Buccaneers: Warren Sapp to donate his brain for research when he dies
Buccaneers legend Warren Sapp to donate his brain for research upon his passing.
When it comes to Warren Sapp, Buccaneers fans have had a lot to talk about over the years. During his playing career it was his ability to bring the quarterback down at a moment’s notice. 77 career sacks while in Tampa will give fans many stories to tell.
Since his retirement, the stories haven’t been so good. His employment with the NFL network ended abruptly after some trouble with the law. Remember when he was charged with assault and soliciting a prostitute? That wasn’t exactly the best of days for the former Bucs great. Talk about having to take the good with the bad. We certainly wouldn’t give up his sacks, so his life after football comes with the territory.
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Well, the times are changing for the former sack master. According to a report from ESPN, Sapp has had difficulty with his memory in recent years. He wants to do something about it for players in the future. Sapp wants to improve things for the current generation so he is going to donate his brain for research after he passes.
He talked about it in an article on the Players Tribune. Below is the video Sapp added to the article.
We can say a lot about Sapp and the mistakes he has made after retirement. However, he deserves kudos for taking this step.
Imagine how scary it must be to go through this. Warren Sapp got paid a heck of a lot of money to basically decapitate quarterbacks. That was his job, and for what it’s worth, he was quite good at it. In his time in the league, he was dominant.
But, at what cost? We now know that the NFL sat on knowledge of concussions for a long time. Can you imagine finishing your career, and then having trouble remembering what you went out to the grocery store to buy, or directions to a lifelong friend’s house? I don’t know about all of you, but it would freak me out.
One could argue that it was Sapp’s decision to play football in the first place, so he should live with the consequences. You will get no argument from me that playing the game was his decision. The trouble is the fact that the NFL kept the information on the dangers of concussions from its players. Getting on the field was the most important thing, no matter what happened to their heads. Players weren’t protected and they weren’t made aware so they could protect themselves.
Players couldn’t be expected to know the risks when nobody was making them aware that risks were out there. They were told that getting hit in the head in football didn’t have long-term effects. Who were they to argue? They just wanted to play.
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Donating his brain for research won’t help Warren Sapp fix the memory problems he is having. What it might do is help future players by keeping some of the problems from ever happening to them. That makes it a great decision, and kudos to Sapp for doing it.