Football is my favorite sport. Always has been, probably because I was born in the People's Republic Of Texas.

Lately, I've wondered how anyone can be so passionate about a sport that destroys the body and most especially the brain.

Concussions have become a prime concern of late in football, mixed martial arts and other combat sports. It used to be that one was expected to rush back into the fray once they got knocked out lest they be called a lightweight (or worse). Anyone with common sense has to question that lack of logic.

Full disclosure - I'm a violence junkie. Most of my childhood was spent throwing my scrawny body around tackling (or being tackled) by my friends in pickup football games. I was knocked out on at least two occasions that I can remember, and both times I shook it off and got back in the game. Also spent a lot of time in mosh pits at heavy metal shows and took elbows and, in one instance, a boot to the head.

I became hooked on pro wrestling in the mid-'80s. Yes, the outcomes are predetermined, but the physicality is real. I was a mark for the crazy stunts that became the norm in the '90s due to the cult popularity of Extreme Championship Wrestling. Although it featured some great "pure" matches, it was built on insane dives, people being driven through tables and lots of chairshots to the head. It was wild, bloody and violent, and I loved it.

Chris Benoit changed all that for me.

Benoit was regarded as one of the best professional wrestlers in the world and a nice guy behind the scenes. He was one of my favorite wrestlers, too.

Benoit jarred the industry when he strangled wife Nancy and 7-year-old son Daniel to death at home in late June of 2007. Shortly after the muders, he fashioned a noose out of a weight-machine cord and hanged himself.

Benoit set off a media frenzy with most of the early focus being on whether or not Benoit snapped to "'roid rage." An autopsy concluded that he had 10 times the normal level of testosterone in his system, but no one could determine if that caused the killings.

The attention the murder-suicide received quieted after a while. That's unfortunate as, months later, the most logical explanation for Benoit's behavior was revealed - brain damage.

Michael Benoit, Chris' father, gave a portion of his son's brain to the Sports Legacy Institute. The Institute was founded in 2007 to "advance the study, treatment and prevention of the effects of brain trauma in athletes and other at-risk groups."

The tests concluded that Benoit's brain was so severely damaged that it resembled the brain of an 85-year-old Alzheimer's patient.

Twenty years of hard falls and blows to the head caused Benoit's brain to devolve.

My passion for pro wrestling dropped off after the murders, and my attitude toward violence changed. All those hard tackles and chairshots that used to be cool now made me cringe.

It shouldn't have taken a double murder/suicide for me to have such an ephiphany. Former NFL players Terry Long, Andre Waters and Mike Webster all suffered extensive brain damage. Long and Waters both took their own lives, too.

Many players who didn't incur brain damage still pay a heavy toll with their bodies. The plight of Earl Campbell, Jim Otto and others has been well documented.

Malcolm Gladwell wrote a 2009 article for the New Yorker comparing football to dogfighting. It's not an easy read as it challenges the reader to ask how they could ever enjoy the sport. Yet my passion for football is as strong as ever.

I know the damage the players are inflicting on each other. I know that their future will probably be painfully difficult. Yet I - and millions of others - still love football.

I've asked myself what that says about me and other fans.

I'll never be comfortable with my conclusion.

This is the opinion of Ned Griffen.