Happy Friday everyone, and welcome to your morning Skull Session.
It's been news for a few days now and discussed in the comments and in the forum, but if you weren't aware, Junior Seau shot and killed himself this Wednesday at the age of 43. As one of the best linebackers of the 90s, he had an extraordinarily long career and was an inspiration to many, many football players throughout his time at USC and in the NFL.
It's not known why he shot himself. Seau was outwardly a gregarious and likeable person, and though he wasn't a saint (he was arrested but not charged with domestic abuse) if he carried any internal demons he definitely hid them well. Everyone who has spoken on the issue has said how shocked they were at his actions; and not in a "I can't believe it's come to this" way, but in a "We absolutely couldn't have seen this coming" sort of way.
But...
Maybe we should have. Seau played NFL football for a staggering 20 seasons, in a position that requires an unbelievable amount of physicality and toughness. In that time he had no reported history of concussions, but the operative word here is "reported." The NFL is just now coming to grips with the fact that their sport is literally ending the lives of former players due to way the game is currently played as chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a form of degenerative brain trauma brought on by repeated concussions, is being linked to the premature deaths of several former NFLers.
The Seau family have decided to allow Junior's brain to be tested for signs of CTE, and if present should strengthen the suit brought on by former players against the NFL, who are claiming that the league hid the potential dangers of concussions from them. This is a big topic that I'll elaborate on more extensively another day, but to put it simply; with the way NFL football is currently coached and played, my advice to college players would be to skip the draft and go to grad school.
WE ARE SO SORRY FOR SCREWING THIS UP "Our highest priority is to preserve the status of the Rose Bowl and our connection to it" is probably the dumbest thing I've heard in a long time, but welp here we are, reading an article from Rittenberg about how the B1G is throwing itself on the tracks to stop the playoff train that's screaming down the rails. I'm actually in extreme danger of going on a thousand word rant about how wrong literally everything Nebraska chancellor Harvey Perlman says in this article is, but basically it boils down to "Hurf durf Rose Bowl sanctity of bowls no one will watch pee pee doo doo I'm old."
Perlman does say that he's in favor of a plus one option at least, but frankly he is so out of touch with the current climate of what fans want, it's a little staggering. Just remember: "I can't figure out a good reason to have a playoff to start with" is an exact quote from a Big Ten representative. So, we're sorry America. We really are. But if the Big Ten can't maintain a matchup that has lost almost all meaning due to the BCS, we will literally explode in a shower of Barbasol and Ro-Tel salsa.
DO THE CREEP (AAAHHHH) This has been covered both on 11W and elsewhere, but I figured I would compile the disparate elements of the Eric Waugh saga for you, in case you're either curious what happens when Tweeting It Real Goes Wrong or if you're Chris Hansen looking for a topic for your next tv special. Essentially what happened here was that Waugh, a registered sex offender, started sending the same inspirational quote to a number of OSU players, recruits, and coaches. That's bad enough, but then pictures of him interacting with (underage) recruits surfaced, and what was at first simply creepy and weird became borderline dangerous and criminal.
The full Twitter rundown from Luke is here, along with the Lantern's take here. Social media has always been a means by which predators can exploit and target individuals, and now due to this incident we know that it extends even into seemingly innocuous tweets. Chad's article yesterday was incredibly timely.
QUIT LIVING IN THE PAST, MMAAANNNNNNESPN... FLUFF? Yep, and guess what it's Urban Meyer related. Not a ton of new stuff here, but this article from Mark Schlabach is indicative of two things: first, ESPN loves Urban Meyer. Not maybe on a personal level, because I don't think that corporations "like" things even if some of the individuals who work there like him on a personal basis, but I do think that ESPN likes him as a concept or a story. Secondly, Ohio State is taking the opportunity to rebrand itself very seriously. Think about it: as long as it has seemed at times, it's really been less than a year since Jim Tressel was fired as head coach. So because of that seeming eternity, it gives Ohio State the ability to use a strong and impassioned coach like Urban Meyer to completely flip the script and start anew.
As for the content of the article itself, it's mostly about the new offense Urban wants to install. Nothing crazy, EXCEPT
Without huddling, the Buckeyes are hoping to run as many as 85 plays per game.
To show you how crazy that is, in last year's loss to Penn State, OSU ran a total of 60 plays from scrimmage.
TWITTER ISN'T ALWAYS BAD Sometimes, when you're sitting on your back porch, facing westward into the setting sun, you look to your beloved beside you. She's holding a margarita in one hand and Foucault in the other. Her wavy brown hair shines in the waning light. In her floral print cocktail dress, she's more beautiful than the day you met her. She turns and begins to say something, but you put up one finger against her lips, silencing her. Slowly you bend toward her ear, and whisper...
"F*** it im going to Illinois"
SO I HEARD YOU LIKE DONATING MONEY Spencer Hall has a pretty sweet life. He gets to go fishing with Mike Leach, resist the urge to punch Jim Rome right in his smug face, and appear on Youtube. His life is so sweet, in fact, that he wants to make it sweet for other people. It's called "not being a dick" aka "helping others," and to accomplish this he's starting up EDSBS's charity drive to benefit Refugee Resettlement and Immigration Services of Atlanta. It's a great cause, and also you can donate according to your alma mater, which would be great except Michigan is currently leading which is of course infuriating. So go donate! DO IT NOW.
LINKS ALL THE WAY DOWN Catlab meets Paula Deen... Mariano nooooooo... The feelings that I get from this do not seem okay... Mark Titus loves the Suprs and the Jazz and thinks they are very interesting... WHY DOES THE LIZARD LOOK LIKE A GOOBMA FROM THE SUPER MARIO BROTHERS MOVIE??... Aaron Craft, going places... Oh. That's, uh, that's great... Sandwich > LeBron... S-W-A-G
