Is This The End For Bruschi?

Tedy Bruschi is a true football player. A player that you could easily see in a leather helmet on a cold fall day, playing his guts out. We’re not talking about Randy Moss or Deion Sanders here. Tedy Bruschi is a guy who will get it done every game, no matter what the circumstances. However, we learned that this warrior isn’t superman after all. When he was hospitalized two weeks ago for a mild stroke, everything changed. Can this man make it back to the NFL?Bruschi was reported to have had a hemorrhagic stroke, which is the type of stroke in which blood vessels in the brain are ruptured, causing bleeding. Bruschi was reported to have had partial paralysis of his left limbs, along with a splitting headache.  

His stroke was said to have been a “mild” one, but when is a stroke ever mild? On Friday the18th of February, seeing the video footage of him leaving the hospital and entering his car was far from cheerful. He had a noticeable limp, and looked like he had just gone through back surgery. This was not the way a football fan wanted to see one of the league’s most inspiring players, slowly walking as if he were around eighty, just a week after he had gone to his first Pro Bowl.

Tedy Bruschi must put his health and family first and worry about how this will affect him in the long run. This guy has had a great career with a great team, but it might just be time to hang up the helmet. Or is it? Another linebacker, Mark Fields, made it to the Pro Bowl after battling cancer for a year.

If Bruschi does indeed decide that it is time to leave the game, it will be a devastating blow to the defending World Champion New England Patriots. He is the heart and soul of the Patriots defense, and without him, they have a gaping hole at middle linebacker. Sure Bill Belichick can conduct the defense, but not without his first-chair linebacker, Bruschi.

There are very few players left on the depth chart at middle linebacker for the Patriots. Roman Phifer was just released and is on the verge of retiring, Ted Johnson is also getting old and Larry Izzo and Matt Chatham are strictly special teams players. As far as who will resume the leadership role on the Patriots defense, no one can be the leader on the field that Bruschi has been. He is a fierce leader on the field and his presence will be greatly missed if he leaves. The departure of Bruschi would also force New England to enter the draft looking for a middle linebacker instead of an outside linebacker, which they are also running short on.

So how did this stroke come so suddenly, and to a thirty-two year-old man? There is evidence that anabolic steroids are linked to strokes, especially oral types of the drug. Bruschi really doesn’t seem the type to use steroids. He would be close to last on my list of the possible steroid users in the NFL. He is married with three boys, has a clean past and absolutely no ego, and given that the NFL does do steroid testing, this information just about defuses the possibility of him using steroids.

We will not know until a few weeks from now if Bruschi will decide to come back or not, but if he does, it will mean that he had a full recovery from his stroke and that his long-term health status is fine. I don’t know how Tedy Bruschi is feeling right now or if he will be back, but if he doesn’t return, thank you Tedy for the wonderful memories.