Former Miami Dolphins lineman Jonathan Martin recently retired from the NFL and explained how he experienced bouts of depression and attempted suicide several times throughout his NFL career.

None of that appears to matter to former Miami Hurricane Brett Romberg, who called Martin “a piece of garbage” on 790 The Ticket’s morning show as reported by the Miami New Times.

Romberg, a former center for the Hurricanes and a 10-year NFL veteran, criticized Martin for creating drama in the Miami Dolphins locker room after Martin accused former teammate Richie Incognito of bullying and harassment.

After Martin posted a deep, heartfelt explanation on Twitter about the end of his NFL career and the struggles he encountered, Romberg didn’t seem to buy any of it.
Romberg said on the 790 The Ticket that:

“He is. He’s a piece of garbage. The guy affected so many people’s lives around here. If you really think about it, Jonathan Martin has been sitting at home typing up his monologue or his inner monologue on Facebook. Talking about, ‘Woe is me. I’ve had issues.’”

Romberg went on to say that Martin essentially caused his own problems due to his own mental and health issues.

“You wanna cry about committing suicide and all this other stuff man, just don’t, don’t talk about it anymore,” Romberg said on 790 The Ticket.

You can listen to the full podcast on the link below at about the 8:00 minute mark:

8/27 Hour 4 - Joaquin Gonzalez, Kobe-Shaq Interview, Suh on Fins defense http://t.co/0tCzqOcjDi via @po_st

— Miami (@SunTimesMIA) August 27, 2015

(miaminewtimes.com)

A message from Aaron Torres of FoxSports.com:

“They’re the greatest team of all-time.”

It’s a statement we often hear about the 2001 Miami Hurricanes, both by fans, and the media members who cover college football as well.

But after hearing it earlier this year, a light-bulb went off in my head: Just about everyone seems to have an opinion the 2001 ‘Canes, except Miami’s former players and coaches themselves.

And from there, another thought immediately popped into my head: What if I tracked down as many Hurricanes players and coaches from that 2001 season as I could, interviewed them, and asked what they thought about their team, and where they rank in college football history.

How awesome would that be?

Well, six months later, the answer was “spectacular” and after collecting interviews with roughly 50 former players and coaches, an article, the definitive article on the greatest team in the history of college football will run on FoxSports.com on Wednesday.

If you’re a ‘Canes fan (which I have to imagine you are if you’re reading this website), I can promise you that you can enjoy the article.

But here’s the thing: During the process of reporting the article, I learned that I wasn’t the only one who shared the same passion for the 2001 ‘Canes. As it turned out, one of the former players I interviewed, Najeh Davenport, also shared that passion, and like me wanted to tell the world his team’s story. Najeh recently released a documentary about the team, titled ‘The U: Reloaded’ which premiered last month. Through Najeh, I met his business partner Platon, who runs things here at ProCanes.com.

And it was through my friendship with Platon, that we’ve decided to give Miami fans a treat. Before the article runs in full on Wednesday, Platon was nice enough to offer up his space here on proCanes.com, to run an excerpt. It’s a treat for all you diehard ‘Canes fans, and proCanes is the only place that you can read this exclusive excerpt.

Of course the article will still run in its entirety Wednesday, and if you enjoy what you read here, be sure to check out the article on FoxSports.com. You can also follow on Twitter @Aaron_Torres, where I’ll post the link once it goes live.

In the meantime, enjoy this excerpt from the article….

In the excerpt, we pick things up shortly after Larry Coker was hired as head coach, as the team prepared for the 2001 season.

As you’ll learn however, it really didn’t matter who the Hurricanes had hired as head coach. The team was not going to be denied the title that had eluded them the year before.

Again, enjoy and be sure to look for the full article on Wednesday.

The final, and arguably most important piece to the 2001 team was set: Miami had its head coach.

Now it was time to get to work. A team that had been denied a shot at a National Championship the season before, was not going to allow that to happen again.

Joaquin Gonzalez (senior, offensive tackle): The one thing I remember going into 2001 was, Larry Coker and his staff, as well as the players decided that we weren’t going to leave the decision on who plays for the championship on anyone else’s plate but our own. 

Brett Romberg (junior, center): (Our mindset was) ‘This year it ain’t gonna be decided on a poll or whatever kind of computer analysis.’ We were worked up, ready to get back at it.

Maurice Sikes (sophomore, safety): If you’re going to say you’re a champion, earn it. Don’t leave it to a voter; don’t leave it to anything to chance.’

D.J. Williams (sophomore, linebacker): It was great to be there with Butch, but when he left our plan didn’t change.

Brett Romberg (junior, center): We were anxious to get back at it. We didn’t want downtime. Usually you’re excited to get back home, brag ‘We just won the Sugar Bowl’ but we didn’t want that. We were like, ‘Let’s get back in the weight room, and get after it.

Ed Reed (senior, safety): When we got back to Miami to start spring football … my God. That spring before that National Championship year, those off-season workouts, it was like no other in the world.

Andreu Swasey (strength and conditioning coach): That was our DNA (to work hard). That is part of our system. It wasn’t talent-driven, it was work-ethic driven.

Mike Rumph (senior, cornerback): I don’t feel like we get ever get credit for our work ethic. I played six years in the NFL and the hardest I ever worked was at Miami. Those summers were treacherous.

Frank Gore (freshman, running back): My first day I get there, we were doing agilities with the linebackers; I’m competing with Chris Campbell, God rest his soul, and I’m like ‘Man, I think I made the wrong decision.’ I’m the top (high school) running back, how is a linebacker beating me in agilities?

Clinton Portis (junior, running back): We competed in everything! We all wanted to be the fastest player, we all wanted to be the best basketball player, we all wanted to be the highest jumper, we all wanted to be the best at everything we did.

Antrel Rolle (freshman, cornerback): The way we practiced, it was insane. I’ll be honest with you, it was literally insane. You would think that we did not like each other, on the field, off the field.

Mike Rumph (senior, cornerback): It was just a machine. It was a machine but we were just so afraid to have failure.

Curtis Johnson (wide receivers coach): Andreu Swasey said this all the time: The players were always around. They were always around us, always around the office. It’d be Friday night, Saturday morning, they’d be around, they’d want to want watch more film, and we couldn’t get rid of these guys for nothing. Their whole lives revolved around this little football team.

Mark Stoops (defensive backs coach): Soon after I was hired by Larry (as defensive backs coach in 2001) I was in my office working on a Saturday and I saw one of my players come by, then I saw another one. Over the course of the morning several guys stopped up and were talking. And I thought it was odd. I asked one of them, ‘What are you doing here on a Saturday morning?’ And one of them just looked at me and tilted his head and was like ‘Coach, this is just what we do.’

Mike Rumph (senior, cornerback): People didn’t see the Saturdays where we met up as a team (in the off-season). Or the meetings we’d have 6 in the morning, where there were no coaches there.

Brett Romberg (junior, center): Saturday morning at 8:00 a.m., no matter how hung-over you were, you are in the field.

Mark Stoops (defensive backs coach): Over the course of the morning several guys stopped up and were talking. And I thought it was odd. I asked one of them, ‘What are you doing here on a Saturday morning?’ And one of them just looked at me and tilted his head and was like ‘Coach, this is just what we do.’

Brett Romberg (junior, center): Granted, you didn’t have to be there. At any other school a guy might show up at 8:05 with his shoes untied or something. Not at Miami. No, if you didn’t show up at 7:55 ready to go, you got shunned. Nobody wants to talk to you, because you think you’re so much bigger than the group. There were never any egos.

Mark Stoops (defensive backs coach): They did seven-on-seven with each other, the o-line and d-line worked basically the whole year round. That’s just what they did; it was part of their culture… I was blown away by the player’s self-motivation and how great the leaders were there.

Don Soldinger (running backs coach): One time, Frank Gore called me at 3:30 a.m. to ask me about pass protections.

Frank Gore (freshman, running back): He said ‘If you need help, don’t be afraid to call.’ So I was studying my plays and I called him and told him to quiz me.

Andreu Swasey (strength and conditioning coach): Who stood out as leaders and workers from that group? Can I say ‘The team?’ I had so many guys.

Curtis Johnson (wide receivers coach): It started during 2000, but the players, they really policed themselves. We had no altercations, we had no nothing.

Ed Reed (senior, safety): We told coach, ‘If anything happens with the players on the team coach, we got it. Don’t you worry about it.’

D.J. Williams (sophomore, linebacker): As far as punishment, that was all done within the locker room.

Andreu Swasey (strength and conditioning coach): If you didn’t make your times, it wasn’t pretty for you. And I didn’t have anything to do with it! I did everything to help you, I might try to save you, but the rest of the guys would be like ‘Coach, you might not want to see this.’

Phillip Buchanon (junior, cornerback): The coaches aren’t gonna handle this. This is our locker room. We’re going to handle this.

Andreu Swasey (strength and conditioning coach): They handled their own discipline. So I’d start talking and Ed Reed would cut me off, like ‘I don’t mean any disrespect…’ then he’d handle the lecture for me. And I’m like ‘Damn, ok.’

Curtis Johnson (wide receivers coach): I remember, Sean Taylor was a freshman and I was watching him right at the beginning of two-a-days and Sean, he just didn’t run (as) fast (as he could) or something. And the coach went to get on him, and before the coach could get there Ed Reed just jumped on him; Sean was almost crying. It was the worst thing you could ever see, but the coaches didn’t have to do any of that, the players did it all. When that happens, I knew we were well on our way.

Najeh Davenport (senior, fullback): This may seem bad to say, but my senior year, Coach Coker was the head coach, Coach Chud was the offensive coordinator, but once we learned the system, that’s all she wrote.

Maurice Sikes (sophomore, safety): (Coker) knew how great of a team he had. He had been there with us. We had great leadership on our team, we had great coaches, great assistants, great starters, great back-ups. We knew what we had, and knew we didn’t need much tinkering.

Brett Romberg (junior, center): Butch Davis had done a great job steering that ship and doing a great job in building it, and all we needed was somebody to maintain the animal. Coker was the perfect fit.

Maurice Sikes (sophomore, safety): He had a very good understanding of the fact that he had a masterpiece. All he had to do was take it to the damn museum.

Najeh Davenport (senior, fullback): We were teaching each other, coaching each other, watching film together. We were destined to win the National Championship. 

Randy Shannon (defensive coordinator): I felt like we had a bunch of guys who had a common goal. They wanted to win a championship.
Aaron is a contributor at FoxSports.com. You can follow him on Twitter @Aaron_Torres, and be sure to check FoxSports.com for the full article on Wednesday.

Dozens of former players joining a lawsuit against the NFL say teams kept handing out powerful painkillers and other drugs with few - if any- safeguards as recently as 2012. That extends by four years the time frame for similar claims made in the original complaint and could open the door to a criminal investigation.

"On flights home, the routine was the same everywhere," said Brett Romberg, who played center in Jacksonville (2003-05), St. Louis (2006-08) and Atlanta (2009 and 2011). "The trainers walked up and down the aisle and you'd hold up your hand with a number of fingers to show how many pills you wanted. No discussions, no questions. You just take what they hand you and believe me, you'll take anything to dull the pain."

With the federal Drug Enforcement Administration beginning to look into accusations contained in the lawsuit - filed in May and covering the years 1968-2008 - the new allegations could dramatically expand the investigation's scope, legal experts said. Any violation of federal drug laws after 2009 would not be subject to the five-year statute of limitations.

"Then it's no longer just about money. Then it's potentially about criminal conduct and that's a completely different ballpark," said Steven Feldman, a former assistant U.S. Attorney for New York's southern district.

"And all you need is one (criminal) act within the last five years to reach back and say, `The same group of doctors and trainers were there and' ... if you have enough of them doing the same thing in different locker rooms, well, it's hard to defend as a one-off," he added.

The NFL is not aware of "any DEA subpoenas or investigations into club practices," spokesman Greg Aiello wrote in an email Friday. "There has been a league-wide reporting system in place (to track controlled substances and prescriptions issued by team doctors) since 1973 for compliance with DEA and state law requirements."

The DEA declined comment, citing the agency's policy against discussing potential investigations. But law enforcement sources, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, confirmed that the agency was looking into allegations in the lawsuit.

The lawsuit on behalf of 500 former players was filed in U.S. District Court in northern California and amended two weeks later to add another 250. The nine named plaintiffs include current ESPN analyst Marcellus Wiley, Chicago Bears quarterback Jim McMahon and Hall of Fame defensive lineman Richard Dent.

It contends the NFL and its teams, physicians and trainers acted without regard for players' health, withholding information about injuries while routinely - and often illegally - providing them with prescription painkillers such as Vicodin and Percocet, and anti-inflammatories such as Toradol, to mask pain and minimize lost playing time.

Lead plaintiffs' attorney Steve Silverman said this week that 500 more players have since joined the lawsuit, which is seeking class certification. The latest group includes dozens who played in the NFL between 2009 and 2012 and told lawyers in interviews that little had changed about how some teams handled the drugs. The Associated Press interviewed three of those players.

Romberg described the Jaguars as "very liberal" in doling out painkillers and called the Rams' training room a "huge free-for-all." He said there were some changes in the clubhouse between his two seasons in Atlanta.

"In 2011, you had to see the doctor first. ... You'd still get your Molotov cocktail, but they were tighter about documenting it," Romberg said.

Roscoe Parrish played wide receiver in Buffalo from 2005-11, then on the practice squads in San Diego, Oakland and Tampa Bay, in 2012.

"I had knee problems in 2010, so I started getting, I'm not sure, I think they were Vicodins, in a small white envelope. I played that game without pain, so it became routine," he said.

"I never saw a bottle. They were always in envelopes," Parrish said. "I got accustomed to (Buffalo trainer) Bud Carpenter giving me painkillers and didn't educate myself. All I cared about was playing."

The Bills declined a request to speak to Carpenter, but said in an email response: "Bud Carpenter strongly disagrees with Roscoe Parrish's accusation."

Patrick Cobbs, who joined New England in 2006 as an undrafted free agent and then caught on as running back in Miami through 2010, said he started taking painkillers to deal with hip and rib injuries in 2007-08.

"It seemed like the norm then. Now, you know what that's done to you and it seems so wrong," Cobbs said.

Six of the plaintiffs in the painkillers lawsuit, including McMahon and Van Horne, were also parties to the concussion-related class-action lawsuit last year against the NFL. A federal judge granted preliminary approval to a settlement nearly two weeks ago

The former players in the painkillers lawsuit have reported a range of debilitating effects, from chronic muscle and bone ailments to permanent nerve and organ damage to addiction. The players contend those health problems came from drug use, but many of the conditions haven't been definitively linked to painkillers.

Romberg, 34, had three stints inserted during heart surgery just a year after retiring, and said his doctors asked how the team never noticed the heart problems during physicals.

"It could be an anomaly," Romberg said, "and I don't know if there's any correlation. But a lot of pills I took, I look at the warning labels now and a few of them say `if you have heart issues, don't take them."'


(thesunchronicle.com)

Tecumseh's Brett Romberg joined former Detroit Lions offensive tackle Lomas Brown and other former football players who hope a proposed $765 million settlement with the National Football League can make a difference in the lives of thousands of ex-players who are suffering from dementia and other concussion-related brain injuries.

"The NFL took a step in the right direction," said Romberg, a Belle River high school grad who retired from the NFL in 2012 after a nine-year career.

"They messed up in the past but the $765 million will be a much-needed Band-Aid, especially for those who suffered injuries 20 and 30 years ago."

Romberg, who said he suffered head trauma while playing football in high school, college and the pros, was one of 84 former players who started the lawsuit against the NFL in 2010.

He withdrew his name from the lawsuit to sign a $1-million contract with the Atlanta Falcons in 2012.

"I don't regret not being part of this settlement," Romberg said.

"I was aware of the consequences of my injuries but I wanted to leave the game on my own terms.

"I had another career to fall back on. I'm just glad to see the NFL acknowledge the direct correlation between head injuries and the pain and suffering of former players."

Romberg, 33, is now a sales manager of Tire Group International in Miami. His wife, Emily, is a corporate real estate lawyer.

Brown, a seven-time Pro Bowler with Detroit, Arizona, Cleveland, the New York Giants and Tampa Bay, and Super Bowl-winning quarterback Jim McMahon were among the more than 4,500 former athletes - some suffering from dementia, depression or Alzheimer's - who have sued the NFL since the first case was filed in Philadelphia in 2011.

They accused the league of concealing the long-term dangers of concussions and rushing injured players back onto the field, while glorifying and profiting from the kind of bonejarring hits that make for spectacular highlight-reel footage. "I'm curious how they came up with the figure and I've got a lot of questions, but I am happy that it's done," Brown told The Associated Press. "Any time the NFL acknowledges they are ready to settle something, it shows they knew they had some sort of negligence."

The settlement would mean immediate compensation for ailing former players and their families, as well as medical exams and treatment for all other retirees - a group that could total more than 20,000. It also would set aside $10 million for research that the plaintiffs hope will protect future generations from the devastating effects of repeated blows to the head.

The settlement still has to be approved by Senior U.S. District Judge Anita Brody in Philadelphia.


(windsorstar.com)

Former Dolphins quarterback Pat White wisely dismissed his concussion lawsuit (actually, he filed two of them) before returning to the NFL, signing with the Redskins.  But maybe he didn’t need to do that.  After all, two other players made comebacks without scrapping their own lawsuits against the league.

A league source advises that former Jaguars, Rams, and Falcons center Brett Romberg, a plaintiff in one of the original concussion lawsuits filed in July 2011, re-signed with the Falcons the following month, after a year out of football.

Cut in early September 2011, Romberg again re-signed with the Falcons later that month, remaining with the team for the balance of the year and appearing in two games.

We’ve also confirmed, as first reported by Nathan Fenno of the Washington Times, that defensive end Patrick Chukwurah signed with the Seahawks last season after filing suit for concussions suffered earlier in his career.

While not binding on the many other former players who have sued, this dynamic supports the notion that plenty of the concussion plaintiffs view the litigation as a lawyer-driven strategy for finagling a little extra money from a former employer, and that many of the players would welcome the chance to make more money playing football despite the brain damage they’ve supposedly sustained.

As Ross Tucker aptly put it earlier today on Twitter, “Pat White situation makes me wonder how many guys on concussion lawsuit would bail if a team offered them contract?”  We know Pat White would, because Pat White did.  Despite allegedly permanent injuries, White was perfectly fine when he had to be.
Even though that’s only one out of 4,000 plaintiffs, it does far more damage to the concussion lawsuits than any permanent harm White ever suffered in the NFL.

Especially since we now know that he actually suffered none.


(profootballweekly.com)