Hindsight is 20-20, as the saying goes. Just ask former Chicago Bears quarterback Jim McMahon.
McMahon, who has the early stages of dementia, told a Chicago TV station this week that if he could live his life over again, he would have played baseball, not football. USA Today was among the newspapers that wrote about the interview.
Today everyone knows about the link between football head injuries and permanent brain damage, including early-onset dementia. Armed with that knowledge now McMahon, who is 53 and played pro football for 14 years, regrets not opting to play baseball.
“That was my first love, baseball,” said McMahon, who led the Chicago Bears in their 1986 Super Bowl victory over the New England Patriots.
But he noted that he had a scholarship to play football, and that’s what he did.
McMahon, who had four concussions during his NFL career, is among the more than 2,400 ex-players who are suing the league over the brain damage they allege they suffered as a result of football-related head injuries.
McMahon told WFLD-TV that he has problems with his memory. For example, he said that he will get a phone message from a friend, delete it, and then forget who called.
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