In the wake of Junior Seau's death, Washington Redskins linebacker London Fletcher suggested that mental health counseling be available for players after their careers are over. Services remain available for players that want them, and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell suggests that there could be a change in league policy after a player retires. Goodell told SI.com's Peter King that the league may make a mental health evaluation be mandatory. "That's something that's being discussed as a part of your exit physical," Goodell said. "Part of that is mental health evaluation to see what it can be. I've heard that from players myself. And we are evaluating it." The more that players like Brandon Marshall speak about mental health issues, the easier it will be to erase the stigma of the disease. Evaluating mental health as part of an exit physical like you would with a knee makes a lot of sense. Source: NFL.com
Thing is a lot of these problems dont manifest until much much later, you could take an exit test at retirement and test "clean", but then end up like Seau 10 years later with no viable recourse against the league since you were fine by their standards upon retirement. "You were fine mentally 10 years ago when you left our employment Mr. Reed, we cant be held responsible for whats happened to you since then."
If the NFL and NFLPA would get together and work on this, it could work. I think if your going to go this far go all the way. Make this mandatory for retirement and also make players go thru an evaluation every so many years to maintain any pension they receive. If they choose not to have one their pension would lowered until they get one. Also any player who doesn't qualify for a pension should be allowed to participate for free if they so choose. And all this be covered by the NFL and NFLPA. If they feel so strong about helping these guys out....then both sides need to step up.
