On the day after it was revealed Leonard Marshall, one of his former New York Football Giants brothers, had been diagnosed with the degenerative brain condition known as CTE, Harry Carson said he was not surprised in the least. Because Harry Carson has known longer than most that brain trauma is a ticking time bomb that won’t go away.
“Nothing really surprises me,” Carson told The Post on Thursday. “I’ve been talking about this thing for 20 years. I just knew it would be a matter of time before these guys became older and they started feeling these effects of the neurological things they’re dealing with.”
Carson was not aware Marshall, 52, would be one of them. He knew about Tony Dorsett. Carson was asked what percentage of players might be suffering from neurological effects of brain damage.
“I really can’t say, but it’s more than what most people think,” he said. “I think that if you sat down the guys from those teams in the ’70s and ’80s and you ask them honestly if they’re feeling any effects or if they’re feeling any kind of neurological imbalance, a good chunk of them will say they’re having issues. I don’t know the percentage. I just know there are guys I’ve spoken with over the years who have shared with me their concerns about being forgetful, or dealing with depression, or dealing with not being able to focus.
“This is a train that’s been running for a long time, and some people have been on this train, and some people have not.”
Carson, because he has courageously shared his story over the years, has become a sounding board and resource for players and their concerned family members.
“I have more information than doctors,” Carson said, “and there are more players dealing with this issue than the public knows. A lot of the players deal with it in silence. A lot of these players now don’t want to go places and speak because they’re afraid they’ll lose their train of thought. Guys have gradually come to me and said, ‘I’m having some problems, I need some help.’
“I’ve had maybe 10-15 guys, not necessarily with the Giants, former NFL players who’ve reached out to me.”
Carson, who turns 60 later this month, talked about being at a golf tournament this past weekend.
“And there’s a guy, who’s a well-known player who played with the Oakland Raiders, and he told me he has the beginnings of onset dementia,” Carson said.
His generation knew about knee injuries. But not about brain injuries.
“It’s not just about the physical risks,” Carson said. “It’s about the neurological risks that might not go away once you stop playing. Guys years later, they talk about, ‘Oh, my back hurts, my knee hurts,’ but they don’t necessarily know that part of the reason why they might process information differently than they did when they were younger is because of a concussion they sustained when they played football in high school or college.
“This is something that touches all levels of the game. It’s not just about the NFL.”
Carson entertained suicidal thoughts as a player. He said he would not play football if he had to do it over again.
“I was diagnosed in 1990 with post-concussion syndrome,” he said. “I’ve learned how to live with it. I’m not suffering from post-concussion syndrome, but I manage it. I live with it very well. I have a very normal life because I’ve learned how to live with it.
“It’s not a death sentence.”
Others do not know how to live with it.
“I’ve just learned over the years to listen to my body and to understand that if I’m having trouble with bright lights, or if flash photography is going to trigger a headache, I have to stay away from it,” Carson said. “If I’m at a restaurant and it’s noisy, I have to remove myself from that environment. It might trigger a migraine headache. Other people might have different symptoms. If there are things I had to make certain I remember, I carry paper with me. I have a very good memory, but sometimes I overload myself trying to remember to do so many different things.”
As more light is shined on the issue of brain trauma, as more parents begin to steer their children away from playing football, what does the future hold for the NFL?
“I think the league is going to be fine, because the league is the league,” Carson said, “and there are always going to be people who want to play football. The ones who want to play are going to play. There are going to be others who will say, ‘I don’t want my children to play.’ You might have a smaller pool of people to choose from because more kids may be shying away from playing football.”
Carson doesn’t mention Junior Seau or Dave Duerson by name and he doesn’t have to.
“The worst is those guys who committed suicide,” he said. “Those are the worst stories. The Mike Webster situation touched me personally. For him to fall apart the way he did is something that touches me personally because I knew him as a very proud individual. It wasn’t like we were buddy-buddy, but I respected him as a player.”
Carson plans on reaching out to Marshall.
“The NFL is in my past,” Carson said. “That’s not my issue. But I think people should understand the hazards of playing football.”
Asked if he would have played football, Carson said: “Given what I know now? No. I would not.”