(Image Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch )

BY ANDREW CARTER

ANCHOR CHRISTIAN BRYANT

 

Jacob Bell is no longer the man behind the mask.

Junior Seau’s recent death prompted the 8-year starting left guard to retire Tuesday.
His story is picking up steam as he told NFL.com why the risk outweighed the reward.

“‘Everybody wants to make the money, but what are you really sacrificing? If they tell you we're going to take your brain and whack it with a baseball bat, but we'll give you a couple million bucks, how many people would really do that?’”

Now being coined by the media as the man who saved himself from the game — Sports Illustrated got Dr. Sanjay Gupta to explain what happens to the brain during helmet to helmet contact.

“People think for example if this is the brain around it is the skull and you have a helmet that there’s a blow and everything, you just a get a blow to the brain. What happens is the brain keeps moving within the skull, bounces back and forth almost like a beach ball in a swimming pool.”

With media outlets speculating other NFL players may follow Bell’s lead, Windy City Gridiron says not so fast.

“Let's remember what Jacob Bell was in the NFL...not any kind of superstar player, team cornerstone, face of a franchise, or anything like that. He was, to put it bluntly, ‘a guy.’"

A guy who before his retirement signed with the Cincinnati Bengals and was slated to be a back-up for the first time in his career. The Chicago Tribune talked to Bell and suggests his position on the depth chart affected his decision.

“If it were earlier in his career, or back when he was making $6 million a year for the Rams, Bell concedes it might be worth the risk.”

Bell’s concerns are shared by his peers as the NFL is faced with multiple concussion lawsuits according to a NFL Concussion Litigation Blog .

“There are now more than 1,800 former players named in the 70 complaints.”

Bell told multiple media outlets he feels great and doesn’t have any current health concerns but he isn’t sure about how many concussions he has had in his career.