The education of Chris Borland.

• Author: Zirin, Dave
• Position: EDGE OF SPORTS - Chris Borland on the health risk of football

There is something very appropriate about sharing the story of Chris Borland in The Progressive.

The former San Francisco 49ers linebacker turned the National Football League's world upside down in March by simply walking away. He decided at age twenty-four, after only one season and prospects of stardom and riches in his future, that the research on head injuries and football was simply too jarring to ignore.

As he said to ESPN's Outside the Lines, "I mean, if it could potentially kill you--I know that's a drastic way to put it, but it is a possibility--that really puts it in perspective. To me, it just wasn't what I wanted to do. I can relate from the outside looking in that it wouldn't make sense to a lot of people, and I've had close friends who have said, 'Well, why don't you just play one more year, it's a lot more money, you probably won't get hurt.' I just don't want to get in a situation where I'm negotiating my health for money. Who knows how many hits is too many?"

Borland came to this decision after a great deal of thought, scientific study, and historical investigation about what actually happens to players' brains while they play tackle football and how they suffer in the aftermath. Some end up broke. Many are physically or mentally incapacitated. And all feel it for the rest of their lives.

Having communicated with Borland and people close to him, I absolutely believe that this kind of brave and mature decision could not have been made were he not nurtured in the city of Madison, Wisconsin, earning a history degree from the state university there. Borland's time in Madison served him well not only on the field, but off. He attended a wide variety of lectures and closely observed the 2011 occupation of the Madison capitol building.

Borland also took advantage of the fact that Madison has both a university and a community where a high priority is placed upon questioning conventional truth. The conventional truth is that you are not supposed to leave the field until you are too beat up to drag yourself out there for one more play. Do it for the money, do it for the fans, do it for your teammates, do it for the organization, but...