Blue White Illustrated

During the Baltimore Ravens' presea- son camp two years ago, John Urschel suffered a concussion after a helmet- to-helmet collision. A former Penn State offensive lineman, a rising star with the Ravens and, in the NFL off- season, a doctoral student in applied mathematics at the Massachusetts In- stitute of Technol- ogy, Urschel admitted that the injury affected his cognition for weeks afterward. "I think it hurt my ability to think well mathematically," he said during an ap- pearance on HBO's "Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel." "It took me about three weeks before I was football-ready. It took me a little bit longer before my high-level visualizations ability came back." Given Urschel's experience, it was understandable that people would speculate about the motives behind his surprising announcement on July 27 that he was retiring from pro football to focus on his doctorate. The announce- ment came on the eve of a training camp in which he was expected to com- pete for the Ravens' starting center po- sition, but it also came just two days after the release of a Boston University study in which 99 percent of the brains of former NFL players that had been posthumously examined showed evi- dence of chronic traumatic en- cephalopathy. Coach John Harbaugh declined to discuss the reasons for Urschel's re- tirement, saying only that it "was something that's been on his mind for quite a while." But a source with the Ravens told ESPN that the study had indeed played a role in Urschel's deci- sion. In a prepared statement, the former two-time All-Big Ten guard asked for privacy, saying that he was "excited to start working on my doctorate in math- ematics full time at MIT. I'm looking forward to the chance to take courses that are only offered in the fall semes- ter, while spending time with my fiancé and preparing myself for new chal- lenges that will come with fatherhood. We're expecting our first child in De- cember." A 79h-round pick by the Ravens in the 2014 dra9, Urschel described his passion for football in a 7rst-person column that appeared in the Players' Tribune in March 2015. He conceded that "playing a hitting position in the NFL can't pos- sibly help your long-term mental health," but said he enjoyed the game too much to give it up. "There's a rush you get when you go out on the 7eld, lay everything on the line and physically dominate the player across from you," he wrote. "This is a feeling I'm (for lack of a better word) ad- dicted to, and I'm hard-pressed to 7nd anywhere else. My teammates, friends and family can attest to this: When I go too long without physical contact I'm not a pleasant person to be around. This is why, every o8season, I train in kick- boxing and wrestling in addition to my li9ing, running and position-speci7c drill work. I've fallen in love with the sport of football and the physical con- tact associated with it." But in the same piece, Urschel admit- ted he was envious of Chris Borland, the former Wisconsin and San Francisco 49ers linebacker who retired following his rookie NFL season, citing concerns about brain trauma. Those concerns for players' long- term health have only grown since Bor- land's retirement. While the brains that were examined by the Boston Univer- sity researchers were largely from play- ers who had suffered from dementia later in life, potentially skewing the re- sults, the study did receive widespread attention and intensified the worries over player safety, particularly offen- sive and defensive linemen, who are in- volved in collisions every time the ball is snapped. James Franklin addressed the matter at Penn State's football media day in August, emphasizing the need for safety while also hailing the game's role in helping players develop skills that will carry over into the rest of their lives. "I'm obviously aware of what's going on in our sport and our society and the focus and the concern," Franklin said. "It's something that we all have to be aware of and we have to be open to it. You look at football, and there have been a lot of rule changes the last couple of years because people realize we've got to take a hard look at these things. The most important thing is the health and the welfare of our student-athletes, of anybody who's playing the game, and making sure that we're making really good decisions that are going to take care of our student-athletes. So I think that's number one. "I also am a defender of the game of football. I believe that is important in our society. I believe in the importance in the education system. I believe in the importance of developing leadership. And, obviously, I'm biased, but I don't think there's any doubt that we can't ig- nore the studies and the research that's going on out there. I'm very proud of what we're doing here at Penn State... and the research and things going on that we're doing on our own with the university. "So it is something that we're all very aware of, and we're going to continue to ask tough questions and continue to hopefully make the right decisions for student-athletes [and make them] in that order: for student-athletes 7rst and then for the game as well." –MATT HERB F O O T B A L L Urschel retires after three seasons with Ravens URSCHEL

• Cover