I played four years of football and sustained multiple concussions during my term as a football player prior to my nervous breakdown at 18. Now at age 30, I've had several episodes, insomnia, and memory problems. I'm curious to see if anybody else here played contact sports like football. I'm not saying I have CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) but all the collisions I endured certainly couldn't have helped my current state.

I think it's interesting how Brett Favre went on national television and said he wouldn't let his own kids play football and he's now worried about memory loss he's been experiencing. The NFL just offered a $765 million settlement for former players experiencing CTE. I had a lot of fun playing football. It was an amazing experience but if I could go back, I would NOT have played. When I began playing back in the 90's, brain damage was never even mentioned. Spinal injuries were the hot topic back then. There should be a lot of education and awareness raised for kids that are brought into the sport at such a young age. People think that NFL players are grown men and can decide for themselves but they don't realize they' were drawn into the sport at very young age often times as young as 6 years of age.