Depending on what former NFL player you ask, they'll give you a different answer about playing football despite knowing what they know now medically. Count all-time leading rusher and former Cowboys superstar Emmitt Smith among those who would definitely play anyway.
Asked whether or not he would still play despite knowing the long-term health risks, Smith emphatically stated "Yes I would" while speaking at a fundraiser in San Angelo, Texas.
“You do it for the sake of the game. You do it for the sake of your teammates. You do it because it’s your team,” Smith said, via Pro Football Talk. “Should you be out there? The answer’s probably not. Would I do it again? Yes, I would. But that’s football. That’s the way I was raised. If you can’t play with pain, you can’t play the game."
Smith added his experience in the NFL included getting "knocked out" on Thanksgiving Day in 1998 and he often "smelled some ammonia" in order to "clear the cobwebs."
“Head trauma is one of those things where I don’t think anybody should be playing,” Smith said. “A lot of times I came to the sidelines and smelled some ammonia [to] clear the cobwebs. Today that doesn’t happen. I got knocked out in ’98 on Thanksgiving Day. Thank God it was Thanksgiving Day because I had 10 days to recover. Ten days. Now, they keep you out two weeks."
This is the juxtaposition of the NFL. You have a guy like Chris Borland willing to walk away from the potential of millions of dollars. And you also have a guy like Emmitt Smith who's prepared to deal with playing against despite what he dealt with health-wise.
On the other hand, it's a lot easier for Smith to say he'd do it all over when what he did resulted in him setting records and becoming a massive celebrity while accumulating tons of wealth.
