Coming to terms with the pain and disruption Charles White endured in his life is a difficult process. USC fans are fondly remembering White’s brilliance as a football player, but behind every athlete is a human being off the field. White’s life off that field was not easy, and that shouldn’t be ignored as we reflect on the USC great who died just before his 65th birthday (January 22).
The Heisman Trophy winner passed away on Wednesday. White endured a difficult life after his playing days ended. Suffering brain trauma is what caused those difficulties.
Last summer, Bill Plaschke of The Los Angeles Times wrote a poignant piece on White, and there is a ton to share from that story.
Here’s one of the deepest quotes on White, from ex-wife Judi White-Basch, who cared for White in his final years:
“Everybody loved him, everybody wanted to be around him, but nobody had any idea,” White-Basch told Plaschke. “He had become unmanageable.”
“It was daily trauma; it was destroying our lives.”
Plaschke then wrote about the discoveries the White family made about Charles:
“After visits with several doctors, he was diagnosed with dementia linked to a traumatic brain injury, an increasingly common affliction of former football players in White’s age group,” Plaschke noted.
“The family was devastated but relieved that it finally had an answer that could help explain years of erratic behavior. Studies have shown that more than 60% of traumatic brain injury patients have a history of drug and alcohol addiction, with the abuse often increasing after the initial injury.”
Plaschke’s story is so important because it underscored the central reality that White’s off-field problems were not the product of a deficit of character or personality flaw. This was centrally the product of brain trauma:
“All we’ve been through, everybody thought his problems were strictly drug related, now we find out that it could have been directly related to the traumatic brain injury,” White-Basch said. “For so many years it didn’t make sense; now it makes sense.”
White was not a wayward soul who strayed from the right path by choice. He was a man whose brain and body were pulverized, to the detriment of his well-being. Other football players suffered the same cruel fate. Caring and providing for these athletes throughout their lives is something which ought to be done.
Our thoughts are with Charles White’s friends and family during this difficult time.
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