LenDale White can’t remember how many concussions he had. Twenty? Thirty? That’s his guess.
The Los Angeles Times did a profile of White in advance of the USC-Texas game, rehashing the 2006 Rose Bowl between the teams.
The former running back played 58 games in four NFL seasons. He said only one concussion was diagnosed.
“You lose consciousness and then all of a sudden it’s like shoooo-ooooof,” White says, making a slurping noise, via Zach Helfand of the LA Times. “Like, that’s how it sounds, like shhhhhhloooof, and then all of a sudden you hear the play again.”
White, 32, described the toll the accumulation of hits took on him from throbbing head to aching body. He found relief in pain pills and lots of them.
“And I don’t mean like popping a pain pill because I’m hurt,” White says. “I mean popping scripts. Like 10 Vicodins at a time type [stuff]. You know what I mean? To feel it, like I’m high. To feel the numbness.”