With growing concern about brain damage in the highest levels of football, more and more analysts are talking about the potential for serious traumatic injury. ESPN's Ed Cunningham, however, has seen enough. For nearly 20 years, Cunningham has been doing analysis on college football, but he left the booth in the middle of his career because of the nature of the sport that he was watching every Saturday.

"I take full ownership in my alignment with the sport," Cunningham told The New York Times. "I can just no longer be in that cheerleader's spot."

The way the NFL has handled brain injuries has been controversial for years, and college football has tried to curb that reputation. They now have a targeting rule that ejects players after the first violation, and they've employed the same rules as the NFL regarding defenseless receivers. However, the problem runs deeper than illegal hits. The problem is that legal hits can be just as dangerous.

"In its current state, there are some real dangers," Cunningham said. "Broken limbs, wear and tear. But the real crux of this is that I just don't think the game is safe for the brain. To me, it's unacceptable."

Cunningham's choice is undoubtedly not a reckless one. He has long criticized the way big hits are portrayed, and he's become a bit of a heel in the booth among college football fans for constantly pointing out what he thinks are illegal hits. Cunningham also bemoaned announcers' roles in how football is portrayed.

"Announcers are part of the industrial complex of college football, and I think we've turned a blind eye toward the violence -- we have to protect these kids," Cunningham told the New York Times 10 years ago. He looked back on that quote in his most recent interview, and questioned why he stayed if his opinion never changed. "That's 10 years before I walked away, right?" he questioned. "What took me so long?"

He answers his own question earlier in the interview, as he talks about why his gig is so sought after.

"I was being paid a really nice six-figure salary for not a lot of days of work, and a live television gig that, except for non-sports fans, people would beat me up to take," he said. "I'm leaving a job that's great. It's not kind of good. It's great."

Cunningham threw out several ideas to make the game safer in his interview, such as no contact before high school, softening the exterior of helmets and more harshly punishing players that try to spear. However, while he'll discuss those ideas away from the booth, he said that he simply couldn't stand to watch it week in and week out anymore, and he's seeing it elsewhere too.

"I know a lot of people who say 'I just can't cheer for the big hits anymore. I used to go nuts, and now I'm like, I hope he gets up,'" Cunningham said. "It's changing for all of us. I don't currently think the game is safe for the brain. And, oh, by the way, I've had teammates who have killed themselves. Dave Duerson put a shotgun to his chest so we could study his brain," a method that Junior Seau also tragically employed.

This is one of the bolder moves made by someone to protest football's handling of concussions, and even though it might not start a movement, it certainly made its intention clear. As outspoken as Cunningham has been, it's hard to imagine someone giving up a broadcast job. But if someone's had enough then they've had enough, and clearly Cunningham had had 10 years too much.