Chris Borland EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ – NOVEMBER 16: Chris Borland #50 of the San Francisco 49ers celebrates after a tackle against the New York Giants in the fourth quarter at MetLife Stadium on November 16, 2014 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)

Few would’ve seen a former All-American and rookie starting linebacker in the NFL quit the game after just one season. That’s exactly what former San Francisco 49er and Wisconsin Badgers linebacker Chris Borland did.

He simply walked away from the game he so loved and played as such a high level, retiring after one season with the 49ers. Since then, he has become the face of the fight to understand and hopefully lesson brain damage within football players of today and in to the future.

Since beginning to understand the dangers and potentially deadly consequences of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), he has begun speaking out and advocating for better education of players in regards to the risks the sport presents to them.

“I think it’s unnecessarily adversarial. I don’t think you have to define yourself as being against something. Who’s not for awareness? Who’s not for information? Let’s continue to find out what we can so guys can make informed decisions.”

Borland is about to begin a 2 1/2 month internship with a research group at the Carter Center in Atlanta, hoping to gain that information to help fellow athletes understand the long-term dangers of head trauma.

However, he believes that there isn’t really much more that can be done while a player is playing the game, saying the game  “is about as safe as it can be.”

He did have a few ideas on how to mitigate the risks in players currently involved in the game of football though.

“I think the approach to making everything safer is brevity. Waiting to play, hitting less often in practice and then shortening your pro career if you go into the pros. That said, we don’t know about causation exactly yet. There’s guys that have played for a long time and are totally healthy. There’s still a lot more to know and a lot more questions than there are answers, but my approach isn’t drastically changing the game. It’s just doing it less often will help the vast majority of football players.”

One area where Borland believes the game could see a major improvement to the lessening of risk is not in the professional game, but at the NCAA level. He points out that the number of practices and the frequency of hitting is a major concern at that level.

“In college, you can hit three times a week and then have 15 spring ball practices and 30 fall camp practices. Not all contact, but that’s a lot of hitting. If they can find a way to temper that, it could help kids out a lot.”

For his part, Borland hasn’t watched a single football game since retiring, and his mission is to also bring light to stories of other players and their families who have suffered as a result of CTE.

One thing is clear – Borland isn’t afraid to confront difficult topics and do all he can to understand them and advocate for what he believes would help the game he once loved.

[Wisconsin State Journal]

About Andrew Coppens

Andy is a contributor to The Comeback as well as Publisher of Big Ten site talking10. He also is a member of the FWAA and has been covering college sports since 2011. Andy is an avid soccer fan and runs the Celtic FC site The Celtic Bhoys. If he's not writing about sports, you can find him enjoying them in front of the TV with a good beer!