mayors in cities along the river “are beginning to coalesce” and that trade groups “are beginning to panic” over the impact of droughts and floods.

Ultimately, he told McClatchy, he hopes that a broad coalition will “come to Washington and say, ‘Look, we have a crisis. And you’ve forgotten about it.’’’

Photo: Jason Paris via Flickr

Illinois Lawmaker Wants To Outlaw Wearing Google Glass While Driving

Illinois Lawmaker Wants To Outlaw Wearing Google Glass While Driving

By John Byrne, Chicago Tribune

The future of distracted driving has arrived with the advent of Google Glass, but an Illinois lawmaker wants to outlaw wearing it behind the wheel before drivers start trying to get directions from images hanging directly in front of their eyes.

While the computer interface mounted on an eyeglass frame hasn’t become a common sight on the faces of Illinois residents the way it has on people on the West Coast, state Sen. Ira Silverstein, D-Chicago, isn’t waiting.

He introduced a bill in the General Assembly that would make it illegal to operate a motor vehicle while even wearing a “mobile computing headset” like Google Glass.

Now Google is sending representatives to the General Assembly Tuesday to show lawmakers how the technology works.

“I’m sure they oppose (the ban),” Silverstein said. “They sent me a letter saying they were willing to work with us on this.”

“To me, this is a no-brainer,” Silverstein added. “I think it’s just a safety concern. This is potentially more distracting than texting and driving. It’s in your peripheral vision.”

In response to Silverstein’s proposal, Google released a statement that does not directly address the question of using the technology behind the wheel, but that says the headset is not meant to distract users.

“Glass is built to connect you more with the world around you, not distract you from it,” the statement reads, in part. “We find that when people have first-hand experience using Glass over several days, many feel less, not more distracted by technology.”

Google Glass is not yet available to the general public, though the company is testing it out with consumers in California. Google Glass could hit shelves later this year, the company has said.

Silverstein’s bill is sitting in the Senate Transportation Committee.

In a letter to Silverstein supporting the idea of new legislation specifically aimed at curbing use of Google Glass, an official from Secretary of State Jesse White’s office pointed out that while state law currently prohibits drivers from having video screens or televisions in their line of sight while driving, it isn’t clear that the language would apply to Google Glass-like wearable devices.

Silverstein’s bill comes several months after a judge in California dismissed a ticket issued by state police to a woman who was driving while wearing Google Glass near San Diego. The judge said there was no evidence the device was activated, so it couldn’t be proven that the woman was breaking the law.

Photo: Justin Sullivan via AFP

Study: Electronic Cigarettes Can Be Dangerous, Even If You Don’t Smoke Them

Study: Electronic Cigarettes Can Be Dangerous, Even If You Don’t Smoke Them

By Karen Kaplan, Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has identified a new health problem related to electronic cigarettes — the risk that the devices themselves or the liquid nicotine that goes into them will cause injury to eyes, skin or other body parts.

Calls to poison control centers to report problems related to e-cigarette exposure rose from one per month in September 2010 (when officials started to keep track of such calls) to 215 per month in February 2014, according to a report published Thursday in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. During that time, poison control centers fielded a total of 2,405 calls about e-cigarette injuries.

To put those numbers into some perspective, the report also notes that during the same period, Americans made 16,248 calls to poison control centers regarding exposure to regular cigarettes. The monthly number of cigarette-related calls varied between 301 and 512.

Electronic cigarettes are battery-operated devices that deliver users a hit of nicotine in vapor form without the carbon monoxide or tars that come from burning tobacco leaves. The CDC estimates that 10 percent of American high school students and nearly three percent of middle school students used e-cigarettes in 2012.

The authors of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report — from the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration — found records of 9,839 calls involving either regular or electronic cigarettes that included information on the side effects suffered by victims. Among these cases, 58 percent of calls involving e-cigarettes reported some kind of “adverse health effect.” In 68.9 percent of these cases, people became injured by ingesting something, 16.8 percent by inhaling something, 8.5 percent by getting something in their eye and 5.9 percent by getting something on their skin.

When people were injured by e-cigarettes, the most common side effects reported to poison control centers were nausea, vomiting, and eye irritation. One person committed suicide by injecting the nicotine solution into his or her veins.

By comparison, only 36 percent of calls to poison control centers about regular cigarettes reported an adverse health effect — and in 97.8 percent of those cases, the problems were related to ingestion.

Young children were the ones most likely to be harmed by regular cigarettes, with 95 percent of victims under the age of six. By comparison, 51 percent of those harmed by e-cigarettes were in that age group, and 42 percent of victims were over the age of 20.

“This report raises another red flag about e-cigarettes — the liquid nicotine used in e-cigarettes can be hazardous,” Dr. Tom Frieden, the CDC director and a vocal critic of e-cigarettes, said in a statement. “Use of these products is skyrocketing and these poisonings will continue.”

The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report noted that the nicotine liquid used in e-cigarettes comes in flavors such as fruit, mint and chocolate. That could make them especially appealing to children, but Frieden warned that the liquid cartridges are not required to be sold in childproof containers.

DucDigital via Flickr