The Hall of Fame Speech Junior Seau’s Daughter Couldn’t Give … Roger Goodell and the NFL Get It Wrong Again … NFL Buckles Somewhat to Pressure

SHAME ON YOU NFL , ROGER GOODELL AND THE HALL OF FAME  …

As the NFL Hall of Fame inducted 8 more members into the hallowed halls of Canton, Ohio something his year was definitely not right and should not be brushed over as, oh its just a policy.

Linebacker Junior Seau gave every inch of his body to the NFL and sadly, his brain as well as the hundreds if not thousands of hits caused irreparable damage to his head, mind and health. Seau was a “Super Charger” and one of the games greats who sadly passed away at the age of 43 from suicide and a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his chest.  As his daughter Sydney Seau said, Junior Seau was an Oceanside Pirate, a U.S.C. Trojan, a Miami Dolphin, a New England Patriot, a San Diego Charger, and now he is, and forever will be, a Pro Football Hall of Famer. His daughter has stated that “the two words that exemplify my dad the most are “passion” and “love.” Everything he achieved, accomplished or set his mind to was done with both qualities. In every situation — whether it be practice, a game, a family barbecue, an impromptu ukulele song or just a run on the Oceanside Strand — he always gave you all of himself because to him, there was never any other option.” For me, as just a fan  that is exactly what I saw him do on the field as a player. Is passion and leadership so late in his career appeared to be like that of someone just starting out their career. Seau played with a passion like every play could be his last and he did not just hang on to hang on. He was an inspiration until he finally retired. I had so hoped in his years with the Patriots that he could finally get that Super Bowl ring he so deserved. However, that was not to be the case.

However, what should have been the case was that Junior Seau’s family should have been able to induct him into the NFL Hall of Fame with a speech. Seau was inducted posthumously, not because he was an 85 year old veteran, but because he committed suicide from the effects of brain damage suffered over his 20 year playing career. But the NFL and the NFL Hall of Fame looked to brush that terrible dirty little secret under the Gold colored blazer. Shame on you!!! Rules are made to be broken, especially when they are for ambassadors of the game like Junior Seau, but the NFL does not want the truth behind brain injuries and damage to players to ever come out.

The New York Times:

In his 20-year N.F.L. career, Junior Seau established himself as one of the game’s greatest linebackers. He committed suicide in 2012 at age 43 and was subsequently found to have had a degenerative brain condition linked to repeated hits to the head. Before his death, Seau told his daughter Sydney that she should speak on his behalf if he made it into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. But the Hall, citing a five-year-old policy of not letting others give full speeches for deceased inductees, did not allow Sydney to deliver her speech.

Recorded in her hotel room in Canton, Ohio, this is the speech Sydney had hoped to deliver on Saturday at the Pro Football Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

I cannot speak for him because I am not him. I have not played in the N.F.L. for one second, let alone 20 years; I do not have past seasons to reminisce about or hilarious locker room stories to joke about. But I do have one thing, and that is unconditional love.

Your Junior Seau, your No. 55 and your buddy, was also my father. And although I didn’t know every aspect of his life, I did know one particular part very well. His athleticism and talent made him extraordinary enough to make it into the Hall, but it is his passion and heart that make him truly legendary and deserving of this tremendous honor. Tonight I would like to honor him and his legendary heart.

What the sad and pathetic NFL suits did not want said live in Canton, Ohio during Hall of Fame induction was the follwoing … Shame on you Roger Goodell and the rest of you low-lifes that would not allow a family to honor one of the NFL’s greatest linebackers because he committed suicide at the hands of the NFL turning a blind eye to concussions and the damage it reeked upon the players. But of course the air in a football is more important.

But I think what we tend to forget about our favorite invincible, unstoppable, indestructible superhumans is the minor detail that they are also human. That is something that we all must endure today without his physical presence. We cannot celebrate his life and achievement without feeling the constant piece that’s missing.

May 2, 2012, we all endured a loss. Thousands lost their all-time favorite linebacker, hundreds lost their favorite Charger, tens lost their buddy, and four lost their father. The reason why this honor is so hard to accept is because we had always envisioned him still being here to accept it.

But something that we all cannot deny is that we are all still here. We can keep working today, we can keep building our tomorrows, and we can keep praying for the rest. This superhumanlike man truly blessed us with one of the most precious gifts he could have given. He gave us his time. With that time, I know he made one hell of an imprint on my life, and from the amount of emotion and love in this room, I think we all could say the same.

Something that is hard for me to admit to myself and to you all is the fact that I miss his singing. I miss his huge mangled hands strumming on his uke, playing the only five chords he knew, to the hundreds of songs he would attempt to sing off-key. I miss him calling me Beau, my girlie middle name, and I miss him hugging me too long and too tightly, almost to the point where I couldn’t breathe.

There’s nothing I want more than to see you walk up on stage, give me a hug and tell me that you love me one last time, but that isn’t our reality. You would always say you loved me, and even after I would respond and say I loved you, too, you would look me in the eyes and say, “I love you; do you hear me?”

Well, after this speech, I hope you can hear us when we say that we love you, and I hope that this induction can exemplify the fact that you were more than just Junior Seau — you were a light, and you’re still mine. This is your speech, your moment and your honor, and to say that I’m the most proud daughter on Earth would be an understatement. Congratulations, Dad; you made it.

UPDATE I: Daughter Honors Seau Onstage at a Celebration Under a Cloud.

Watch the VIDEO here, this is what the NFL was guilted into conceding to do for a man who gave so much to the NFL and the game, including his life.

She received a similar reception Saturday as she paid tribute to her father, who was inducted posthumously, in an onstage interview after the showing of a poignant video featuring family photos and clips of his bone-crushing tackles. It was a concession made by the league, which had said it would not allow her to make an introductory speech.

After the montage, Sydney and Seau’s three sons uncloaked their father’s bronze bust to claps and cheers. Seau’s mother, who sat in the stands, wept.

“You are a light, and I want nothing more than to see you come on stage and give the speech you were meant to give, give me a hug and tell me you love me one last time,” Sydney Seau said, her voice breaking during the interview, which lasted about five minutes. “But that isn’t a reality.”

Make no mistake about it NFL … you knew damn well about the studies of the damages to the brain and what would eventually happen to these players after they retired or even during their playing days. But making money off their bodies and minds was more important to the NFL and those lucrative TV deals. To Roger Goodell and the rest of the NFL suits, do not ever pretend to say you care about the players or the integrity of the game, looking the other way with concussions and the dame it caused to so many players shows exactly what you really think. But the NFL and the commissioners office would rather make a bigger deal over deflated footballs, rather than players committing suicide due to brain damage.

49 Year Old Carrie Bradshaw-Crowther Missing Since 6/2/15 in Salisbury, NC … Disappeared Before a Scheduled C-Section Delivery Date (Update: Pregnant Woman Found Safe in Boone, NC)

49 year old Carrie Bradshaw-Crowther has been missing since Tuesday, June 2, 2015 in Salisbury, NC. The pregnant North Carolina woman was last seen by her daughter on the morning she was scheduled to have a c-section delivery. According to her daughter, Lauren Lusk, on Tuesday morning, her mother told Lusk to go fill up the car with gas before they set off for the 40 minutes to Charlotte for her delivery. However, when Lusk returned her mother was gone, the lights in the house were off, the door was unlocked and her mother’s car was also missing. The daughter went on to say that her mother’s makeup and purse were still in the house after she vanished, but her wallet and cellphone were gone.

A pregnant North Carolina woman vanished the morning she was supposed to deliver her baby, stumping worried family members who are frantically searching for her.

Carrie Bradshaw-Crowther, 49, disappeared at about 5 a.m. ET Tuesday morning from her Salisbury, North Carolina, home, an hour before a scheduled C-section, said her daughter, Lauren Lusk.

Lusk, 26, told NBC News that she had spent the weekend with her mom, helping her prepare for the birth of the baby. On Tuesday morning, Bradshaw-Crowther told Lusk to go fill up the car with gas before they set off for the 40 minutes to Charlotte for her delivery.

“When I got back, she was gone. The lights in the house were off, the door was unlocked,” Lusk said.

Bradshaw-Crowther’s car was also missing. Lusk called the hospital where she was supposed to deliver and police checked other local hospitals. She wasn’t at any of them.

Lusk said one call was made from Bradshaw-Crowther’s cellphone 20 minutes after she went missing, six blocks from the house. She was spotted at a gas station in Statesville, about 25 miles from Salisbury, and stayed in a hotel there the night she went missing, Lusk said.

Click HERE or on pic to watch VIDEO via WSOC-TV – Channel 9

UPDATE I: Salisbury police still searching for missing pregnant woman.

Police said Crowther could be traveling in a champagne-colored 2001 Mazda MPV. The van has a Kansas tag number: QKP711.

“The longer she was gone … it was 6 and we were supposed to be at the hospital. That’s when I knew there was something to worry about,” Lusk said.

Police confirm that Crowther was last seen at a convenience store in Statesville. During a Channel 9 interview with Lusk on Friday, one of the investigators showed up at the home to get written statements.

FACEBOOK – Carrie Bradshaw-Crowther

Police confirm that Crowther was last seen at a convenience store in Statesville.

For more updates, read others comments and opinions and to provide your own, go to Scared Monkeys Missing Persons Forum: Carrie Bradshaw-Crowther.

Anyone with  information on Bradshaw-Crowther’s whereabouts is asked contact the Salisbury Police Department at 704-638-5333 or Crime Stoppers at 1-866-639-5245.

UPDATE I: Missing pregnant woman found in Boone.

Carrie Bradshaw-Crowther, the missing pregnant woman from Salisbury, has been found in Boone, according to Watauga County Sheriff’s Office.

Deputies said the woman used an ATM card Monday at a CVS in Boone. Officials found her at a gas station a short time later.

The search intensified Monday afternoon after her ATM card was used at a nearby CVS.

The deputy who found her told Faherty he was glad he could help both the family and Salisbury police.

When a deputy approached her she said, “I am Carrie.”

Female Fan (Tonya Carpenter) in Serious Condition After Hit By Broken Bat at Fenway Park During Boston Red Sox Game (VIDEO) (Update: Hospital Says. “It’s still life-threatening, However, she is expected to survive.)

SCARY MOMENT AT LAST NIGHT’S RED SOX GAME …

According to The Boston Herald, a woman who was hit by a broken bat during yesterday’s Boston Red Sox -Oakland A’s game is in serious condition with life-threatening injuries. The game was halted in the middle of the second inning following the incident. The woman,  Tonya Carpenter, was rushed from Fenway Park is in serious condition to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Boston.com:

Tonya Carpenter was sitting behind the visitors’ on-deck circle at Fenway Park Friday night watching the Red Sox take on the Oakland Athletics with a man and her son.

Then, A’s third baseman Brett Lawrie shattered his bat on a groundout in the second inning, and the park went silent.

The broken barrel of Lawrie’s maple bat had flown into the third-baseline stands and struck Carpenter in the head. Carpenter immediately began to bleed profusely, as medical personnel rushed to her aid.

Carpenter was carted out of the park, her screams audible to fans, and transported to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center with what appeared to be “life-threatening” injuries, Boston police spokeswoman Rachel McGuire told Boston.com.

Boston Globe: After injury, woman was wheeled away.

At 7:45 a.m. Saturday, Beth Israel spokeswoman Jennifer Kritz said the hospital is not providing any information regarding the condition of the woman at this time.

The team’s principal owner, John Henry, also owns the Globe.

Red Sox manager John Farrell said after the game that the incident was “a scary moment.”

“Our thoughts and concern and certainly our prayers go out to the woman who was struck with the bat, her, and her family,” Farrell said. “All you can think about is a family coming to a ballgame to hopefully get three hours of enjoyment and unfortunately with how close our stands are to the field of action . . . an accident like this tonight, it’s certainly disturbing.”

UPDATE I: Tonya Carpenter in Serious Condition But expected to Survive.

A woman struck by a piece of a baseball bat at Boston’s Fenway Park suffered “life-threatening” injuries but is expected to survive, Boston police spokesperson Rachel McGuire said Saturday.

The incident occurred during the second inning of Friday night’s Red Sox game against the Oakland Athletics when Athletics’ third baseman Brett Lawrie was at bat.

The hospital identified the woman as Tonya Carpenter. She was in serious condition Saturday, according to hospital spokeswoman Kelly Lawman. The family was grateful for thoughts and prayers, the hospital said.

“It’s still life-threatening,” McGuire said of Carpenter’s injuries. “However, she is expected to survive.”

Non-Profit Homes for Our Troops Gave Home to “Permanently Paralyzed” Vet Army Specialist Justin Perez-Gorda … Now Must Weigh Options as it Appears to Have been a Fraud

STOLEN VALOR HOME … Was this a con from the outset by this couple to get a new home bought and paid for?

Homes for Our Troops, a non-profit organization, provided military veteran Army Specialist Justin Perez-Gorda a home free of charge to account for his handicap and paralysis; however, something fishy appears to be going on … within weeks after Justin Perez-Gorda and his wife moved into the home, he was walking. Miracle or fraud? I will opt for the latter. When confronted by the media of his miraculous recovery, Justin Perez-Gorda told the reporter to get off his property.  The non-profit, Homes for Our Troops said the organization is thinking about its next steps and has to weigh their options. One of them might be trying to take back the home.

The man suffered a brain injury in Afghanistan in 2011, but for years he and his wife claimed that he was paralyzed form the waist down.

“He has permanent loss of use of both lower extremities. He’s paralyzed from the belly button down,” Josephine Perez-Gorda said in a Homes for Our Troops promotional video.

But, soon after the couple moved into the house specially designed for a handicapped individual, neighbors noticed something odd: Perez-Gorda could walk. Those who spoke to WTSP said the couple became angry when asked about his condition.

‘Paralyzed’ veteran given free home caught walking.

Army Specialist Justin Perez-Gorda suffered a traumatic brain injury while serving in Afghanistan in January 2011.

For years, he and his wife claimed publicly he was paralyzed from the belly button down.

“He has permanent loss of use of both lower extremities. He’s paralyzed from the belly button down,” Josephine Perez-Gorda said during a taped video segment later used by Homes for Our Troops for fundraising efforts.

Homes for Our Troops (HFOT) is a privately funded 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization building specially adapted, mortgage-free homes nationwide for the most severely injured Veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan.

If this is a fraud, which it really appears to be, it is disgusting. With so many soldiers returning from war in Iraq and Afghanistan that are truly needing of such homes, for one of their own to perpetrate such a con is just unconscionable. There is no doubt that Army Specialist Justin Perez-Gorda suffered some type of injury, but it was nothing like what was embellished. Watch the promotional VIDEO below from Homes for Our Troops and you can plainly hear Justin’s wife, Josephine Perez-Gorda, say at the 1:35 minute mark that he has permanent loss of the use of both lower extremities and that he was paralyzed from the belly-button down. Hmm, that is a far cry from the VIDEO above where Justin can be seen walking and carrying wood.

Army SPC Justin Perez-Gorda was on his first deployment when he became a paraplegic and suffered a traumatic brain injury, as the result of an IED explosion in Memlah, Afghanistan on January 5, 2011.

SPC Justin Perez-Gorda – Homes For our Troops, Published on Oct 24, 2012

Fatal Amtrak Train Derailment in Port Richmond at Frankford Junction … 6 People Reported Dead

Train 188 from Washington to New York with 238 passengers and five crew members aboard derailed …

Six people have now been declared dead and over 146 injured following the Amtrak train derailment in Port Richmond.  Of the 238 passengers on board the train, 6 have died, 8 passengers remain in critical condition at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia and many other passengers were injured suffering fractures ti limbs. The accident happened at about 9:28 PM, with six cars overturning and the engine separating from the rest of the train. It is unknown what called the derailment; however, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is launching a full team to investigate.

At least six people were killed and dozens injured, eight critically, when a northbound Amtrak train derailed Tuesday night in Port Richmond.

In the moments after the derailment, scores of emergency personnel swarmed over more than a half-dozen toppled train cars, trying to reach the dazed, the injured, the dying.

Some people were reported trapped in the train, and crews cut into the cars to try to free the injured.

At a briefing early Wednesday morning, with Gov. Wolf at his side, Mayor Nutter reported that five people had died and that 65 people were taken to area hospitals, 54 of them to Temple University Hospital.

Herbert Cushing, chief medical officer at Temple, reported later that a sixth person, who had suffered a massive chest injury, had died. Eight other patients were in critical condition.

Train 188, bound to New York from Washington with 238 passengers and five crew members aboard, had left 30th Street Station minutes before the accident, which occurred near a curve at Wheatsheaf Lane and I-95.

Amtrak has suspended travel between Philadelphia and New York.  Individuals with questions about their friends and family on train 188 should call Amtrak’s Incident Hotline at 800-523-9101.

UPDATE I: ‘Absolute disastrous mess’: 6 dead, 146 injured after Amtrak train derails.

“It is an absolute, disastrous mess,” Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter said of the crash site. “I’ve never seen anything like this in my life.”

Amtrak Northeast Regional Train 188 was traveling from Washington to New York when it derailed in the Port Richmond neighborhood of Philadelphia about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday.

The impact tore cars apart, sending seven of them flying from the tracks, and left the engine a mangled mess.

“We have confirmed an engine and all seven cars derailed,” a U.S. Department of Transportation representative told CNN on Wednesday, adding that the engine and two cars were left standing upright, three cars were tipped on their sides, and one was nearly flipped over on its roof. The seventh one is “leaning hard,” they said.

RAW VIDEO from aboard the  New York-Bound Amtrak Train Derails Near Philadelphia

UPDATE II: Amtrak cancels Baltimore, Northeast Corridor trains after derailment.

Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor service between New York and Philadelphia is suspended after a deadly derailment Tuesday night just north of Philadelphia.

Amtrak trains 151 and 181 are canceled Wednesday, and passengers in Baltimore are advised to use MARC trains 517 and 523, Maryland Transit Administration officials said. All MARC Penn Line service will run as scheduled.

Amtrak will run on a modified schedule between Washington and Philadelphia, Harrisburg and Philadelphia, and New York and Boston.

UPDATE III: Official Amtrak Blog – Amtrak Northeast Regional Train 188 at North Philadelphia

We are deeply saddened by the loss of life from Amtrak Northeast Regional Train 188 that derailed north of Philadelphia Tuesday evening. We ask the news media to be respectful of our customers, our employees, and their families.

There were approximately 238 passengers and 5 crew members on board. Individuals with questions about their friends and family on this train should call the Amtrak Incident Hotline 800-523-9101. Amtrak has also established a Family Assistance Center to work closely with family and friends of individuals on the train. Local emergency responders are on the scene and an investigation is ongoing.

Patrick J. Murphy PA @PatrickMurphyPA