Last week, Andrew Luck shocked the NFL world by announcing his retirement. In his retirement speech, he stated "I've been in this cycle of injury, pain, rehab, injury, pain, rehab, and it's been unceasing, unrelenting... The only way I see out of it is to no longer play football."

This is probably one of the most high profile retirements in the history of the NFL and adds to the growing list of players retiring in or before their "primes". The NFL has dealt with a lot of fall out over chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) since Dr. Bennet Omalu published a case report of the disease in an NFL player (Mike Webster) in 2005. Since then, there have been numerous players that have reconsidered football as a long term career.

Listen in as Dr. Raman Gurai and Dr. Brian Joves discuss this and what may be coming down the road for the NFL. This is a discussion between two long time sport fans, who happen to be physical medicine and rehabilitation physicians. The doctors do not know the details of the NFL policies or standards, specific players' injuries and are simply talking it through from an informed fan's perspective.

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This podcast is for information and educational purposes only, it is not meant to be medical advice. If anything discussed may pertain to you, please seek council with your healthcare provider. The views expressed are those of the individuals expressing them, they may not represent the views of Spine & Nerve.