Borland was selected with the 13th pick of the 3rd round (77th overall) of the 2014 NFL Draft by the San Francisco 49ers. Throughout training camp and preseason Borland competed against 49ers veteran Michael Wilhoite for a starting inside linebacker position left absent by the injured NaVorro Bowman. They still had Patrick Willis at the time as one of the two starting MLB/ILBs but with Bowman injured they had a position to fill at the interior of the defense.
Borland started to shine in his last preseason game against the Houston Texans where he led the defense in tackles with 6 and also returned an interception for a touchdown. Borland got his first career start in Week 7 against the Denver Broncos after the 49ers All-Pro ILB Patrick Willis injured his toe in the previous game against the St.Louis Rams. Borland led the 49ers defense with eight tackles, one tackle for loss and he recorded his first career sack against Peyton Manning but ultimately the 49ers were defeated 42-17. In his second start filling in for Willis, Borland recorded 18 tackles, 15 solo and three tackles for loss against the St. Louis Rams. His 18 tackles were the most tackles for a single player league-wide that season. In a week 10 matchup against the New Orleans Saints, Borland recovered an overtime 
fumble that led the 49ers to a 27-24 victory. During the game Borland recorded 17 tackles and he received his first ever NFL award, which was Pepsi NFL Rookie of the Week. In week 11 he was named NFC Defensive Player of the Week for his performance against the Eli Manning-led New York Giants where he was the first rookie linebacker in franchise history to get two interceptions in one game, the team had 5 in total. He also led the team in tackles with 13 and had three passes defended. Borland was selected as the NFL’s Defensive Rookie of the Month for November. On December 20, 2014, Borland was placed on season ending IR with an ankle injury. Borland finished his rookie season with 108 tackles, 1 sack, and 2 interceptions in only starting 8 games. To put that in comparison, 150-160 tackles usually leads the league and 100 tackles in a year is solid when playing every game at linebacker so to project his numbers he could of had 200 which is really impressive, especially that it was his first year.
fumble that led the 49ers to a 27-24 victory. During the game Borland recorded 17 tackles and he received his first ever NFL award, which was Pepsi NFL Rookie of the Week. In week 11 he was named NFC Defensive Player of the Week for his performance against the Eli Manning-led New York Giants where he was the first rookie linebacker in franchise history to get two interceptions in one game, the team had 5 in total. He also led the team in tackles with 13 and had three passes defended. Borland was selected as the NFL’s Defensive Rookie of the Month for November. On December 20, 2014, Borland was placed on season ending IR with an ankle injury. Borland finished his rookie season with 108 tackles, 1 sack, and 2 interceptions in only starting 8 games. To put that in comparison, 150-160 tackles usually leads the league and 100 tackles in a year is solid when playing every game at linebacker so to project his numbers he could of had 200 which is really impressive, especially that it was his first year.
On March 16, 2015, Borland announced his retirement from the NFL citing concern of head trauma. Borland received a $617,436 signing bonus when he inked a four-year rookie deal with the 49ers coming out of college. Borland stated he would be returning approximately three-quarters of this bonus to the team, or about $463,077. He began a 10-week unpaid internship at the nonprofit public policy center founded by Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter about 14 months after he stunned the football-watching world with his abrupt retirement from the NFL. Borland has previously said after his retirement…”I thought of a lot of different things,” Borland said last week, sitting in a Carter Center conference room. “The decision I made — when I see kids’ heads bang together, I think of [how] your brain sits unfastened in a pool of cerebrospinal fluid. And it’s gelatinous and it’s crashing against a hard skull. So that’s kind of an image I always have when football’s on”. More people and players are going to have this mindset which is dangerous for the future of the game but the league continues to grow, or at least has before 2016.
Sources
So if you never heard of Al Toon he was a Wide Receiver who went to college at Wisconsin. He was selected by the New York Jets in the 1st round (10th overall) of the 1985 NFL Draft. He was drafted ahead of Eddie Brown who went to the Bengals and Jerry Rice who went to the 49ers. Of course now people consider Rice to be the best Wide Receiver ever, let alone in his draft class but Toon did managed to become the Jets’ second leading receiver during his 1985 rookie season and had hopes of being the best Wide Receiver in the league. At the time, it looked like Toon was going to be the best WR of his class. He was selected to the Pro Bowl three times in 1986-1988 which all were all-pro seasons. So after four years it was hard to argue who was better, Rice or Toon. Toon’s best year as a pro came in the 1988 season 
when he led the league with 93 receptions. After that injuries derailed his career and makes one of the most forgotten players of his era.
The arguments to make for Toon against Rice is that Rice had QB Joe Montana to throw too him and was on a great team. He also had a pretty good WR in John Taylor on the other side as well as other weapons around him like Roger Craig. Al Toon had little of a 
supporting cast around him and had an okay QB in Ken O’Brien who was a former first round pick but wasn’t Joe Montana or any of the quarterbacks he was drafted around in the 1983 draft like John Elway, Jim Kelly, or Dan Marino.
Junior Seau was a legend of the game. Played twenty years at Linebacker, mostly for the Chargers but also finished his career with the Dolphins and Patritos. Seau made first or second team all-pro in half his years in the NFL and also made the pro bowl twelve times. He was a first ballot Hall of Famer in the NFL and was enshrined in 2015 but unfortunately he committed suicide three years earlier due to the effects of CTE from his twenty great years of playing football in the NFL.
Over the past few years it seems that his story has had the most effect current and future player’s decisions to leave the game at a young age compared to the numerous other stories told by former NFL players. It is also possible that this story has lead to people to stop playing football and not pursue their dream of playing in the NFL because of the effects it had on Seau. Gina Seau said after his death that “It’s important that we take steps to help these players. We certainly don’t want to see anything like this happen again to any of our athletes.”
His career ended abruptly after his arrest in 2013. On April 19, 2017, Aaron Hernandez was found “hanging from a bed sheet in his prison cell, a death that was later ruled a suicide. A day later, Hernandez’s lawyer announced the former tight end’s brain would be donated to Boston University to study for the potential of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE)” and it was true, he indeed did have CTE. The league had already faced public relations 
problems after other high-profile players were found to have C.T.E., including Junior Seau, Ken Stabler and Frank Gifford. Dave Duerson, Andre Waters and Ray Easterling, among others who committed suicide. This story just added to fact that CTE has caused many former players to end their life to the symptoms that effect their everyday life. For example CTE causes “Alzheimer’s-like symptoms, including memory loss, confusion, aggression, rage and, at times, suicidal behavior.” In the future, their will most likely be more players who are affected by these brain injuries and hopefully this world never has another case like the Aaron Hernandez/Odin Lyold case.
kers and regained the franchise. These backers, known as the “Hungry Five”, formed the Green Bay Football Corporation.
References:
The history of the Arizona Cardinals is extraordinary compared to most franchises in the NFL. The Cardinals compete in the National Football League as a member of the league’s National Football Conference West division. The Cardinals were founded as the Morgan Athletic Club in 1898, and are the oldest continuously run professional football team in the United States. The team was established in Chicago and was a charter member of the NFL (APFA which the league was called its first two years) in 1920. Along with the Chicago Bears, the club is one of two NFL charter member franchises still in operation since the league’s founding, the other being the Bears (back then known as the Staleys). The club moved to St. Louis decades later in 1960 and played in that city through 1987 then moved to Phoenix. 
