THIS QB FOUND THE POUNDING TOO RESOUNDING : MILLER SAYS SEVERITY OF CONCUSSIONS GOT WORSE THROUGHOUT HIS CAREER.

Byline: Angeleo Bruscas Seattle Post-Intelligencer 

Each Sunday that Chris Miller sees another NFL quarterback stumble dizzily off the field with a concussion is another day that he feels good about his decision to retire from football.

There are times when the former Oregon quarterback wishes he were still with the St. Louis Rams or some other NFL team such as the Seattle Seahawks. But he knows that his brain probably never will be able to sustain the kind of hits he took when he first started playing competitive footall in Eugene, Ore.

Miller believes the severity of his concussions got worse each time he took a hit to the head over a career that spanned eight years in the NFL. He says it was a culmination of blows that finally forced him from the game.

``It's a cumulative effect,'' he said. ``Once you get one or two or three, they are easier to get and the effects that you suffer are more serious each time.''

Miller's first major concussion occurred in his first year with the Rams in 1994 when he was taken out of a game against the New Orleans Saints.

But he believes the most damaging blow came early last season against Chicago when linebacker Vinson Smith hit him with an elbow to the head. Despite the blow, Miller played the rest of the game, throwing three TDs and completing 21 of 31 passes in the Rams' 34-28 win.

The blow didn't keep him out the next week, either, but it started to take its toll through the season.

``Then I got hammered pretty good against the Jets Dec. 3, and in between I had a couple of other small ones that we kept quiet and really didn't talk about,'' Miller said.

The concussion suffered in the Jets game was the message that finally got through.

``I was really out of sorts for a month and a half to two months,'' Miller said. ``My equilibrium was off and I felt like I had sea legs.''

Just carrying on a conversation with another person was an ordeal.

``Sometimes I would be at a loss for words and couldn't string thoughts together quick enough,'' Miller recalled. ``It was like being punch drunk and it certainly wasn't very much fun.''

Since leaving football and regaining his senses, Miller has been on a personal crusade to learn more about concussions, the role played by football helmets and the risks if he plays again.

He doesn't think the game is any more violent than when he broke into the league with the Falcons in 1987, and believes that the current in-the-grasp rule helps prevent quarterbacks from being set up for potentially lethal blows to the head.

But he concedes that once a player such as Steve Young suffers a head injury, he's fair game for some defensive players.

``There are a probably a handful of players who will say, `Hey Young's got a soft head right now so, we can go after him and get him out of the game,' '' he said. ``They don't have the intent to do permanent injury, but if you can get the front-line guy out of the game for that day you've done yourself a good thing.''

Miller notes that the problem of concussions is more widespread at the high school level where helmets often have been used for many seasons and don't properly fit the players who wear them.

``I've done a little research myself and I've talked to a neurosurgeon who's supportive of the idea of the league going back to soft helmets,'' Miller said. ``It would be a thick, soft rubber helmet where guys wouldn't go head-to-head. And if they did, there would be an absorption factor.''

With helmets made like they are now, a player who takes a hit has a recoil effect that occurs in his skull.

``That's what would happen to me. My brain would recoil backward, then shoot forward and hit the front of my skull, and then I would get a bruise on the brain in the front of my forehead,'' Miller said. ``With the hard plastic shells that they have, when you get those helmet-to-helmet hits, it's actually the guy who is getting hit whose helmet is accelerating even faster.''

In the year since Miller has been out of football, he's taken an active observer role with the NFL's Subcommittee on Mild Traumatic Brain Injury and its effort to build a concussion-proof helmet. He has kept in close contact with Dr. Elliott Pellman of the New York Jets, the head of the subcommittee, who has advised him not to return to the NFL.

But even with the hits he's taken, Miller still dreams of playing football.

``I'd love to go back and play, but realistically after talking with Dr. Pellman in New York, he's told me I'd be nuts to go back. Obviously, I have the desire to compete and to play, but then you have to realistic about the fact that if you take another hard hit, you could be dribbling down your chin when you're 40, or suffering permanent headaches or Alzheimer's when you're older.

``I'm still keeping all my options open, but each QB I see get hit and suffer a concussion, the desire gets smaller and smaller.''

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos

Photo: (1,2) Quarterback Chris Miller, inset, says that once a player such as Steve Young, right, suffers a blow to the head, he's a target for some defensive players. ``There are probably a handful of players who will say, `Hey Young's got a soft head right now so, we can go after him and get him out of the game,' he explained. ``They don't have the intent to do permanent injury, but if you can get the front-line guy out of the game for that day you've done yourself a good thing.'' However, Miller doesn't think the game is any more violent than when he broke into the league with the Atlanta Falcons in 1987.

Associated Press

(3) Dallas Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman has suffered his share of concussions.

Daily News File Photo