{"id":18114,"date":"2020-01-23T14:58:06","date_gmt":"2020-01-23T20:58:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/?p=18114"},"modified":"2020-01-29T11:58:15","modified_gmt":"2020-01-29T17:58:15","slug":"chris-borland-wisconsin-football-netflix-doc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/chris-borland-wisconsin-football-netflix-doc\/","title":{"rendered":"Chris Borland slams Wisconsin football program in new Netflix doc"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the football field, Chris Borland was known for delivering bone-crushing hits.<\/p>\n

Wisconsin Badgers fans will remember Borland as an intense player, a mixture of speed and physicality. The linebacker \u2014 a 2013 second-team All-American and 2014 third-round draft pick of the San Francisco 49ers \u2014 was beloved during his time in Madison. But then in the spring of 2015, after an all-rookie<\/a> season, Borland abruptly retired<\/a>\u00a0from the NFL at age 24, citing concerns over lasting brain damage from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).<\/p>\n

\u201cI just honestly want to do what\u2019s best for my health,\u201d Borland told ESPN\u2019s Outside the Lines<\/em><\/a> that year.\u00a0\u201cFrom what I\u2019ve researched and what I\u2019ve experienced, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s worth the risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to argue with that logic, unless you\u2019re one of the macho old-schoolers<\/a> who talks about football in war metaphors. To them, Borland might always be a pariah. But it\u2019s nonetheless clear that he has an important point to make about what could be an existential problem<\/a> for the sport.<\/p>\n

And now in a new Netflix documentary<\/a>, Borland has added to his own story and put his alma mater on the hot seat<\/a>, taking the UW football program to task for its seeming lack of concern over player welfare.<\/span>\n

\"Mike
Mike Webster \/ Focus on Sport<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/span>\n

The concussion disease<\/h2>\n

If you follow sports \u2014 American football especially \u2014 you\u2019ve undoubtedly heard about CTE. In layman\u2019s terms, it\u2019s \u201cthe concussion disease,\u201d a degenerative condition that there\u2019s currently no way to diagnose in the living. After spending their careers taking and suppressing multiple head injuries, some ex-players show signs of mood swings, loss of motor function and early-onset dementia. In a macabre twist, it was actually another UW player \u2014 Pro Hall of Fame center Mike Webster (pictured above)<\/em> \u2014 who was the first to be officially diagnosed<\/a> after his 2002 death.<\/p>\n

In 2011, former Chicago Bears safety Dave Duerson died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest \u2014 that way, the 50-year-old\u2019s brain could be donated to science<\/a>. For many, the face of CTE is Junior Seau, the iconic and charismatic Hall of Fame linebacker who took his own life in 2012. Considering the ex-Charger, Dolphin and Patriot\u2019s gregarious and outgoing public personality, his death was surprising and shocking<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The conversation took an even darker (yeah, it gets worse) turn in 2013, when 23-year-old New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez was arrested for murdering acquaintance Odin Lloyd. He was convicted in 2015, acquitted of a double-murder in 2017, and then days later died by suicide in prison at age 27. After his death, Hernandez was diagnosed with the most severe case of CTE<\/a> ever found in someone his age \u2014 and experts<\/a> believe the repeated head trauma played a factor in the crime.<\/span>\n

\"Aaron
Aaron Hernandez \/ Netflix<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/span>Last week, Netflix released Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez<\/em>, a three-episode docuseries. At its core it\u2019s about his crime and subsequent legal battles, but Killer Inside<\/em> also explores the serious neurological trauma he experienced. And it used his story as a springboard to explore the rot in football.<\/span>\n

\u201cThe violence business\u201d<\/h2>\n

Early retiree Chris Borland was a natural choice to talk about the head injury issue. But Killer Inside <\/em>should come with a trigger warning for Badgers fans, because Borland was unsparing about the physicality of his time in Madison. You\u2019re wrong if you thought Bucky would be an exception to the rule.<\/p>\n

In the doc, Borland talks about running high intensity, full-contact practices for relatively inconsequential games. He\u2019d play both special teams and scout teams, as well as defensive drills. (\u201cToo much of a load for anybody,\u201d he says.) Upperclassmen would line up to get shots of the painkiller Toradol before games. And according to Borland, he\u2019d regularly experience imbalance and pervasive ringing in his ears.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a big industry,\u201d the 29-year-old says in Killer Inside<\/em>. \u201cAnd they\u2019re willing to put in basically kids, young men, in situations that will compromise their long-term health just to beat Northwestern.\u201d<\/span>\n

\"Chris
Chris Borland \/ Netflix<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/span>Wisconsin officials deflected criticism<\/a>, citing their commitment to providing a safe environment for their players. But if what Borland is saying is true \u2014 and he\u2019s certainly done his homework<\/a> on the topic \u2014 it would hardly make UW an outlier. The problem is pervasive throughout the sport. While awareness of the issue continues to grow, change comes slowly. And unfortunately, that\u2019s partially by design.<\/p>\n

As Borland puts it: \u201cThey\u2019re not in the health business. They\u2019re in the violence business.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the football field, Chris Borland was known for delivering bone-crushing hits. Wisconsin Badgers fans will remember Borland as an intense player, a mixture of speed and physicality. The linebacker […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":18137,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5155,5153],"tags":[11647,11645,11650,19,11649,132,11648,11646,134,79,1638,586],"yoast_head":"\nChris Borland slams Wisconsin football program in Netflix doc<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The former star linebackers has taken the UW football program to task for its seeming lack of concern over player welfare.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/chris-borland-wisconsin-football-netflix-doc\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u201cThe violence business\u201d\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Chris Borland slams UW football program in Netflix doc.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/chris-borland-wisconsin-football-netflix-doc\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Bozho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/thebozho\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-01-23T20:58:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-01-29T17:58:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Borland-Netflix-fb.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Chris Borland slams UW football program in Netflix doc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\""The violence business."\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Borland-Netflix-tw.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@thebozho\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@thebozho\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tom Whitcomb\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Bozho\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/thebozho\/\",\"http:\/\/instagram.com\/thebozho\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/thebozho\"],\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/#logo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/logo.png\",\"width\":600,\"height\":280,\"caption\":\"The Bozho\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/#logo\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/\",\"name\":\"The Bozho\",\"description\":\"Seeing things. 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