Photo courtesy of Northwestern University
Dick Alban, 81, sits at his home in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania sipping on a cup of coffee at his dining room table and reminisces about his eight year NFL career. With reminders from his wife, Mary, Alban tells story after story in varied detail.
Alban tells of his rookie season with the Washington Redskins in which he housed with Hall of Fame quarterback, Sammy Bough, for his first week of training camp.
“He really took me under his wing.,” Alban Said.
Alban, a defensive back, also talks about his 30 career interceptions, and how he went to the Pro Bowl in 1954.
Dick Alban is a man who has lived a life filled with interesting stories, and excitement. Unfortunately, Alban can’t remember as much of it as he would like.
Alban is one of thousands of athletes and former athletes who suffer from the effects of concussions incurred during their playing careers.
WebMd.com describes a concussion as “a brain injury that is caused by a sudden blow to the head or to the body. The blow shakes the brain inside the skull, which temporarily prevents the brain from working normally.” They also note that concussions are the most common form of traumatic brain injury.
The severity of concussions varies, yet henryfordhealth.org lists some of the symptoms of a concussion as dizziness, headaches that are often severe, vomiting, loss of balance, and in many cases loss of consciousness.
With a study done by Vanderbilt University showing that sports trail only automobile accidents as the leading cause of concussions, much has been done in an attempt to protect athletes.
According to NFL.com, the NFL instituted new, stricter policies regarding concussions, including players who are suffering from concussion like symptoms not being allowed to return to action until cleared by a doctor.
Alban says that this was not the case when he played.
“There was no testing or anything like that,” Alban continued. “It didn’t matter how hard you got nailed, if you were semi-conscious then you were going to play. That’s just how it was.”
Alban says that he doesn’t know how many concussions he sustained during his football career.
“My best estimate is three or four,” said Alban. “But that doesn’t include the few I had in college and high school.”
Despite inability to count his concussions, Alban missed only one quarter of game time in his eight-year career.
“I once spent a night in the hospital after one of my worse concussions,” Alban said. “The next weeks game was in New York, and the coach wanted me to come along even though I wouldn’t play. Yet I get there and my uniform is in my locker, and they tell me to dress just to be part of the team. Early in the game another player got hurt and the coach came over and asked how I was feeling. I said “okay”, and he said ‘then get in there.’”
“Idiocy,” Alban’s wife chimes in. “Now he has a hard time remembering much of anything, he repeats himself…the damage was already done.”
Alban said that he believes this lack of carefulness regarding head may very well be why modern science is revealing the full extent of the damage incurred by former players playing with multiple concussions.
Julian Bailes, a neurosurgeon at West Virginia University’s School of Medicine, along with researchers from the University of North Carolina did a study that involved 2,488 retired NFL players. The study showed that players who had two or more concussions were more than double as likely to suffer from clinical depression.
The study also showed that depression is far from the only long-term effect of this traumatic injury.
Players with multiple concussions also had a higher reported rate of memory loss, numbness in limbs, and difficulty sleeping. This on top of the fact that a study done by Health Force Partners shows that the average life expectancy of NFL players who played at least three seasons is only 55 years, compared to the 77 year expectancy of the average male.
Despite the dangers involved, football continues to increase in popularity, with the International Sports Federation estimating that over three million people play organized football annually. This in spite of the fact that according to the Henry Ford Health System football accounts for the largest portion of the 300,000 sports related concussions each year.
Alban retired on a high note after the 1959 season, in which he recorded the second most interceptions of any season except his 1954 Pro Bowl season. After his playing career was over he then went on to manage a successful sporting goods manufacturing company in Wisconsin.
His athleticism never left him as he became a successful amateur tennis player and an excellent golfer.
“Sports are all the same,” said Alban. “Whether you’re playing in front a 50,000 people in a stadium, or you are playing golf by yourself or quietly playing tennis with a friend, it doesn’t matter. When you make the big interception, or you hit the exact golf shot you wanted to, the same smile comes to your face.”
Along with many other former players, when he dies Alban will be donating his brain for the purpose of further research on the effects of concussions.
“It’s a good idea,” explained Alban. “There’s no such thing as a minor concussion. If donating my brain will help someone be able to avoid the problems that concussions can cause, than I am happy to do it.
Given all the factors, and the knowledge about concussions that science has revealed, does Alban think it was worth it? “I would absolutely do it all again,” said Alban. “I don’t remember much of it anymore, but it was an exciting time of life.”
