Updated at 7 p.m. EDT Thursday, May 22

Journalists, by trade, are supposed to go about their business without bias. But just as every rule has its exception, please forgive me as I divulge an “unprofessional” truth: I have a favorite NFL player, and his name is Marc Bulger.

This may seem odd, seeing as I’ve never directly covered him, nor have I ever even met him. I don’t have any particular affinity for the Rams, nor am I a fan of his alma mater, West Virginia. But I’m crossing my fingers that he puts together a quality season of work in 2008. I hope every pass meets his intended receiver’s hands, and that he doesn’t experience another bumbling, 11-touchdown, 15-interception campaign like he trudged through last season. Most importantly, I hope he stays healthy. Because should he fall victim to injury, or experience a continuation of his uncharacteristic shoddy play, backup Trent Green will be thrust under center. And that’s a scenario in which anybody who cares about a person’s well-being should shudder.

The last two football seasons haven’t been kind to the persistent-to-a-fault Green. In Week One in 2006, Green, then with the Chiefs, suffered a severe concussion after the Bengals’ Robert Geathers careened into him while Green was sliding feet-first, causing his head to snap backward onto the turf. He lay unconscious and was removed from the field by a stretcher. Although he went on to start the final eight games of the season, he wasn’t close to approximating the level of play he was accustomed to, tossing eight touchdowns and 10 interceptions in the season’s latter half, including a wild-card playoff loss to the Colts.

Undeterred, the Dolphins traded for him after the season, as new coach Cam Cameron targeted Green as the quarterback to run his offense. Five games into his plodding tenure with Miami, Green was victimized by his second severe concussion in 13 months. Blocking for Ted Ginn Jr. on an end-around, Green went low on Texans DT Travis Johnson, with Johnson’s knees clearly getting the best of the quarterback’s head. With Kevin Everett’s nightmarish incident still fresh in my mind, I remember fearing the worst, watching Green lie motionless on the Reliant Stadium grass. Luckily, it was “only” head trauma. It would have been like déjà vu all over again for Green if he could actually remember it. But unlike in ’06, there would be no comeback for Green this time around, as Miami wisely placed him on injured reserve two weeks after the incident.

Trent Green

A host of studies over the past several years has shed light onto the crippling long-term effects that repeated concussions can lead to. Depression and dementia — and often Alzheimer’s disease — are two of the conditions many in the medical community believe are caused by repeated head trauma.

The consequences of concussions were largely brought to the forefront of the NFL consciousness by the suicide of former Eagles DB Andre Waters in 2006. Severely depressed, the 44-year-old Waters took a gun to his head after a 12-year career of launching his body into ballcarriers. After studying Waters’ brain, forensic neuropathologist Bennet Omalu, who’s since authored “Play Hard, Die Young: Football Dementia, Depression, and Death,” said it resembled the brain of someone twice Waters’ age.

“Studies show that once a person has accumulated three severe concussions — with ‘severe’ as being marked by loss of consciousness — the chances of him having long-term problems become very real,” Omalu said in a phone interview. “There’s not as definitive a number for lesser-grade concussions, but every successive concussion has an irreversible, cumulative effect.”

The public affirmation by such oft-concussed former players as Ted Johnson of the Patriots and Wayne Chrebet of the Jets regarding their constant struggles with depression and headaches only reinforces the studies’ claims.

So taking into consideration that Green has twice been knocked unconscious, why would he possibly return? More importantly, how irresponsible is it of the Rams to allow him to come aboard?

Before signing on with the Rams, Green sought the expertise of concussion expert Robert Cantu, chief of neurosurgery service and director of sports medicine at Emerson Hospital in Concord, Mass.

“(Cantu) assured Trent that he was at no greater risk of long-term consequences than any other player in the NFL,” said Green’s agent, Jim Steiner. “Trent wouldn’t be playing football if there were long-term issues at stake.”

Cantu, however, strongly denies having ever said that, saying he, in fact, wrote a four-page letter to the Rams and other clubs interested in acquiring Green earlier this offseason, detailing just what the quarterback is up against. Because of the doctor-patient confidentiality agreement, Cantu couldn’t divulge Green's condition to me, but he was at liberty to state that a person with a concussion history similar to Green's is more apt to suffer long-term consequences than a person without such a history.

This isn’t to suggest that Green will undoubtedly be subject to future ailments — regardless of whether or not he accrues another concussion. Omalu and Cantu even admitted that there still hasn’t been enough testing to make all-encompassing statements about the correlation between concussions and depression/dementia. But there's little argument among the medical community that there is substantial risk associated with multiple concussions, especially severe ones.

Operating under the assumption that Cantu outlined to his patient what his medical outlook was (after speaking with Cantu at length, I have zero doubt that he was as forthright as he legally could have been with me on the subject, and that Steiner's recollection of Cantu's evaluation is inaccurate), could Green really believe it was worth the risk of coming back? When weighing football/money against quality of life, shouldn’t the latter win out, even if it requires the benefit of the doubt?

Just as disturbing, if not more so, is the Rams' decision to sign Green, given the dubious medical outlook that I can all but guarantee was provided to them. Even in the talent- and revenue-driven NFL, teams have a moral obligation to keep such at-risk players from participating.

Of course, if Bulger comes through, we’ll thankfully be spared the prospect of examining Green’s situation in hindsight. Hang tough, Marc. Your backup’s counting on you.