Chris Borland knows firsthand all about the challenges of early retirement Taven Bryan Jaguars Jersey , having stepped away from a promising football career after one year because of concerns over head injuries.
Instead of playing in front of boisterous crowds on the big NFL stage, Borland spends his time now helping other football players and military veterans make that adjustment to their new lives that often lack the thrill and competitiveness of life in the armed forces or professional sports.
"One healthy thing I'd like for players to know, whether they're active or former, is you likely can't replicate the thrill of playing before 100,000 people and big hits and making that much money," Borland said. "We can get ourselves into trouble trying to. Coming to terms with transitioning is one of the harder lessons I've had to learn the last couple of years, is that life is a little more methodical than in sports. The peaks aren't as high and the valleys aren't as low.
"That's an adjustment we have to make."
Borland, whose brothers Joe and John serve in the Army, sees similar retirement challenges for veterans, who like football players often have to deal with physical injuries and mental problems that are far less obvious as they go into society.
"It would be ill-advised to compare war and a sport, but I don't think the brain knows the difference," Borland said. "With post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injuries in blasts with veterans, we see a very similar and somewhat unique issue with repetitive brain injuries in football. There are very similar physical struggles, but also two populations that have a hard time transitioning out whether it is the military or football and reintegrating into society."
Borland has tried to bridge those two populations with his work with the After the Impact Fund , which facilitates custom treatment plans for veterans and athletes with traumatic brain injuries.
He is raising money and awareness for the issue this week by taking part in "Pat's Run" on Saturday in Tempe Seahawks Ed Dickson Jersey , Arizona, alongside his brothers Joe and John. The run is named after Pat Tillman, who gave up his own promising NFL career to join the Army in 2002 in the wake of the 9/11 attacks and died while serving in Afghanistan in 2004.
"A lot of what you do as a teammate is you sacrifice for others and support others," John Borland said. "There are people we've all been teammates with, for us it's soldiers. For Chris, it's ex-football players. You don't just forget your teammates as soon as the game is over. They're still your teammates. There are people who still need support, who worked hard and are with you. These are guys you shared blood with."
John Borland is a major in the U.S. Army, an instructor at West Point and also served in Iraq. Joe Borland is a captain in the US Army JAG Corps who has served in Iraq and Afghanistan, returning just last month from his latest tour.
They see plenty in common with what their friends in the military deal with after leaving the service and what ex-athletes go through as well.
"The similarities and the overlap is they both are young when they start off and young when they're done as well for the most part," Joe Borland said. "They potentially would have suffered similar injuries but in a different way. The impacts in the NFL and the impacts we might have with an explosion or trauma in the military can be similar."
Those brain injuries are why the 27-year-old Borland retired from football three years ago in a decision that shocked many outsiders, but was one his brothers knew came from careful consideration.
Borland was a third-round pick in the 2014 NFL draft by San Francisco after a stellar college career at Wisconsin, where he was Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year and a second-team All-American in 2013.
Borland led the 49ers in tackles as a rookie and was named to the all-rookie team and was a Pro Bowl alternate before stepping away for a post-playing career that includes a company he started, T Mindful, to help bring meditation into sports.
"About 10 percent of the time, I miss 3 to 5 percent of the game http://www.chiefsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-robert-golden-jersey ," Borland said. "I look back and I'm happy that I played. I'm not wistful. You miss big games. I miss the locker room camaraderie. Sometimes I miss the lifestyle. It's great to get around old players because in a society where people like to dance around topics, it's good to be around like-minded people who cut the BS and are able to rib one another. I enjoyed that. But I don't long for it or reminisce daily. A piece of my heart will always be in football, but my mind ended it."
Borland, who started playing tackle football in ninth grade, finds it preposterous that children are still playing the sport with fewer rules protecting them than the adults in the pros.
Even the rules in the NFL like limits on contact in practice and a recent rule change to outlaw leading with the helmet are only small steps.
"Those are all incremental improvements," Borland said. "A lot of it is PR. When they do those things, they're able to say the game is safer than ever. Safer than ever is a euphemism for dangerous and football is inherently dangerous. The way it's played, if it's going to retain what it is as a game, it will always be dangerous. What's not being done that could be are measures outside the lines like waiting until high school to play and having high schools and colleges adopt the same contact rules as the NFL."
The NFL's catch rule would get less complicated if team owners approve recommendations from the powerful competition committee.
One of the first orders of business when the league's annual meetings begin Monday in Orlando, Florida, will be a proposal by the committee to clarify what is a catch. Commissioner Roger Goodell said during the week of the Super Bowl he would urge simplification of the rules.
"Catch/no catch is at the top of everyone's minds," Troy Vincent, the NFL's football operations chief, said Wednesday before outlining the committee's recommendations.
The owners will be asked to vote on clarifications that eliminate parts of the rule involving a receiver going to the ground, and that also eliminate negating a catch for slight movement of the ball while it is in the receiver's possession. No calls in the last few years 鈥?not even pass interference 鈥?have caused more consternation than overturned catches in key situations Bills Phillip Gaines Jersey , including those by Dez Bryant, Jesse James and Austin Seferian-Jenkins.
"We were at the point as far as players and particularly coaches who asked, 'Why is that not a catch?'" Vincent said. "We talked to fans, coaches and players and we asked the groups, 'Would you like this to be a catch?' It was 100 percent yes.
"Then we began writing rules that actually apply to making these situations catches."
Here's what would constitute a catch if the owners approve the competition committee's alterations:
鈥?control of the ball;
鈥?getting two feet down;
鈥?performing a football act or;
鈥?performing a third step.
The stipulation that slight movement of the ball while the receiver still has control no longer would result in an incompletion. Vincent pointed to the touchdown catch by the Philadelphia Eagles' Corey Clement in the Super Bowl as an example of a player never losing possession of the ball despite slight movement.
"That's what the fans, coaches and players want," Vincent said. "They are the magical moments people are looking for, and that includes all of those (plays). It's the biggest (proposed change). Why we want this is this is one call shaping results across the sport."
Richard Sherman, the star cornerback who recently was cut by Seattle and signed with San Francisco, approves cleaning up the rules.
"I'm in favor of it because it gives the refs more clarity," Sherman said. "I think anytime you can give the referees more of a straight line, an edge, to call plays, I think it's better for the game.
"I think obviously there's been a lot of scrutiny on the catch rule. Last year, my team was at the wrong end of it. A guy caught the ball and ran three or four steps http://www.ravensauthorizedshops.com/authentic-jaleel-scott-jersey , put his hand in the ground, fell, fumbled the ball and nobody touched him, and they said it was an incomplete pass. It was the most ridiculous thing I think I've ever seen.
"I think that they need to do more rules like that. They need to take the gray area out of a lot more rules because the rule book is getting too crazy. It's getting too extensive. Every year, the refs are getting scrutinized left and right when it's a bang-bang play. This game is happening at a million miles an hour and there's really nothing you can do about it. The rule book is so complex. How many times can you think of 1,500 rules in a second of a play and see which ones apply to that particular play? So, I think any time they can simplify the rule book and simplify the ref's understanding and the public's understanding is better for the game."
Competition committee members are chairman Rich McKay, president of the Falcons; Broncos general manager John Elway; Cowboys COO Stephen Jones; Giants owner John Mara; Packers President Mark Murphy; Ravens GM Ozzie Newsome; Saints coach Sean Payton and Steelers coach Mike Tomlin.
They also are recommending:
鈥?expanding protection of a runner, which also involves quarterbacks when they have given themselves up as a runner. Vincent cited Kiko Alonso's hit on Baltimore quarterback Joe Flacco last season, saying the NFL must avoid an "unnecessary shot."
"This is strictly a safety move," Vincent said.
鈥?allowing the officiating staff at NFL headquarters in New York, using video review, to call for an ejection of a player committing an egregious non-football act. That would include throwing punches or being involved in a fight. Vincent pointed to acts by Rob Gronkowski and Mike Evans last season.
Vincent said there were no discussions within the competition committee regarding protocol for the pregame national anthem. Owners are expected to take up the subject on Monday or Tuesday, but no decisions are likely.
AP Pro Football Writer Josh Dubow contributed to this report.
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