Big Lead Sports Bar

9/24/2008

NOAH WELCH IS DONATING HIS BRAIN

To be perfectly honest with you, I devoted much of my alloted MH writing time for the day to another "behind enemy lines"-style preview, this week for the Blogimore Ravens site, run by Dewey Hammond, who doubles as managing editor of Yardbarker.com, the blog network you've come to know and love.
That means I had to pass over coverage of a lot of great stories, including Pedro Alvarez signing on the dotted line(!), Matt Millen's Littlefield-esque run finally ending in Detroit, the suspension of Plaxico Burress, and John Clayton apparently passing gas on live TV.
For reasons I'm still trying to figure out, I decided to devote my nighttime post to the fact that former Penguin Noah Welch is one of a handful of athletes who recently pledged to donate their brains for examination after death.

Boston University's Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy also got commitments from former Patriot Ted Johnson and former Titan TE Frank Wycheck for their concussion-based research.
The center has so far determined that four deceased former NFL players suffered from brain damage commonly associated with boxers, and three of the four were Steelers: HOF center Mike Webster, OL Terry Long, and OL Justin Strzelczyk, who are joined on the list by former Eagle Andre Waters.
It's a nice gesture by Welch, who will go down in Penguin history as the guy traded for Gary Roberts in 2007. He's appeared in just six games so far for Florida, where he'll be competing for a spot once again this season. I think it's pretty safe to chalk up that trade under the victory column for Ray Shero, no?

1 comment:

godohoky said...

What is Welch's brain gonna show them? How to put the puck in your own net.