NASHVILLE, TN – DECEMBER 07: Running back LenDale White #25 of the Tennessee Titans rushes past D’Qwell Jackson #52 of the Cleveland Browns during the game on December 7, 2008 at LP Field in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

Among the highlights of this weekend’s college football schedule is a non-conference game between USC and Texas. Although the two programs are not exactly on the same level as they were the last time they met, in the Rose Bowl for the BCS national championship at the end of the 2005 season, the images of Vince Young’s remarkable dash for the end zone will be highlighted as memories from one of the greatest college football games of all time are remembered.

One memory that may not get as much as attention as Young’s signature play to capture the national championship is one that former USC running back LenDale White still cannot get over. It’s the 4th and 2 play where he was stuffed that inevitably led to Young’s heroics.

Today, that play still haunts White, but he also has bigger problems to worry about. After his NFL career failed to pan out as he had hoped, White acknowledges he did not work hard enough to have an impact in the NFL, and he says he had anywhere between 20 and 30 concussions during his brief NFL career. Only one was ever diagnosed, which raises alarms for the NFL as it continues to combat head trauma today.

“You lose consciousness and then all of a sudden it’s like shoooo-ooooof,” White explained to the Los Angeles Times. “Like, that’s how it sounds, like shhhhhhloooof, and then all of a sudden you hear the play again.”

White recalls needing Young, who later became his teammate with the Tennessee Titans, directing him where to go on the field for a play as he was recovering from his latest blow to the head. Such was life for many NFL players over the years. Only now is the league managing to find ways to better react to such injuries, although the league is still far from perfect in this effort.

A string of concussion injuries would later lead to White taking pain pills in quantities no physician would ever advise.

“And I don’t mean like popping a pain pill because I’m hurt,” White says. “I mean popping scripts. Like 10 Vicodins at a time type [stuff]. You know what I mean? To feel it, like I’m high. To feel the numbness.”

White’s story is not an unfamiliar one. As more and more caution is raised regarding the effects of head trauma and CTE in football, more former NFL players are sharing their stories, for better or worse. White’s tale is just the latest to come about sharing the rough history with a failure to monitor and react to possible concussions.

[Los Angeles Times]

About Kevin McGuire

Contributor to Athlon Sports and The Comeback. Previously contributed to NBCSports.com. Host of the Locked On Nittany Lions Podcast. FWAA member and Philadelphia-area resident.