>Chris Borland knows firsthand all about the challenges of early retirement Peyton Barber Jersey , having stepped away from a promising football career after one year because of concerns over head injuries.Instead of playing in front of boisterous crowds on the big NFL stage, Borland spends his time now helping other football players and military veterans make that adjustment to their new lives that often lack the thrill and competitiveness of life in the armed forces or professional sports.“One healthy thing I’d like for players to know, whether they’re active or former, is you likely can’t replicate the thrill of playing before 100,000 people and big hits and making that much money,” Borland said. “We can get ourselves into trouble trying to. Coming to terms with transitioning is one of the harder lessons I’ve had to learn the last couple of years, is that life is a little more methodical than in sports. The peaks aren’t as high and the valleys aren’t as low.“That’s an adjustment we have to make.”Borland, whose brothers Joe and John serve in the Army, sees similar retirement challenges for veterans, who like football players often have to deal with physical injuries and mental problems that are far less obvious as they go into society.“It would be ill-advised to compare war and a sport, but I don’t think the brain knows the difference,” Borland said. “With post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injuries in blasts with veterans, we see a very similar and somewhat unique issue with repetitive brain injuries in football. There are very similar physical struggles, but also two populations that have a hard time transitioning out whether it is the military or football and reintegrating into society.”Borland has tried to bridge those two populations with his work with the After the Impact Fund Anthony Sherman Jersey , which facilitates custom treatment plans for veterans and athletes with traumatic brain injuries.He is raising money and awareness for the issue this week by taking part in “Pat’s Run” on Saturday in Tempe, Arizona, alongside his brothers Joe and John. The run is named after Pat Tillman, who gave up his own promising NFL career to join the Army in 2002 in the wake of the 9/11 attacks and died while serving in Afghanistan in 2004.“A lot of what you do as a teammate is you sacrifice for others and support others,” John Borland said. “There are people we’ve all been teammates with, for us it’s soldiers. For Chris, it’s ex-football players. You don’t just forget your teammates as soon as the game is over. They’re still your teammates. There are people who still need support, who worked hard and are with you. These are guys you shared blood with.”John Borland is a major in the U.S. Army, an instructor at West Point and also served in Iraq. Joe Borland is a captain in the US Army JAG Corps who has served in Iraq and Afghanistan, returning just last month from his latest tour.They see plenty in common with what their friends in the military deal with after leaving the service and what ex-athletes go through as well.“The similarities and the overlap is they both are young when they start off and young when they’re done as well for the most part,” Joe Borland said. “They potentially would have suffered similar injuries but in a different way. The impacts in the NFL and the impacts we might have with an explosion or trauma in the military can be similar.”Those brain injuries are why the 27-year-old Borland retired from football three years ago in a decision that shocked many outsiders, but was one his brothers knew came from careful consideration.Borland was a third-round pick in the 2014 NFL draft by San Francisco after a stellar college career at Wisconsin, where he was Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year and a second-team All-American in 2013.Borland led the 49ers in tackles as a rookie and was named to the all-rookie team and was a Pro Bowl alternate before stepping away for a post-playing career that includes a company he started, T Mindful Garry Gilliam Jersey , to help bring meditation into sports.“About 10 percent of the time, I miss 3 to 5 percent of the game,” Borland said. “I look back and I’m happy that I played. I’m not wistful. You miss big games. I miss the locker room camaraderie. Sometimes I miss the lifestyle. It’s great to get around old players because in a society where people like to dance around topics, it’s good to be around like-minded people who cut the BS and are able to rib one another. I enjoyed that. But I don’t long for it or reminisce daily. A piece of my heart will always be in football, but my mind ended it.”Borland, who started playing tackle football in ninth grade, finds it preposterous that children are still playing the sport with fewer rules protecting them than the adults in the pros.Even the rules in the NFL like limits on contact in practice and a recent rule change to outlaw leading with the helmet are only small steps.“Those are all incremental improvements,” Borland said. “A lot of it is PR. When they do those things, they’re able to say the game is safer than ever. Safer than ever is a euphemism for dangerous and football is inherently dangerous. The way it’s played, if it’s going to retain what it is as a game, it will always be dangerous. What’s not being done that could be are measures outside the lines like waiting until high school to play and having high schools and colleges adopt the same contact rules as the NFL.” Lou Lamoriello is taking over the New York Islanders.

All the questions belong to him now.

The Islanders announced the hiring of Lamoriello on Tuesday as president of hockey operations, giving the longtime NHL executive the keys to a franchise that has missed the playoffs eight times in the past 12 years with Garth Snow as general manager.

The 75-year-old Lamoriello, who led the New Jersey Devils to three Stanley Cup titles and helped Toronto become playoff contenders again, is tasked with trying to re-sign star center John Tavares and the future of Snow and coach Doug Weight.

Lamoriello said he had no preconceived notions about the inner workings of the Islanders Tramon Williams Jersey , and he also wasn’t willing to show his hand on what he might do with the team.

”As I’ve done in the past in a situation like this, I take a step back and see exactly what the people who you have in place have to offer, what their thoughts are, what their vision is and then make decisions as I go along,” Lamoriello said on a conference call. ”I certainly have thoughts like you think I would have. But rather than express them, I’d rather just keep them to myself and allow the process to take place before making any judgments.”

Those judgments will be his to make. The Islanders said Lamoriello ”will have full authority over all hockey matters with the organization.”

”We are committed to giving Lou every resource and the full support of the entire organization as we pursue our program to compete at the highest level,” co-owner Scott Malkin said.

This move undoubtedly takes power away from Snow, who has four years left on his contract originally signed by previous owner Charles Wang. Lamoriello’s hiring was first reported by The Athletic, which said Snow’s deal has a ”steep buyout.”

But Lamoriello didn’t go to the Islanders to share power. He left New Jersey to become Toronto’s GM in 2015 after he was bumped upstairs and replaced by Ray Shero. The move to the Islanders comes after he was shifted into an advisory role with the Maple Leafs, who promoted Kyle Dubas.

One of Lamoriello’s most pressing issues is Tavares, who can become an unrestricted free agent July 1. The 27-year-old forward just finished a $33 million, six-year contract. He had 37 goals and 47 assists this season, finishing a goal and an assist shy of the career highs he set in 2014-15.

Lamoriello had nothing but praise for the star center, who will receive a lucrative long-term deal this summer from the Islanders or another team.

”He’s one of the elite players Star Lotulelei Jersey , a gentleman both on and off the ice and he’s just a quality individual as well as a quality player,” Lamoriello said.

Because the Islanders missed the playoffs the past two years, hiring Lamoriello is at the very least a sign to Tavares of ownership’s willingness to make improvements. Lamoriello led the Devils’ hockey operations from 1987-2015, reaching the Stanley Cup Final five times and winning in 1995, 2000 and 2003, and is well-respected for his management expertise.

That will be tested in his third stint running a front office, this time for a team that has had son Chris Lamoriello as assistant GM since 2016. He takes over just a month before the draft and five weeks before the clock runs out on re-signing Tavares before he hits the open market, giving him tight deadlines to ”bring the Islanders back where they were” in the 1980s when they won the Cup four times.

”When there is time, you use it. When there isn’t, you make a decision,” Lamoriello said. ”We’ll have to evaluate everything in a short period of time, but not at a rushed pace.”

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