Historical research and testimony linking brain damage with the game shows that this train of thought is nothing new
Some interviewees ask as many questions as they answer. Talk to the families of footballers with dementia, and they will tell you about all the little things they look back on now and wonder about. I’ve heard it from the wife of the Middlesbrough defender Bill Gates, who told me about the migraines he sometimes suffered after heading the ball in training. And from the son of the Hull City forward Chris Chilton, who remembered how his dad, when he was in his mid-30s, had been to see a specialist who looked at his scans and told him he “had the neck of a 92-year-old man”. In the end there’s always the question, if he knew then what we do now, would he choose to go through it?
Of course, it was not their job to know. They trusted in the men who ran the game, trusted in the clubs who employed them and the doctors who cared for them. Besides, it’s a moot question, isn’t it? They didn’t know. No one did. Did they?
