[needle]

As a kid, Tom Waddle was one of my favorite receivers to watch. But he took a tremendous amount of punishment as a receiver in the NFL in an era when Steve Atwater highlights were the epitome of cool.

Maybe a comparision between Owusu and Waddle, now in this 40s, isn't fair, but I don't think it's completely far off, either.

On the bright side for Waddle:

With a wife, four young daughters, an impending move, a daily radio show on ESPN Radio 1000 in Chicago and enough side gigs to occupy all the "spare time," Tom Waddle doesn't possess the energy to worry about things he can't control.

Less so:

Waddle said it's too hard to determine how many concussions he may have sustained during his six-year career as a fearless, over-the-middle receiver for the B.ears in the early '90s.

"It was nothing where I woke up the next morning throwing up," he said.

But given the recent attention and ongoing research on the lasting damage that playing football can have on the brain, Waddle's bouts of periodic fogginess are scary, he admits. "Not to be overly dramatic, but there are days when what I'm thinking I want to say just doesn't come out of my mouth," he said. "I can't seem to make the connection of what I want to say and saying it. There are times when I can't process everything, where I feel like I'm thinking things through, but I can't verbalize it for some reason.

"Being in the media for so long, it's your job, so you learn to do it on a decent level. But some days are much harder than others, and I can't process it all."

http://sports.espn.go.com/chicago/nfl/co...id=4903185

[needle]

As a kid, Tom Waddle was one of my favorite receivers to watch. But he took a tremendous amount of punishment as a receiver in the NFL in an era when Steve Atwater highlights were the epitome of cool.

Maybe a comparision between Owusu and Waddle, now in this 40s, isn't fair, but I don't think it's completely far off, either.

On the bright side for Waddle:

With a wife, four young daughters, an impending move, a daily radio show on ESPN Radio 1000 in Chicago and enough side gigs to occupy all the "spare time," Tom Waddle doesn't possess the energy to worry about things he can't control.

Less so:

Waddle said it's too hard to determine how many concussions he may have sustained during his six-year career as a fearless, over-the-middle receiver for the B.ears in the early '90s.

"It was nothing where I woke up the next morning throwing up," he said.

But given the recent attention and ongoing research on the lasting damage that playing football can have on the brain, Waddle's bouts of periodic fogginess are scary, he admits. "Not to be overly dramatic, but there are days when what I'm thinking I want to say just doesn't come out of my mouth," he said. "I can't seem to make the connection of what I want to say and saying it. There are times when I can't process everything, where I feel like I'm thinking things through, but I can't verbalize it for some reason.

"Being in the media for so long, it's your job, so you learn to do it on a decent level. But some days are much harder than others, and I can't process it all."

http://sports.espn.go.com/chicago/nfl/co...id=4903185