Cincinnati Bengals guard Jacob Bell quits NFL over long-term health fears associated to concussions
Cincinnati Bengals’ guard, Jacob Bell, has confirmed his decision of retirement from the National Football League (NFL) with surprising admission that fears surrounding his long-term health forced him to call it quits.
He conceded that recent consecutive stories of health complications that some former players faced as a result of concussions suffered during their professional careers, increased his fears about long-term health.
The suicide by former NFL player, Junior Seau, which is reported to be due to lingering problems associated with his past injuries, has added to Bell’s worries.
Bells’ sudden retirement news was reported by the Yahoo Sports for the first time. There was no independent confirmation of the reports, initially.
Later on, he confirmed the decision to a local newspaper, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and the reasons behind it came out to be very alarming.
Bell’s disclosure of fears is particularly going to raise some eyebrows among many critics.
It is pertinent to mention here that the league is facing a legal fight from more than 1,000 former players in various US courts over its concussion policies.
Almost all of them have claimed in their respective lawsuits that the policies were insufficient and ineffective to protect them from injuries, concussions in particular.
It is not a good development for the league office, which has strongly rebuffed all those claims about lacking policies for on-field safety and security of its players.
The open admission from the player, who apparently does not have any major health problem i.e. concussion, is certainly going to add pressure on the NFL to do more to protect its players.
Even more alarming is the fact that those injury-related fears have made Bell compromise his professional career, which is seen to be a costly move, as the player does not have any other hurdle in its progression.
Bell arrived in Cincinnati last month, after spending four seasons with St. Louis Rams and Tennessee Titans each. He was drafted by Titans in 2004.
Tags: