Charles Mann is a Washington football legend. The former pass rusher terrorized quarterbacks mostly alongside Dexter Manley for 11 seasons in Washington. His 82.0 sacks in the burgundy and gold are the third most in the franchise’s history.
However, if he could do it all over again, he wouldn’t have put on a helmet.
“I’m being brutally honest. If I could do it all again, I would not have played football,” Mann said while on The Sports Junkies.
Mann’s reason stems from the developing information dangers stemming from CTE and brain injuries caused by playing football. After being a four-time Pro Bowler and finishing his career with the San Francisco 49ers, Mann has become a business owner.
But he admits that part of his life has been lost to healing from surgeries caused by football.
Mann mentioned his teammates’ struggles after football, particularly Hall of Fame wide receiver Art Monk.
“Art, he’s starting to lose memory a little bit,” Mann said. “You start seeing guys starting to go down and it’s sad. I don’t want to to go that way. I am really working hard to be as sharp as I can be so I stay mentally aware.
“I’m constantly using my brain just so that doesn’t happened to be, but it does. And probably 95 percent of us are gonna have CTE. So far, every brain they’ve checked after they’re dead, they’ve had CTE.”
The NFL hadn’t acknowledged the issues caused by concussions and other head related injuries until 2009. That was long after Mann stopped playing. The league has since been focused on prevention and care of head injuries for more than a decade.
Their efforts have seen a reduction in the rate of concussions over recent years. In 2015, the league had 275 concussions with 16-game schedules, according to NFL.com. This past season there were 187 with a 17-game schedule.
