NFL player kills girlfriend then shoots himself in front of GM and coach

[puckluck2]

http://www.tsn.ca/nfl/story/?id=410714

Pretty cowardly and weird situation coming out this morning

Snapp said Belcher shot the woman at a Kansas City residence, then drove to the Chiefs facility. He thanked Chiefs general manager Scott Pioli and Romeo Crennel for all they had done for him, then shot himself.

The Chiefs say Sunday's home game against the Carolina Panthers will go on as scheduled.

[Tinordi]

Horrible.

Again I wonder what role head injuries may have had.

[puckluck2]

Originally Posted by Tinordi

Horrible.

Again I wonder what role head injuries may have had.

Probably none.

Murder suicides happen all the time outside of the sports world.

[Northendzone]

What an awful story.

[Erick Estrada]

Can the season get any worse for the Chiefs? Honestly it's just been a miserable season and for the coach and GM to have to witness a player suicide would be overtop for a movie let alone to actually happen. Terrible, terrible story.

[vektor]

Originally Posted by Iginla

Probably none.

Murder suicides happen all the time outside of the sports world.

Willful ignorance at it's best. Junior Seau's teammates said he experienced around 1500 concussions. Funny seeing as Belcher played the exact same position yet you think there's no chance he even had one concussion slamming his head into other men. They will probably find some kind of sedative in his blood that's used for insomnia. The brain damage, insomnia plus the meds create a cocktail that creates suicidal ideations. But what would I know, I only have a degree in psychology.

"Gary Plummer has done the math.If a 'Grade 1' concussion means you see stars after a hit, Plummer says he's had 1,000 in his career, and his ex-teammate, Junior Seau, had 1,500.
That's one thousand, five hundred concussions."

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by Iginla

Probably none.

Murder suicides happen all the time outside of the sports world.

That's becoming demonstrably false. Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy is a relatively new term, but clearly there is strong correlations with depression, suicide, addictive behaviors and other mental illness. I hope that was gren text or it's horribly uninformed.

Repeated head blows are strongly aligned with violent behavior and suicide. To suggest that this exists at the same rate outside of violent sports is actually false

[puckluck2]

Originally Posted by vektor

Willful ignorance at it's best. Junior Seau's teammates said he experienced around 1500 concussions. Funny seeing as Belcher played the exact same position yet you think there's no chance he even had one concussion slamming his head into other men. They will probably find some kind of sedative in his blood that's used for insomnia. The brain damage, insomnia plus the meds create a cocktail that creates suicidal ideations. But what would I know, I only have a degree in psychology.

"Gary Plummer has done the math.If a 'Grade 1' concussion means you see stars after a hit, Plummer says he's had 1,000 in his career, and his ex-teammate, Junior Seau, had 1,500.
That's one thousand, five hundred concussions."

Now show me where I said sport players don't suffer concussions.

I think it's absurd to link this story to headshots. Guys kill their girlfriends and then themselves for many reasons.

Heck we just had a guy kill his ex-girlfriend, drive around with her body for a while and then attempt to hang himself right here in Calgary. That guy didn't take headshots on a daily basis.

It COULD be related to headshots but highly unlikely. You don't kill your girlfriend because you have a concussion. Unless it comes out that he did suffer from concussions and that was the reason he killed himself and his girlfriend then it would be willfully ignorant of the other problems he could have suffered from.

[Tinordi]

You're not an expert, you honestly have no clue what role head trauma may have had in this. I'm not either, all I'm saying is that it's a legitimate question to ask amid mounting evidence that head trauma is leading to mental illness. You're being absolutist and ultimately unconvincing.

[dissentowner]

Originally Posted by Iginla

Now show me where I said sport players don't suffer concussions.

I think it's absurd to link this story to headshots. Guys kill their girlfriends and then themselves for many reasons.

Heck we just had a guy kill his ex-girlfriend, drive around with her body for a while and then attempt to hang himself right here in Calgary. That guy didn't take headshots on a daily basis.

It COULD be related to headshots but highly unlikely. You don't kill your girlfriend because you have a concussion. Unless it comes out that he did suffer from concussions and that was the reason he killed himself and his girlfriend then it would be willfully ignorant of the other problems he could have suffered from.

You also don't do what he did without having some bigtime mental illness. Jesus man, you make it sound like it an everyday thing people do. Calling him cowardly is ridiculous and misplaced.

[Joborule]

I think it's fair to consider head trauma to be involved in this. Clearly he was having some sort of metal illness to do something like this. It's too bad he couldn't get help beforehand and other people lives were taken or drastically altered because of it.

[puckluck2]

Originally Posted by dissentowner

You also don't do what he did without having some bigtime mental illness. Jesus man, you make it sound like it an everyday thing people do. Calling him cowardly is ridiculous and misplaced.

Do people even read anymore? Jesus Christ. I never said he COULDN'T have had a mental illness.

Not everyone who commits a heinous crime is suffering from a mental illness or our jails would be half empty.

Some people are just scumbags.

[vektor]

Originally Posted by Iginla

Now show me where I said sport players don't suffer concussions.

I think it's absurd to link this story to headshots. Guys kill their girlfriends and then themselves for many reasons.

It COULD be related to headshots but highly unlikely. You don't kill your girlfriend because you have a concussion. Unless it comes out that he did suffer from concussions and that was the reason he killed himself and his girlfriend then it would be willfully ignorant of the other problems he could have suffered from.

"Probably none."
in direct assessment to Tinordi wondering how head injuries effected it.

Now, your posit that it's unlikely head injuries had anything to do with it is massively uneducated. The suicides and murder/suicides associated with people like Junior Seau, Chris Benoit, Wade Belak etc. and now Belcher show a common theme of psychoactive pharmaceuticals and brain trauma. When a guy takes multiple head injuries it drastically alters his quality of life and his ability to control his thoughts and behavior.

These guys take multiple head injuries over their career but they don't say anything because they are trained to act like tough guys by being punished when they complain and they also don't want to miss playing a game because they feel they will be replaced and lose income. What you see as a bunch of healthy athletes that bounce back from seemingly brutal hits is in reality a bunch of brain damaged, drugged up athletes that are afraid they will be replaced if they complain. It's most prevalent with the type of players that are bruisers, take a guy like William Perry (aka "The Fridge"), I'd bet money that he is suffering massively right now from his NFL career. It's likely that he has trouble sleeping and has random outbursts that he cannot control.

[Mean Mr. Mustard]

Originally Posted by Iginla

Do people even read anymore? Jesus Christ. I never said he COULDN'T have had a mental illness.

Not everyone who commits a heinous crime is suffering from a mental illness or our jails would be half empty.

Some people are just scumbags.

Someone who has had a large number of head injuries is at increased risk of developing mental illnesses such as depression. This guy who is known to have had a large number of head injuries. To say that it is unlikely that he had a mental illness given what the end result obviously was is being ignorant to the issues.

Could he just have been a rotten apple or a bad person - I guess so. I would rather not just rely on the simplistic approach of saying he was a bad person, but rather looking at other explanations, such as repeated brain injuries (and that is what they are) in an attempt to prevent these incidents from occurring in the future. Look at the recent history of what is known about the lives of professional athletes and those who have had brain injuries and depression - it doesn't paint a pretty picture. I guess you could say they were all cowards and scumbags - but that doesn't do anything to prevent these issues from occurring in the future, in fact it may actually result in less happening due to the increased stigma associated with mental illness.

[CaptainCrunch]

I think its a little soon to blame head trauma for this, it could be a lot of different things that lead to this.

Until the autopsy results are released I personally wouldn't point to any thing.

[pylon]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

I think its a little soon to blame head trauma for this, it could be a lot of different things that lead to this.

Until the autopsy results are released I personally wouldn't point to any thing.

Problem is if he shot himself in the head, I would doubt they would be able to conclusively determine if he had an underlying brain issue. Didn't Junior Seau shoot himself in the chest to preserve his brain for study?

[Ozy_Flame]

Scouring the net, I can't seem to find any evidence of him suffering a concussion or other brain injuries per say.

I wouldn't rule it out, but him being just 25 years old and what seems to be a relatively healthy pro football career makes that assertion questionable at best.

People don't need brain injuries to be a threat to themselves and others.

[Tinordi]

I think the new research is suggesting that sub-concussive events are actually much more of a threat that the huge hit. Just because he didn't get sidelined with a concussion, you can pretty much guarantee that as a linebacker he's been exposed to head trauma for at least 15 years.

I'm not saying that this was the cause. It's just getting hard to ignore the long term cognitive impacts that these contact sports are having.

[Mean Mr. Mustard]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

Scouring the net, I can't seem to find any evidence of him suffering a concussion or other brain injuries per say.

I wouldn't rule it out, but him being just 25 years old and what seems to be a relatively healthy pro football career makes that assertion questionable at best.

People don't need brain injuries to be a threat to themselves and others.

I would put any amount of money that he has had multiple concussions during his football career. He may not have missed any time but given the sport

He may not have had traumatic encephalopathy but I wouldn't discredit the possibility.

[T@T]

Concussions,depression are not an excuse for murder