I Had Some Pictures Taken Of My Brain This Morning

There’s some irony in the fact that while the NFL owners and players are in the Washington D.C. area arguing about whether they should play 18-game seasons, I was headed to a local MRI to have pictures taken of my brain.

I’ve had numerous MRI’s before, but I’ve never had any pictures done of my brain. I spent about 45-minutes at a local MRI facility this morning getting pictures taken of my gray matter. I feel fine and haven’t had the headaches that others have had, but there are things that I don’t remember.

My Mom and Dad, and brothers and sisters talk about things that happened when we were growing up that I don’t remember at all. My wife talks about things and I look at her and say, “Are you kidding, when did that happen”.

I don’t sleep very long. The most I will sleep is four or five hours tops, regardless of whether I’ve had been up all night or not. I don’t think that’s a big deal but I want to make sure. I’m going to be examined by a psychologist as well.

After reading the stories about my former teammate and friend Andre Waters and recently about a guy I played against, Chicago Bears safety Dave Duerson, I was eager to have a doctor take a look at what was under my skull. If I’ve got a problem I want to know it.

I did an internet show one time with Dave Duerson last year and he seemed fine to me, but you never know what’s going on with people unless you live with them. Even then people can hide things from you if they want to.

As I said, I feel fine, but It’s not the best feeling to walk around and not be sure whether you’re a ticking time bomb or not.

I have former Eagles teammates who say to me, “Cobb, you know there’s something wrong with all of us”. I laugh out loud, but deep down, I’m not laughing.

I can remember one concussion that I had in high school. I was carrying the ball up the middle on a dive and somebody hit me. They had to come from my blind side and I was out for a split second. I know when I got up the sun was very bright. I’m talking about extremely bright.

I played the rest of the game, but it was strange. I wasn’t all there, but I was able to go through the motions, but I knew something had happened. I didn’t really know what a concussion was back then.

I suffered another concussion when I was in my freshman year at USC. I was covering a punt and somebody came out of nowhere and hit me under my chin. I was out for a split-second, but I got up and starting running to other team’s sideline. My teammates came and got me.

I played the rest of that game and like that game during my sophomore year in high school, I wasn’t myself during that game. It’s like I was doing things out of muscle-memory without being able to cognitively make decisions.

I’ve been asked how many concussions did a suffer in the NFL and I’m not sure at all. I remember many times having a headache after a hit, but I’m not sure they were concussions.

I guess you just get to the point where you just play the game and refuse to pay attention to any pain.

My doctor will take a good look at the pictures and I’ll know next week what type of shape my brain is in. The players need to spend plenty of time weighing the negatives of playing 18-regular season games. I thought I was invincible when I came into the league. I thought I could run through a wall.

I’ve found out that’s not the case, the wall wins in the end.

We’ll see what they say.