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These worries have been furthered fueled by the state of the deceased players' brains upon autopsy: nearly all of them have exhibited unique signs of damage that don't appear in the brains of people who haven't suffered repeated head injuries. It is considered likely that years of head trauma is to blame for the signs of damage, as well as the players' subsequent mental breakdowns and deaths.

As motocrossers, many of us have confronted the ills of the concussion. Modern helmets are very good at absorbing large amounts of energy, but that characteristic tends to make them very stiff--so stiff that they are not always effective at dispersing smaller amounts of energy. And when too much energy reaches the brain, causing it to impact the inside of the skull, what results is a concussion. If you've suffered any loss of consciousness, amnesia, nausea, confusion or even a stout headache following a crash, the odds are good that you've had a concussion. 

I have had roughly eight concussions in my life. I had my first when I was 10, my last at 26. Not all of them have resulted in a loss of consciousness, but most have erased the memory of the crash that caused them. As far as I can tell, I haven't suffered any long-term affects from them. My memory is still fine, and I have yet to see any other signs of mental deterioration (unless you count my willingness to moderate our message board as a sign of some sort of masochistic disorder.)

But still I worry each time I read a piece on the new-found dangers of concussions. Early-onset dementia is a frightening disease, and while I'm not convinced I will get it, I am concerned that riders who suffer concussions without knowing the dangers--especially those who return to racing too soon after a concussion, which is known to increase the likelihood and severity of secondary concussions--are exposing themselves to a risk that none of us fully understands.

Last I read, Travis Pastrana has suffered about 26 concussions in his life. Worse yet, many of them have occurred within a short frame of time, such as the six he incurred during the 2001 125cc Nationals. These types of concussion "clusters" have shown to be much more dangerous than the one-off variety (though that doesn't mean that the one-offs can't be dangerous too.)

Travis is an extraordinary example of exposure to concussions, but a lot of racers I know have had their fair share of head injuries as well. While most of us will never suffer as many as a lot of football players and boxers--some estimate that these athletes may suffer dozens if not hundreds of concussions over the course of a long career--it doesn't mean that we shouldn't be mindful of the affects of concussions. The truth is that doctors do not yet know what number of concussions pose a threat to one's long-term health (it likely varies with the person) and that itself is a scary fact.

When I decided to rein in my own racing efforts a couple of years ago, my own worries over concussions played a role. I still remember the drive home from a Fallon night race in 2007, the last race where I endured a concussion. I had told myself up to that point that if I hit my head in a race again, that would be it. The finality of the decision filled me with a strange sadness as I drove home in the dark, but I knew I needed to start toning things down. Racing had long been a huge part of my life up to then, but I knew it wasn't worth the risk anymore. (Because old addictions die hard, however, I have raced since then, and I have suffered one more concussion, though that one was at a practice--my own mx775 Ride Day, in fact.)

But now I am trying very hard to keep my concussion risks down. It is a difficult thing, because I still love to ride, and the urge to race still pops up regularly. But I try to manage by riding well within my limits, and by trying to avoid situations that may lead me to run my head into the ground (it is still absurd how often and how strongly those situations appeal to me.)

And many days I test my memory at random to ensure that I am still fine. Does remembering how many AMA championships Jeff Stanton won in his career mean my memory is still sharp?

I hope so. He won six, by the way.