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Pablo Torre
Welcome to Pablo Torre Finds Out. I am Pablo Torre. And today we're gonna find out what this sound is.
Dominique Foxworth
Another amazing episode created by me right after this ad.
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Pablo Torre
Hey. Russell just launched a fitness app, and.
Dominique Foxworth
He needed to get the word out.
Pablo Torre
To busy professionals looking to stay fit.
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Dominique Foxworth
I used their smart recommendations feature to easily find shows that talk about health and fitness.
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Dominique Foxworth
Was in their ears during their morning run.
Pablo Torre
Sounds like a smart move, Russell. How's business looking now?
Dominique Foxworth
Sweat is pouring and so are the installs.
Pablo Torre
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Dominique Foxworth
What happened to your voice, man?
Pablo Torre
Why is everyone pointing this out?
Dominique Foxworth
You sound like a man. It's weird.
Pablo Torre
I sound like a man?
Dominique Foxworth
Yeah.
Pablo Torre
I thought you were gonna make fun of me because I. I feel a little congested.
Dominique Foxworth
You sound a little bassy.
Pablo Torre
Yeah. I mean, yeah.
Dominique Foxworth
Yeah. I mean, not like, talk about football, brother. Oh, gosh.
Pablo Torre
Talk about football. Hold on. Let's make sure that our microphones are placed correctly.
Dominique Foxworth
Oh, it is placed correctly, brother.
Pablo Torre
Should I explain why I asked you to do this? Specifically, should we get into the premise of this episode? Are you excited for the premise of this episode?
Dominique Foxworth
I mean, I know what you texted me, but it doesn't feel like much of a premise of an episode.
Pablo Torre
All right, all right. So let's. Let's recreate the premise of this episode. Because what I did was scroll through Instagram and I saw a video of Greg Olsen, who you may recall from his time as an NFL Tight end.
Dominique Foxworth
And the best color commentary guy in the business.
Pablo Torre
I thought you going to go with best college rapper.
Dominique Foxworth
What's your name?
Pablo Torre
G Reg.
Dominique Foxworth
My drawers and let us see my third leg chilling on the seventh floor. I got to let these chickens know Miami Dragman's the better rapper, too.
Pablo Torre
The white Jay Z. Of course, a separate but related investigation. I did see that Greg Olson weighed in on a topic that I wanted to talk to you about and was sort of jarred that he was so blunt about. And I guess we should just play it as you take off your jacket.
Dominique Foxworth
I probably have a less PC answer than most people. I think there's a very individual component to head injuries and concussions. I think the guys that we see, the horrible stories that are real, mental health, depression, suicide. Those are real and they're awful. They're tragic. I think to put all of that on NFL is a little misleading. I think there's a lot of guys that have CTE and have mental health issues and have drug addiction and have steroid abuse. To say which one of those was the final straw to break the camel's back. I don't pretend to know. I've had many concussions in my life. If you cut my brain open right now, do I have cte? Probably. Can I live as a functioning husband? Father?
Pablo Torre
Yeah.
Dominique Foxworth
But if you were able to right now do a cte, and I was diagnosed with cte, I think people would look differently at CTE and say, okay, that's a little different than the story we've heard of guys driving their cars off a bridge.
Pablo Torre
And so in there, I hadn't seen that clip you just said yes to. You didn't even click on it when I messaged you.
Dominique Foxworth
Of course not. I don't click on anything you sent me.
Pablo Torre
That was.
Dominique Foxworth
That was a lot of words, and he said a lot of things there that are pretty interesting.
Pablo Torre
I would say that there's a lot in there that I thought a lot harder about like a dozen years ago. Yeah. The reason I reach out to you is not only because you're my best football player friend.
Dominique Foxworth
I was just going through my head to see who other football player friends I'm in competition with or I was hoping I could think of somebody to put above me. I mean, you know Darren Orlowski doesn't like you, right?
Pablo Torre
Why?
Dominique Foxworth
I don't know. He just said he don't like you.
Pablo Torre
Because I put hot sauce on my chicken breasts. Yeah.
Dominique Foxworth
He hates seasoning and he hates you.
Pablo Torre
Well, you know what? It's the Season. It's the season that, you know, maybe.
Dominique Foxworth
He'S a Clippers fan.
Pablo Torre
Dan Orloski's carbon footprint is out of control. And I'm going to get to the bottom of what is amusing to me is that there was a time in media when the number one topic of, like, hand wringing importance was cte. And, like, Malcolm Gladwell was out here talking about how football, college football especially, should be banned, that football as a business would go extinct. There is all of this, I think, powerfully suggestive evidence that some portion of football players are going to come down with a serious degenerative neurological disorder known as cte, which is directly the consequence of being hit in the head repeatedly over the course of the playing football. And at a certain point, you have to ask yourself, as a fan or as anyone who is in any way connected to football, is it appropriate in the modern day and age for us to support and participate in a game that has such a serious risk of physical harm to its players? Mark Cuban, my old friend who sat in the chair recently that you're sitting in now, he was saying, famously, quote, I think the NFL is 10 years away from an implosion. The famous quote he went on to say was, pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered, and they're getting hoggy. Which is.
Dominique Foxworth
And everybody should buy into the NBA.
Pablo Torre
That's right.
Dominique Foxworth
And then he sold out.
Pablo Torre
Well, and the NFL, despite all of these sort of, like, thought leaders saying this stuff, really did shed the premise of CTE neurological damage as this existential threat. And so did I, as a guy who, like, thought about such things once upon a time. And I think I know why I did. But I'm curious how you have evolved or not about this.
Dominique Foxworth
Yeah, I mean, the information is. I mean, I think, honestly, like, what I heard and what Greg was doing is a lot of, like, reasonable mental gymnastics that we all do for various things. And, like, I think it's important to be honest with yourself or try to be as honest with yourself as possible. None of us are truly honest with ourselves, but, like, football's dope, and there's a. A price to pay for that game that we all enjoy and is, like, so ingrained in our culture. I think all of us want to be heroes and we all want to be good guys, and we want to be able to paint the things that all the things that we do as, like, morally justified. And I think you can still justify it and be comfortable with it, but you also, like, let's not pretend that what's happening Isn't happening. And like, I cover football. I enjoy football. My son, seventh grade, it's the first year I let him play tackle football. And I had told him I wasn't going to let him play tackle football. He'd been begging me to play forever and forever and forever and was like, all right, you do well in school. Sixth grade will let you play. Seventh grade. See how it goes. And so I let him play. And, like, I recognize the risk. And that's why we were a flag family up until then. I'm on TV talking about football all the time. I played football, and we only played flag up until last year. Now he's on a team that I very strategically selected because they are really, really good. And they've allowed one touchdown this year.
Pablo Torre
Oh, my God.
Dominique Foxworth
And he doesn't have to play that much.
Pablo Torre
Wait a minute. So your solution to football's neurological crisis is I'm gonna stack my team.
Dominique Foxworth
That's not my team. It's a team that was already stacked. And I put my son on the stack team.
Pablo Torre
I see.
Dominique Foxworth
And so he doesn't start and he gets in when they're blowing teams out. It's wonderful.
Pablo Torre
So your solution has been put your. Put your son on a team that is so good that he doesn't actually need to take the damage.
Dominique Foxworth
Ain't been hit yet. Ain't made a hit. A hit, nothing. He got. He got a carry last week. He looked good. He got tackled, but he looked good.
Pablo Torre
I'm not here to telestrate like Dan Orlovsky. Declan's highlights. Yeah. Although that would be a great segment.
Dominique Foxworth
No, thank you.
Pablo Torre
I'm also pointing this out, though, because I. I similarly like Full Disclosure. I probably watch football more than any other sport recreationally at this point. We all America. I mean, again, if you've been asleep, like, it's the one thing that culturally matters beyond dispute.
Dominique Foxworth
Yeah.
Pablo Torre
And for me, the way that I reconciled it as media analyst, person who claims to have a conscience is like, I have covered and watched boxing for decades now, and boxing is literally consensual concussions.
Dominique Foxworth
But that's not reconciling it.
Pablo Torre
Well, what I reconcile is that in boxing, there is a full transparency of. This is getting you hit. What? Why are you calling a timeout?
Dominique Foxworth
Cuz I just. What I just said. Let's do it, man. Let's not pretend like you are doing all this bull. The same bullshit that. That Greg Olson was doing. Greg is doing right there. It's like. It's just like, all right, if you have to do this, to live with yourself. Then why you invite me here? Like, if you want to live in your life?
Pablo Torre
I'm not looking for.
Dominique Foxworth
No, you're trying to make it about me. It's about you, though. You don't like that?
Pablo Torre
No, I'm.
Dominique Foxworth
I got a show, too. I know how to host, Mother. I can host out of this. My hosting better.
Pablo Torre
Are you trying to Oklahoma. Drill me on my own damn podcast? Are we Oklahoma and you listen, what I'm. What I'm saying. It's a fair point. It's a fair point.
Dominique Foxworth
It's a fair point.
Pablo Torre
What I'm saying is in boxing, the boxers always knew what they were there to do.
Dominique Foxworth
No, they didn't.
Pablo Torre
The boxers didn't.
Dominique Foxworth
They know what they're getting themselves into is a justification. Even if they did know what they were getting themselves into, it doesn't change that you are still particip. You could point out that boxers are disproportionately from very tough situations. Normally, like, you won't find a lot of boxers who are like, man, should I take this scholarship to go to college or should I go fight? Like, it's a rarity.
Pablo Torre
Phillips Exeter Academy is not producing a lot of heavyweights.
Dominique Foxworth
It's a rare rarity. So, like, that's a. A form of, like, you could argue, exploitation and. And so, like, I don't know. I guess.
Pablo Torre
But what I'm saying. What I'm saying is football for me.
Dominique Foxworth
You'Re no better than Greg is all I'd wanted established. And you're no better than me or Greg, as we all rationalize it. You want to be honest? You want to have me on the show? I have cut it.
Pablo Torre
I have a leg, maybe even a third leg to stand on.
Dominique Foxworth
Stop it.
Pablo Torre
I'm here to just make. I'm just here to make seven jokes.
Dominique Foxworth
I could tell by the way.
Pablo Torre
Stop it. What I'm trying to say is my discomfort with football was it didn't seem like the players necessarily knew what the actual medical risk was. And now we're at a point where that seems disclosed almost parallel to the way that boxers clearly know what they're getting into. And that was my concern, was like, is the league? Is the science. Is that all being hidden? Yeah, it was from you guys.
Dominique Foxworth
It was. And there's reason to believe, because it was, that there's more that we don't know. The problem is, you want to talk about the way that I view it and how it impacts me, but it feels like the way that you're Framing this question is about how the rest of us like me as a spectator. Now I'm in the same place as you. So, like, I don't understand how my perception of this is any different than yours. If you want to talk about me as a player or the father of a son who plays, those are different conversations. But in this one, we all are in the same boat and we're all, like, finding different ways to lie to ourselves or rationalize or justify. And of course, you can do this for a number of different things in our lives. I am no better than anyone else, but I try to be honest about the fact that. About where the precious metals come from that are in my iPhone or in my wife's wedding ring.
Pablo Torre
Got those rare earths.
Dominique Foxworth
Yeah, I. I try to be honest about it. Like, it sucks, but, like, I don't know, it doesn't. It doesn't make me any better or worse. It's just like, why we. I'm incapable of tricking myself at that level. I don't know.
Pablo Torre
Genuinely, that summary is why I wanted you to talk about this is because I think, to put the pun aside, there are three legs to assess here. There are. They really are. You just laid them out. And look, all of this is going back now, almost 10 years ago, because January 5, 2016, I opened up my copy of USA Today.
Dominique Foxworth
Oh, God.
Pablo Torre
Well, you don't want to confront yourself.
Dominique Foxworth
No, I don't.
Pablo Torre
Here's the headline. Seven year NFL veteran Dominique Foxworth saw Concussion the movie, and it made him question everything. And this is a column. And I bring this up not just because it's very funny to imagine you watching Will Smith and having your life changed, is because the column is actually incredibly interesting to the point where our mutual friend Wyatt Sac has long mused about, like, this perspective, this, you being the former player, former NFLPA president, this perspective is actually like, cinematically interesting. Wyatt thinks it's funny, and it's also funny.
Dominique Foxworth
He's a comedian. He thinks it's funny.
Pablo Torre
CTE dad was the. If we, if we can just stomp on his IP claim.
Dominique Foxworth
So it makes me cringe because I thought I was a good writer and I wasn't. So that's why I cringed at that. But, yeah, I mean, I don't know, it's. I didn't expect this to be some sort of exploration of the fears that I have about what has happened to my brain and the brains of people that I care about. And I don't have this research with me at this point, but. And maybe it's just I'm more attuned to football players, but it just seems like of the athletes and it's a bigger league, so there's more players. That's part of it. Also. It seems like the those type of, like, mental health horror stories and deaths and suicides are disproportionately football players, and it sucks.
Pablo Torre
And by the way, that's some of what Greg Olsen was touching on, which is that there are, like, multivariate equations where it's hard to isolate. Is this addiction? Is this mental health? Is this something that can isolate in some sort of clear way such that someone can be held liable right beyond the individual for it? But in this case, I am curious, like, having played the sport for people who did not read this column, what about watching a movie, a cinematic adaptation of the sports foremost controversy at this time? 2016 made you feel something that actually did get your brain going in a sense.
Dominique Foxworth
So I'll tell you what's in it. You don't have to go read it and experience the bad writing. I think it's like any movie that you watch is like, if. And anyone who has a line of work that gets turned into something cinematic, like, you view it differently. So I think that was it. And I think this is probably a function of being a man who's, like, comfortable and physically athletic and strong. Like, I don't go through my life much being, like, worried about things and having fear and being like, I don't know. I remember our friend Mina Kynes, one of the first, like, work trips that we were ever on at super bowl together was like, whenever she rides elevator with men, she makes sure that they get out the elevator first. And it was, like, shocking to me. And I was like. And then just generally, I think it was Chappelle who told a joke about how he got paid $10,000 or something for a show in cash. And he took it home on the subway in a paper bag. And he was just thinking, if anyone knew what I had in this bag, they would. They would hurt me. And he was like, women. His joke was essentially that women walk around with that all the time and everyone knows they have it. And so I think that is somewhat of just privilege. It's like also being like a black man, a younger black man. No one looks at me and it's like, oh, that guy looks like a target. I bet that black dude in a hoodie has a lot of money and will be an easy get, a easy win. So, like, I just don't walk around life like that. And so I think it was the first time that I feel. Really felt like I could be a victim and be helpless. So that was like a little. It was a different experience.
Pablo Torre
Yeah. This is one line that you wrote.
Dominique Foxworth
Stop it.
Pablo Torre
It's a good line. I'm not here to dunk on the line. I don't.
Dominique Foxworth
It's a bad line. This wasn't good writing. Just. Just paraphrase. Paraphrase it.
Pablo Torre
Basically, what you write is that the boogeyman in this horror movie was not vanquished at the end and actually could be lying in wait in your brain. So you took that home with you.
Dominique Foxworth
Like, I didn't write vanquished it. That's disgusting, right? Vanquish.
Pablo Torre
That is embarrassing.
Dominique Foxworth
It's so embarrassing.
Pablo Torre
Forsooth, the villain vanquished three musketeers. Ass writer.
Dominique Foxworth
You could tell I was trying too hard. The words, the word vanquished. It was like I was. And I'mma show them I'm a use. Vanquish.
Pablo Torre
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Pablo Torre
Part of what you did establish at this time, you know, almost 10 years ago, was that your identity as football guy was also as the smart football guy. NFLPA President I went to grad school Guy who. And you have all the disclaimers in here that you say you're probably of average intelligence, but you sort of had this identity that made it such that you're branded as a smart guy.
Dominique Foxworth
Right.
Pablo Torre
And that was a factor in just again, feeling, wait a minute, I am maybe vulnerable here in ways that I didn't realize.
Dominique Foxworth
Yeah, I mean, I think the. So the horror stories about things going wrong for athletes is not new, especially for football players. But I think positioning myself as the guy who's going to go to business school and go do things afterwards is like, none of that stuff's going to happen to me. I think that was the part that was part of it that was like, there's nothing I can do about this is. I don't know if there are. Like, lots of people can probably relate to having some sort of family history of something where it's like, no matter how well you eat, how much you work out, you're predisposed to whatever bull you're predisposed to.
Pablo Torre
And the hypertension movie for me is less.
Dominique Foxworth
Less haunting, though I'm probably watching that movie with you.
Pablo Torre
You know, the prediabetes.
Dominique Foxworth
Oh, yeah. Will Smith.
Pablo Torre
Will Smith.
Dominique Foxworth
Absolutely.
Pablo Torre
Pointing out my gp.
Dominique Foxworth
You watch Tell the Truth. Watch the Sickle Cell movie. You're not gonna feel nothing. But. But me and my brothers and sisters watch the Sickle Cell movie. A little bit more concerned.
Pablo Torre
Well, but this is part of the whole thing with me is that I. We have made jokes in passing.
Dominique Foxworth
Yeah.
Pablo Torre
Where you forget something, and it's like.
Dominique Foxworth
You know, I always make the joke. Like, my wife doesn't think it's funny, but, like, if anything goes wrong, if I forget anything, get anything wrong, I was like, cte. It's getting to me. That's how I cope. One of the coping mechanisms with the fear that it could. It could happen to me, and you can't see it. You don't understand anything. That's the scary part. And it's like, I don't walk around my life being scared, but, like, it's in the back of my head. And. And it's like a little reminder. Every time you forget something is like, you or you. You're. You get angry faster than you think you should, or. Or you feel, like, sad over something that's not super big. Anytime something like that happens, you're like.
Pablo Torre
Am I emotionally maturing or am I neurodegenerating?
Dominique Foxworth
Yeah, that's. That's the question that is just lingering in the back of your head all the time.
Pablo Torre
One of the other lines here about. About Ashley. And look, Ashley. Shout out to Ashley. She has a line that she hits you with where it's about Declan. Actually, do you remember the line? Because this paragraph is about how.
Dominique Foxworth
Nope.
Pablo Torre
Okay, well, when Ashley replied in a jokingly defiant tone was, quote, if you were to lash out at your family the way that people. Of course, players. There are scenes in the movie where retired players lashed out violently at their families.
Dominique Foxworth
So now you're using my whole family.
Pablo Torre
You're using your own family.
Dominique Foxworth
Sell your podcast.
Pablo Torre
I'm using you using it.
Dominique Foxworth
Okay. All right.
Pablo Torre
But she says is, don't worry. Your son will be strong enough to Restrain you by then he won't be.
Dominique Foxworth
I still work out, baby.
Pablo Torre
You're telling you what you're saying for. For Declan. When Declan, you listen to this, just know that your dad will quote, vanquish you.
Dominique Foxworth
Oh, man. Yeah, I mean, we joke, but.
Pablo Torre
And I want to be clear, too, about, like, how I feel about this, which is there are lots of dangerous jobs like ice road trucking or whatever. The.
Dominique Foxworth
Like, the people who go off Deadliest Catch. That seems dangerous.
Pablo Torre
Oh, my God. Deep sea fishermen, like, in the middle of the ocean. And it's just like these TikTok videos where they throw, like, meat into the water and all the sharks show up.
Dominique Foxworth
I have not seen those. I went out deep sea fishing one time with my son and just was nauseous the whole time. Forget about all the deadliness, just, like, shaking around like, oh, let me read.
Pablo Torre
Another passage from here.
Dominique Foxworth
Oh, you asshole. I want to find some of your early writings.
Pablo Torre
Oh, it's bad.
Dominique Foxworth
I bet you wrote vanquish.
Pablo Torre
I mean, I proclaimed things flippantly, which is a phrase that you say in this article.
Dominique Foxworth
Oh, gosh, did I say that?
Pablo Torre
As many men proclaim flippantly.
Dominique Foxworth
Who was I trying to be?
Pablo Torre
Me, I hate.
Dominique Foxworth
Yeah, I was trying to be you. And it failed almost as miserably as you trying to be me.
Pablo Torre
Oh, God. Here's. You want. Want something?
Dominique Foxworth
I don't, actually. But you're going to read it anyway.
Pablo Torre
Dripping with the pride of a living martyr.
Dominique Foxworth
Don't read anything.
Pablo Torre
I know the risk. I would do it all again. Even if I were guaranteed it, it would end in a way we all fear because, comma, with the money I have made, comma, I am able to provide my children with advantages and opportunities I didn't even know existed.
Dominique Foxworth
I hate it.
Pablo Torre
I have changed the trajectory of my family's future. I would trade my quality of life, even years off my life, for a better chance at a prosperous future for my kids and their kids. I think you feel that, though that's a version of what you just. I mean, it is.
Dominique Foxworth
I mean, yeah, we could. You want to make fun of it first or you want me to respond to it? Because it deserves to be made fun of. It already was, though.
Pablo Torre
I mean, you do call it in the next paragraph a dignified canned response that shuts them up and gives you the moral high ground. So I think you were self aware of the time. Good.
Dominique Foxworth
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, it's horse. Because. Because, I mean, I believe that it's that whole quote.
Pablo Torre
Ready? It's Dominique Foxworth on Dominique Foxworth.
Dominique Foxworth
I mean, it's not that it's horseshit completely. It's that I. I don't have a choice now. And that's like. Yeah. And I. I mean, to be fair, in this episode, I feel like I'm trying to be as honest with myself as possible. So to be fair, like, I genuinely believe that. However, I hope at some point I make it clear that I haven't experienced, like, the worst parts of this. It's like I can't imagine ever feeling as low as to feel. Feel like there's no other option than to take one's own life.
Pablo Torre
I mean, look, by the way, July 2025 at NFL headquarters, just to put some of the real world into this, you know, that shooting that happens, it was carried out by somebody who was posthumously diagnosed with cte, who apparently, according to his own, again, incredibly, incredibly terrifying planning, went there because of this. And again, that's where I believe some of the impetus for the Greg Olson conversation was. It's like, what do we do with this?
Dominique Foxworth
Yeah.
Pablo Torre
And if all of this is a roulette wheel and it lands on us with some degree of randomness, but with some degree of consent, and I think consent is where I return to. How has this conversation, when it comes to people you played with or other football players, is there a difference as time as the last decade has gone on?
Dominique Foxworth
Not really. I mean, I think there's differences in how the game is played and how conscious you are. Like, with my son's team, like, they barely hit in practice. And I think the NFL is similar to that. And there's a evolution in, like, from Bear Bryant saying, you're not allowed to have water because it means you weak. You're weak. To, like, people taking water breaks in really aggressive physical practices to maturing to, like, the ability to get up from a concussion and return to play was a badge of honor to now. I think teammates are less likely to encourage someone to do that. So it's always and honestly, to be fair, the teammates have always been the ones that were more likely to protect you than anyone else, like, including yourself. You won't find any stories of players pushing other players who got concussed to get back on the field. You'll find stories of coaches and fans and people around them. What you will find, though, is a lot of players, like, telling on other players. Guys would be like, hey, he's not. Something's wrong. You could tell because sometimes somebody would come back to the huddle after, like, head bouncing off the ground or something, come back to the huddle, and they're just looking past you, and somebody will recognize it and be like, nah, nah, he gotta go. Like, you gotta go check him out. Then you go to the sideline, you pass the test, and they send your ass back in the game.
Pablo Torre
One of the other football friends that I do have who is not as good a friend as you, unfortunately for Alex Smith. Alex told me the guy who wanted to lie to the test administrator more than anyone else was him.
Dominique Foxworth
Yeah.
Pablo Torre
Job insecurity. So the whole idea of, like, who's gonna police this stuff? Like, you can't expect the actual players to do it because the incentives are such that there is no luxury in disclosure. You risk your employment even if you're a quarterback. Especially maybe if you're a quarterback. And so then the question becomes, who watches the Watchers? And we're living. I'm watching football. And one of the great memes of this season is Cam Scatter Boo.
Dominique Foxworth
Yeah.
Pablo Torre
CTE ing all over the place.
Dominique Foxworth
It's a joke.
Pablo Torre
Now I'm trying to hold in my head at the same time, like, why it is that I found this alarmism, if not outright justified concern that was at the basis of this movie Concussion, and how it is that not that long after that, we're here, and it's funny to me.
Dominique Foxworth
Yeah. I mean, it's. I mean, you can't say that word. We can as former football players. Cte.
Pablo Torre
Oh, yeah. That's your word.
Dominique Foxworth
It's our word. And we can laugh at the jokes. You better not be.
Pablo Torre
However, I have a stiff upper lip watching Cam Scatter Boo being transposed to the juggernaut X Men meme.
Dominique Foxworth
And I'm surprised that you are confused by it. The funniest is all, like, the, like, discomforts and pains that we feel together or apart. So, like. Yeah. The fact. The reason why that Colin making CT jokes about Cam Scatterable is funny is because it's a little bit taboo. And so, yeah, like, I. I guess I'm not surprised that it's funny. It would be weird. Like, everything that is terrible has a line of jokes that I would laugh at if they were good enough.
Pablo Torre
I think that's. That's correct. I think I'm really sort of, like, identifying, though, the way in which there used to be this thing.
Dominique Foxworth
Right.
Pablo Torre
I remember going on espn and. And it was. It would be like, how. How. And I. I think it's even more embarrassing, in fairness to you, to go back and watch me on television at this time. Because I'm saying a bunch of stuff that I clearly don't stand by now when it comes to, like, what needs to be done. And by the way, I don't even know now what's left to do. Because by the way, like, guys like Chris Nowinski, who runs the Concussion Institute, and all these people, we both know some of them, this is their bag raising concerns about this. I assume if I'm going to be sort of a realist here, a pragmatist, that you do still want some people who are going to watch the watchers. I'm glad those people are still super sincerely invested in monitoring this. What I'm identifying is that fewer people seem to give a sh.
Dominique Foxworth
T. Yeah.
Pablo Torre
That those guys exist.
Dominique Foxworth
Yeah.
Pablo Torre
And I wonder if that's just. Maybe just we found our equilibrium.
Dominique Foxworth
It's not going to go away. I. I think there's a relatively newer concept to me that I've been hearing, especially with, like, bigger, more important issues in sports. It's just about how everyone has their roles to be played, and not everyone is in position to take the stand all the time. But there is a value to people trying to pull in a futile way at something that they will never get accomplished because it allows for, like, the Overton's window to be moved to a place to where the person who does have the power to make these decisions is free to make the decision that they want to make. Because previously, without some counterbalance. So, like, if that's the point that you're making. Yeah, I wouldn't disagree with that at all. I think it's. It's important that it doesn't go away because there's no motivation for anyone in this enterprise, like the players, the coaches, the owners, the commissioner, the referees. Like, no one is really incentivized to do the best, most healthy thing. So the idea that there is someone always pulling you to, like, banish it, then it makes no padded practices feel like a reasonable thing to suggest.
Pablo Torre
Oh, those guardian helmets.
Dominique Foxworth
Yeah.
Pablo Torre
Those insane. I mean, look. And instinctively I'm like, that looks dumb as hell. And yet I'm like, that's truly, like a function of the argument that took place.
Dominique Foxworth
Yeah.
Pablo Torre
I mean, we can all agree they look stupid.
Dominique Foxworth
But they're just a little big.
Pablo Torre
And yet. And they're just a little big. It makes everybody look like a kid. Like a little kid running around. Everyone looks like Kyler Murray out there. Like a kid out there, as it were.
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Pablo Torre
The NFL in February of this year, I want to be again fair to their data collection. As much as this must be taken with the obvious grain of salt that this is the NFL's own data collection operations. NFL.com announced injury data for the 2024 season, which revealed a significant decrease in concussions, a historic low 17 reduction compared to the 2023 season, including all practices and games in both the preseason and the regular season. Largest safety improvement in helmets worn on field since 2021.
Dominique Foxworth
There's a lot of things that you said.
Pablo Torre
Yes. So the host is better than me, please. Because I threw a lot.
Dominique Foxworth
No, the concussion. So the reduction in concussions. Like, of course, like, you have to take the NFL data with a grain of salt, obviously. But you can also, like reasonably conclude that immediately after we started to be more vigilant about conc. Like, the number went up.
Pablo Torre
Yes.
Dominique Foxworth
And that seems like the normal response is like, all right, they're not more concussions, we're just recognizing them more. And then since then there's been like changes to the style to the game and there's been changing to equipment. And like, logically, the argument would suggest that maybe these things over time would have an effect and they should go down. The problem is though, measuring concussions seems like you don't fully understand the science.
Pablo Torre
Right.
Dominique Foxworth
Of this is, is the wrong.
Pablo Torre
Is that the variable that we should be tracking? Yeah, and we'll explain that though.
Dominique Foxworth
So, I mean, it's, it's, it's pretty like intuitive when you think about it is like the big knockout concussions have effect that stick in your mind. You're like, yeah, that's what did it. When in actuality, like there are players who've been found with CTE who never had one of those plays after they died. All the sub concussive episodes that happen in the course of a game that are just natural football plays, they don't knock me unconscious, they don't make me feel whatever. But the concept is like, yeah, you pluck your brain enough times that there's going to be some damage. So like, yeah, I mean, reduction of concussions, wonderful. That's good. I'm sure those aren't good for you, but I don't know that that means that we actually have taken a chunk out of the future of cte. I kind of feel like you play this enough times and it doesn't even have to, it doesn't even feel like it has to be a real long time that you're going to be exposed to it. And then that's when you get to Greg Olsen's point. There are plenty of people who live fine lives having played high school, college, professional football. But then it's like all this other stuff is like, are we sure that it's not some medical predisposition? Are we sure that it's not function of all these other things? But we do know that this is a factor that's the one thing that we can't avoid no matter how hard we try.
Pablo Torre
Yeah, the sub concussive thing, the fact that linemen in the trenches on every play are accumulating these things that can't be identified as. Yeah, a thing that would go into the jacked up montage that they also, by the way, function of the times eventually got rid of on ESPN and those such shows. But part of me, I want to sort of broaden it out to like how I feel about such things, because it's not merely an analogy to boxing that I think of. It's an analogy to any sort of thing where I understand that there are costs and risks. And I do have a general opinion when it comes to all sorts of drugs, for instance, Consenting adults who know the scientific risks and the medical disclosures should be able to make choices about what they spin the roulette wheel on. And that's my general perspective. When it comes to gambling, when it comes to legalizing drugs, when it comes.
Dominique Foxworth
To lots of things, it's different. I mean, why is it different? Oh, it's different because I imagine if there was people who would argue for the legalization of drugs and understanding the risk, if there was a drug that did not have any risk, you would advocate for that. Right. And so this is different because I think that people believe that they could find a way to remove the violence from football and it'd still be fun and interesting, which, like, I'm not sure we can. And even if it's subliminal, you love it. Like, we love it. I recognize this because when I was. When I was six, I wanted to be a pro football player in large part because I thought that was, like, the most masculine thing. Like, I didn't want to play basketball. Like, I would play basketball, but, like, basketball was for the guys who weren't tough enough to play football. It's like, in actuality, they're for the guys who are tall enough and smart enough not to play football.
Pablo Torre
But your screen name, once again, for people who have not listened to your previous appearances on this show, your screen name, your able screen Name was NFL Bound. Yeah.
Dominique Foxworth
Long time ago.
Pablo Torre
NFL Bound. What number again?
Dominique Foxworth
It was 36. Yeah, it was my number for, like two weeks in college because I came in early because 36 is an ugly number. I don't want anybody to think that another embarrassing choice. Anybody think that I'm actually a 36.
Pablo Torre
Stop it.
Dominique Foxworth
I was 6 in college. But anyway, I mean, I think that's. That's the part.
Pablo Torre
But that. Right.
Dominique Foxworth
So, like, we all like it. And like, I. I wanted to be a part of it. I recognize that the fact that you could get knocked out in it was part of the reason why I wanted to be there. And the fact that it is very. It has a level of physicality is probably the most differentiating factor of football from a lot of other popular sports, and it's why it's the most popular.
Pablo Torre
So the popularity, to me, how I think about football has radically changed in this way in the last 10, 12, 15 years since we were having these, like, real ethical dilemmas in which I was going on television and talking and hearing about people point out that football without concussions is like making a safer cigarette. Right. Doesn't really exist. It's a story you tell yourself about yourself so you can keep smoking cigarettes. But the popularity of the game has gone from this thing that was 15 years ago, part of the indictment, to now being part of the virtue we're living in. This time when everything is fragmented, no one watches anything together. I can't walk into a room with somebody who votes the opposite from me and be cheering for the same thing anymore. But that happens every Sunday, every Saturday, every Friday, and now every day of the week, depending on how effective Roger Goodell's risk board is going to be. What?
Dominique Foxworth
Our concussion is going to save our republic. Is that what you're arguing? It feels like you're mounting an argument for.
Pablo Torre
Hold on, hold on, hold on.
Dominique Foxworth
Are you about to write a vanquished sentence? Is that what you're doing?
Pablo Torre
I'm doing the thing where, like, in a video game, you, like, charge up. I'm holding down the B button. I'm about to argue that concussions are going to save the republic. I genuinely watch football, and I think to myself, thank God we got something that is this popular. It's a throwback to a time when things were popular. Everything now is subcultures, and it's a zillion little substack subscriptions or channels that don't interact. And here we have this thing where I'm like, I'm. I've reconciled with the fact that America, of course, is a violent country. That's not something I faint about. But this, it feels so. Not just uncool, but unproductive to be the guy saying, you should stop watching this. And by the way, I really do love watching it. So there's that. You led with that. Acknowledged, asked and answered. But then I'm just like, I actually don't want people to stop watching it. I want people to continue to get into buildings together to enjoy something, even if it's the Coliseum.
Dominique Foxworth
And, I mean, even to your point, like, there's there. Even if you're not on the same team, you're not rooting for the same team. There is still, like, some. For the most part, there's some, like, shared experience and camaraderie. And it's an early question, I think, that comes up when you're meeting someone new and they don't need you to say the same team as them. They just need you to know that football exists and something's going on. And then that's, like, the obvious, like, conversation piece that then breaks the ice where it's, oh, you're just saying, oh. Then you Start making some jokes, and then they get along and they're like, man, I was born in this darkness. And then you have a conversation before you know it can't get a win.
Pablo Torre
You know, you're just, like, onto a zillion reference points. That microwave connection.
Dominique Foxworth
Yeah.
Pablo Torre
And I think that that's incredibly valuable. And the whole thing about why do I still, like, think sports are incredibly important? For all sorts of reasons. One of them is they're a passport to every other part of the country. Yeah. I did literally go to a wedding in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and guess what I'm talking about. Talking about Razorbacks, talking about Darren McFadden.
Dominique Foxworth
They bring him back. Bobby Petrino. Is that the plan?
Pablo Torre
They got a. They're building a statue of him with the neck brace.
Dominique Foxworth
Really? No. I mean, honestly, they should. Jeff Saturday is a really close friend of mine. Without football, I don't think he and I would see eye to eye. And I love him because I can tell he's someone that I would trust with anything. But if I was exposed to his social media feed and he was exposed to mine, I would be like, I don't like this dude. With some of the recent events, we've had conversations about it, and because I have such a long track record and trust and love for him, we were able to come to the conclusion that we live in different realities and we see different things. And, like, the things that bother me about whatever's happening and the things that bother him are because he don't know the things that I know and I don't know or I don't see the things that he sees. And so we. We wouldn't have had that relationship without football. And to your point, it's one of. The locker room is one of the places where you bring a bunch of people together that share football, and that's about it.
Pablo Torre
I feel like one of the things that's hard to distinguish in your ongoing aging is am I maturing emotionally? Am I experiencing neurological degeneration? Am I just becoming like an old, old, crusty dad for whom cliches like the locker room is where earlier today.
Dominique Foxworth
In a conversation with Jeff, not the locker room thing is, but, like, the older I get, the more I realize that cliches are right.
Pablo Torre
I'm with you.
Dominique Foxworth
And we were talking about leadership and about coaches and culture, and he and I were talking about how we characterize people as culture setters and whatever, but, like, the culture is actually carried out by everyone underneath, and, like, those are the people who really set the Culture. And we're talking about the story and how Mike Vrabel told everyone to pick up washcloths in the locker room when he first got there. And I related it back to something that Ed Reed did in the Ravens locker when I was there, too. And I was saying, like, those type of little things. When you're young and dumb, you're like, eh, whatever. Like, is that going to help me get an interception? But when you get older, you're like, no, it's about setting a tone for how you behave and how you live and how you're going to act and how you're going to perform in this specific place. This is the culture. When you walk in here, it starts with the way you watch film all the way to the way that you wipe your ass. Like, all of it matters. And now that I'm old, I'm like, yeah, them cliches to be right, man.
Pablo Torre
Yeah, you're doing broken windows coaching. No, not what you're doing. You're Rudy Giuliani ing that locker room.
Dominique Foxworth
Stop it.
Pablo Torre
Stop exactly what you're doing.
Dominique Foxworth
Well, it's not. No, it's not at all. It's not at all.
Pablo Torre
You just literally said, everybody in this locker room needs to pull up their pants.
Dominique Foxworth
Well, I mean, it's a locker room. You have to pull down your pants. What do you mean? You kind of got to get naked in the locker room.
Pablo Torre
What?
Dominique Foxworth
You never been. Oh, that's right. You're a debate guy.
Pablo Torre
That's right.
Dominique Foxworth
You've never been in a lot.
Pablo Torre
My locker room is a locker room of the mind.
Dominique Foxworth
That is really awful.
Pablo Torre
That's gross.
Dominique Foxworth
So your teammates. You never saw your teammate's ass? Never seen the ass of a teammate.
Pablo Torre
I did have to share, like, hotel rooms on the road for, like, debate tournaments, so.
Dominique Foxworth
But, I mean, invariably, we are getting way off of the topic. But there is some level of intimacy and connection. And as stupid as it sounds and as, like, I don't know, homoerotic as it might make people feel like being naked with people is like, hey, we're together, man. There's nothing. None of this other stuff matters.
Pablo Torre
I mean, I feel like I lost.
Dominique Foxworth
You on this one. You were following me anywhere, but we get to nude male nudity, and you get all uncomfortable.
Pablo Torre
Don't get uncomfortable with me. I'm putting on my shorts underneath a towel. Give you a sense of how I. How I move.
Dominique Foxworth
Oh, that's why I lost you. Because you. You've never had this experience.
Pablo Torre
There are some key differences between you and me. One of them is comfort with nudity.
Dominique Foxworth
I guess you hadn't been exposed to. You would have gotten comfortable with it if, like, I like to think there's an alternate.
Pablo Torre
I mean, Cortez is texting me right now. He is pointing out that I wouldn't take my shirt off when I did the Belichick ring cam video.
Dominique Foxworth
That's a good point. And that's a good point.
Pablo Torre
Yeah.
Dominique Foxworth
Yeah. Well, that's. I mean, I defend you on that one. I mean, you're a coward.
Pablo Torre
However defense gonna start.
Dominique Foxworth
No, I mean, it's that it's different. It's like the world is different than, like, Jeff. Yeah. I mean, you're gonna lie, and I was never on the same team as Jeff, so. Never seen him naked.
Pablo Torre
Right.
Dominique Foxworth
But, like. I mean, you just, like, not with that attitude. I'm not trying to. And trust me, Jeff is absolutely not trying to allow that to happen. Love him. Love him to death. Ain't gonna play. We ain't gonna play like that. Oh, my God. Oh, man. So, another amazing episode created by me. You're welcome. Do you remember how much I could pay for this?
Pablo Torre
Do you remember that you use the word genuflection in this column?
Dominique Foxworth
Now you try to bring me down. You want to bring me down? Was I getting. I was too high on my horse right there. You trying to bring me down.
Pablo Torre
I was irritated by their gasps at footage of real NFL collisions in that moment. I guess I wanted genuflection. I needed to not feel like we were being viewed as pets dying slowly in front of them because we were too dumb to know not to chase the ball in the traffic.
Dominique Foxworth
I mean, the sentiments is strong.
Pablo Torre
I was gonna say.
Dominique Foxworth
Yeah. It just started to turn up a little bit on that ass, didn't it? It started to turn up on that ass a little bit. The seeds were there. It's like a great athlete. Like, he ain't got it figured out yet, but you know he got it. You know he got it. You can stop right now. We end it right there, and I. Because now you're going to go back to some bad writing.
Pablo Torre
No, no, no. I'm. I'm not going next.
Dominique Foxworth
You are.
Pablo Torre
Dominique, there's just one thing I want you to do here.
Dominique Foxworth
Gosh, I knew it.
Pablo Torre
It's just the one thing.
Dominique Foxworth
Tell the truth. Tell the truth. Tell the truth. You did it. I don't have to do it. Oh, man. Talk about people who have erratic behavior as a result of. As a result of concussion. The movie.
Pablo Torre
He was being method. A method a method concussion Slap the shit out of Chris Loves man.
Dominique Foxworth
He's so funny.
Pablo Torre
This has been Pablo Torre Finds Out a Meadowlark Media production and I'll talk to you next time.
Podcast Advertiser/Host (Various Ads)
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Dominique Foxworth
Acast powers.
Pablo Torre
The world's best podcasts. Here's a show that we recommend.
Dominique Foxworth
Hey.
Podcast Advertiser/Host (Various Ads)
Hoops fans, the new NBA season is here, and the Athletic NBA Daily is your daily dose of basketball breakfast. Join me Dave DeFore, Zena Keda and Esperaheni Monday through Friday, and Andrew select and Alex Spears on Saturday for the freshest stories, the hottest takes, and all the highlights from around the NBA, all before you finish your first cup of coffee. Whether it's a sizzling performance, a spicy trade rumor, or some smooth stat lines, we'll serve it piping hot and ready for you. So check out the athletic MBA daily on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Dominique Foxworth
Acast helps creators launch, grow and monetize their podcasts everywhere. Acast. Com.
Date: October 23, 2025
Host: Pablo Torre
Guest: Domonique Foxworth
This episode explores how conversations around CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy)—once a dominant topic concerning the ethics and future of football—have faded from public consciousness, even as the game’s popularity continues to rise. With former NFL player and NFLPA president Domonique Foxworth as his guest, Pablo Torre investigates how fans, media, and former players now rationalize the risks of CTE, reconcile their love of football with its dangers, and why the sport persists as a cultural juggernaut despite ongoing concerns about brain injuries.
[03:32–07:44]
[07:44–12:55]
[12:55–17:43]
[14:11–18:16]
[26:19–27:15]
[28:39–34:46]
[36:54–41:35]
[42:24–46:58]
[48:19–51:11]
"Football's dope, and there's a price to pay for that game that we all enjoy and is so ingrained in our culture."
— Dominique Foxworth [07:49]
"Boxing is literally consensual concussions."
— Pablo Torre [10:17]
"The boogeyman in this horror movie was not vanquished at the end and actually could be lying in wait in your brain."
— Paraphrased by Pablo Torre from Foxworth’s article [17:53]
"If anything goes wrong...CTE. It’s getting to me. That’s how I cope."
— Dominique Foxworth [23:24]
"I would trade my quality of life, even years off my life, for a better chance at a prosperous future for my kids and their kids."
— Paraphrased from Foxworth’s past writing [26:38]
"Teammates have always been the ones that were more likely to protect you than anyone else... you won’t find any stories of players pushing other players who got concussed to get back on the field."
— Dominique Foxworth [28:58]
"I wanted to be a pro football player in large part because I thought that was the most masculine thing."
— Dominique Foxworth [41:18]
"I actually don't want people to stop watching it. I want people to continue to get into buildings together to enjoy something, even if it's the Coliseum."
— Pablo Torre [44:17]
"We wouldn't have had that relationship without football. And to your point, the locker room is one of the places where you bring a bunch of people together that share football, and that's about it."
— Dominique Foxworth [46:58]
The conversation is candid, honest, irreverent, and self-aware—with moments of introspection, humor (often self-deprecating), and directness. Both men confront their own rationalizations, mock their younger selves’ writings, and trade friendly jabs throughout, keeping the tone conversational and authentic.
In summary:
Pablo Torre and Domonique Foxworth dissect how we, as a sports-loving public, have made peace with football’s dangers—especially CTE. They lay bare the process of rationalization that allows fans, players, and commentators to keep enjoying the game, discuss how much real change has occurred, and why football now uniquely serves as America’s last great communal ritual, for better or worse.