COLUMN: Is The Price Of Victory Worth It Once The Bill Comes Due?

*This is an opinion column*

"The price of victory is high, but so are the rewards."

- Bear Bryant

TUSCALOOSA, AL — Crimson Tide fans will remember well the 2002 Alabama football team.

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A talented squad that was ineligible for a postseason bowl game, head coach Dennis Franchione and the Crimson Tide finished 10–3 and 6–2 in the Southeastern Conference, with the season capped off by an odd regular season consolation game against Hawaii in Honolulu that the Tide won 21-16.

But it was the running backs on the depth chart whose names fans will be quick to recognize: Shaud Williams, Santonio Beard, Ahmaad Galloway and Ray Hudson.

With Williams, a future NFL talent, leading the way with 921 yards on the ground, the group combined for nearly 2,300 rushing yards during the 2002 season. It was a fast and unforgiving backfield, but one that likely suffered as much physical punishment as it dealt out.

Sadly, two decades later, sources confirmed to Tuscaloosa Patch that Ray Hudson was found dead in his Florida home Tuesday afternoon. Despite past issues, some recent, being raised in the immediate aftermath of the news, the circumstances of Hudson's death remain unclear as of the publication of this opinion column.

He was only 42 years old.

As Patch previously reported, Hudson became the third former running back from that group to die in a little more than a year. Beard was shot and killed in February 2022, while Galloway reportedly died of an accidental drug overdose in January.

Each of these wayward sons of the Crimson Tide nation battled their own demons, sometimes quite publicly. But a common thread that connects them is their lack of visibility in the months and years prior to their deaths.

And even more worrisome is the notion that they're not alone — just the latest local tragedies.

Sure, this heartbreaking chapter in Alabama football history could easily be chalked up to sheer coincidence, were it not for the prevalence of similar problems recorded at schools across the country and at the highest levels of the game — chronic medical issues, memory loss, early dementia and the wide range of mental issues that have been proven to result from repeated head injuries.

So what is being done?

And better still, why are stories like Hudson's happening with such frequency?

The Facts

NFL Player Health & Safety reported a total of 1,809 confirmed concussions occurring either in practice or a game during both the preseason and regular season from 2015-2022. That's just in professional football and not taking into account the thousands of college and high school programs where concussions have, for years, been an unfortunate cost of doing business and often swept under the rug.

And when you look at gridiron positions that take the most punishment at any level, running backs — like Beard, Galloway and Hudson — sit unrivaled at the top and often have the shortest careers of any position.

According to a 2015 story published in the Journal of Neurotrauma, college athletes in offensive and defensive skill positions, including running backs, experience "fewer, but often higher-magnitude, impacts resulting from activities such as full-speed open-field tackling ... "Offensive linemen reported returning to play while symptomatic during the 2012 football season significantly more frequently than all other positions except running backs."

Some, who don't want to see the sport become more complicated by additional rules, will argue that more is known and done in the present day as it relates to concussions. After all, no one is forcing anyone to play football at gunpoint and players even have those weird puffy pads to wear on their helmets during practice now.

Never mind that millions of football fans gawked in horror when television cameras flashed images of former Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa's hands stiffening and contorting after he suffered yet another concussion that ended his season with the NFL's Miami Dolphins in 2022 — leaving many to opine that Tagovailoa should never set foot on the field again, lest he is willing to risk his life on every down.

In a fascinating article by Dr. Chris Nowinski, a former Harvard football player and the president of the Concussion Legacy Foundation, he spoke somewhat positively about the protocols implemented by the NFL after it received widespread public scrutiny.

On the other hand, though, Dr. Nowinski pointed out that the NCAA, preoccupied with the wild world of name, image and likeness (NIL) and conference realignment, has made enforcement of concussion protocols a low priority and largely refuses to acknowledge the long-term health risks posed if more is not done to reduce the number of concussions.

Dr. Nowinski also provided several thought-provoking suggestions for how to address the issue without banning the game altogether:

• No full-contact practices
• Doing away with kickoffs and the three-point stance.
• Encouraging more targeting penalties.

I can already hear the shouts of opposition about that last suggestion, but it's an alternative that certainly beats doing away with the game of full-contact football.

These are just numbers and informed suggestions, though, which only address the individual safety and well-being of athletes while they are playing the sport.

What often goes ignored when it comes to public discussion, though, is what is being done for student-athletes after they give up the game.

After The Lights Go Out

Ever since the implementation of NIL guidelines, the University of Alabama has proven a leader in doing what head football coach Nick Saban often refers to as "creating value" for the university's student-athletes.

Indeed, it was reported last season that 25 Alabama football players landed $3 million in NIL deals — a far cry from the days of risky, under-the-table cash payouts from boosters and friends of the program.

Quite the contrary, athletic boosters across the United States are now more visible than ever and arguably in a prime position to do more good in the lives of these players than ever before. Even just yesterday, it was announced that Utah's boosters presented every scholarship football player with a one-year lease for a 2024 Dodge Ram Big Horn 1500 Truck.

But you may be asking: "What about former student-athletes?"

On that front, UA Athletics in September unveiled Alabama Always — described as a "first-of-its-kind group licensing initiative for former student-athletes, coaches and other individuals."

This concept is an innovative one and sure to be well-received by many former Crimson Tide standouts who were big revenue generators for the university in the years of unpaid amateurism, but who may not have gone on to make millions in the professional ranks.

Still, one could argue that these changes came too late for players like Ray Hudson, who made public his struggles with the effects of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

In an interview with AL.com in 2014, Hudson was open about his problems with depression, anger and memory loss, along with pointing out that he was unemployed and unable to get anything in the way of help from those who had benefitted from his talents for so long.

Hudson's frustrations were so that he even became one of many to take legal action against the NCAA — a gesture that ultimately proved futile.

Dr. Nowinski also elaborated on an important distinction as it relates to practice reforms implemented by the NFL, which came as a result of action by the NFL Players Association and not the league office.

This, the physician says, underscores the power imbalance that truly separates the professional and college ranks, with college athletes lacking their own union to demand safer working conditions. Instead, Dr. Nowinski argues that student-athletes are at the mercy of their coaches, who might be unwilling to upset the established order at the risk of having a competitive disadvantage.

Few will argue that Hudson was a product of a turbulent time for the program — the coaching carousel between the Gene Stallings and Nick Saban eras — and easily fell through the cracks after Saban-era players began to fill and dominate the NFL ranks.

While this period of unprecedented success for the program has been the Golden Age of Alabama football, this reporter would argue that it inadvertently came at the expense of the memory of players from those tumultuous years.

Think about it: How many current UA students do you think remember Ray Hudson?

Fortunately for Tide football players at present and those from nearly two decades of the Saban Era, the legendary coach seems to place a high premium on preparing student-athletes for whatever is next.

It's a cultural approach similar to that of Bear Bryant, who established a scholarship for the children of his former players, but one that seems to have languished in the gulf separating the two iconic eras.

"As I've said before, our players aren't just my guys for three years, four years or five years," Saban said in September. "They're my guys forever. Alabama Always is a tangible way to show our former student-athletes how much we care about them and want them to feel part of the legacy they helped create at The University of Alabama."

But while Saban has made it a point to look after the players from his own era in Tuscaloosa, it's worth mentioning the countless student-athletes who played during the underwhelming years prior to this period of sustained success — former student-athletes who have since faded from memory and become less than afterthoughts.

Former student-athletes like Santonio Beard, Ahmaad Galloway and Ray Hudson.

It is the hope of this reporter and Tuscaloosa native that this new age of the NIL and the efforts of my alma mater will help bring back to the fold so many former Crimson Tide standouts who may be in desperate need of a helping hand or who need to be reminded what they mean to the university, fanbase and community.

For those men in the arena who've created so much joy for fans and so much revenue for so many over the years, it's the least we can do.

Ryan Phillips is an award-winning journalist, editor and opinion columnist. He is also the founder and field editor of Tuscaloosa Patch. The opinions expressed in this column are in no way a reflect of our parent company or sponsors. Email news tips to ryan.phillips@patch.com.