Brain disease CTE found in 87 of 91 NFL players tested

This is horrible -- a horrible way to live and a worse way to die.

I'm shocked - SHOCKED - that people continue to play football and support the NFL.

sad...

Who cares there's money to be made

Bet the boxers have the same thing, constantly getting hit in the head & all

Also add in hockey players R5

Few had much of a brain to begin with. No great loss.

Wife of a sports atty/agent here, and there is much intra-industry buzz that football in 5 years will look very, very different from what it looks like today.

I'm skeptical about that R8, I think R4 is more in line with the future of football. We are a fairly stupid (and stubborn) species in a fairly stupid (and stubborn) country. They'll have as much success with changing the basics of football as they have had with changing gun laws.

I hope my brain damage doesn't make me gay.

Oh sweet Jesus am I in trouble!

The saddest part is that MDs can't find out if the players actually have it and to what extent until they are dead. This leaves lots of room for the teams to deny liability, and put help out of reach financially for many players.

I cannot believe that people who make a career out of being hit on the head, test positive for brain issues? Next thing you know they'll be blacks in the NBA.

I guess this is why there are so many "football widows."

This is exactly why I only get plowed with my head AWAY from the headboard.

Keep in mind the selection factor at play here because the researchers were working with bodies/brains donated to science either by pre-arrangement by the deceased or by their families. These men knew there was something wrong with them, like Junior Seau, and arranged to have their brains donated. Junior Seau shot himself in the chest instead of the head and requested that his brain be checked for trauma in his suicide note. The rate of CTE has to be much lower in the general population of former NFL players.

The game will necessarily have to change because the NFL can't afford to pay off injured players in perpetuity

[quote]In April, a settlement agreement between the NFL and nearly 5,000 former players as part of a class-action lawsuit was approved by a federal judge. The agreement could reportedly cost the league up to $1 billion

They could have safer helmets today if they wanted.

Last Saturday, ABC aired the 30 for 30 profile on the 1985 Chicago Bears. It mostly centered on Buddy Ryan and showed how the team reached the Super Bowl with him only to have him leave as soon as they won it. Also that week, the Challenger exploded so they didn't get to go to the White House (until Obama made up for this in 2011) and it showed how for many on the team, it was all downhill from there.

Much had to do with CTE.

This is the gq article that introduced the syndrome to the general public and began a five year period where CTE became less a syndrome and more a horror show.

It's all about this -- helmets protect the skull, but do little to protect the brain.

Update from the next gq issue

"Concussion Hits the NFL Head-On":

This is incredibly sad. I read an article about this issue 8 months ago. I remember reading a few football players saying they wished they never played football and no amount of money was worth it.

You would be right, R16, but for this from OP's link:

[quote]The disease has been also been found in 79% of those tested who played football at any level going back to high school. For former NFL players tested, that number rises to 96%.

[quote]It's all about this -- helmets protect the skull, but do little to protect the brain.

Motorcycle riders aren't far off the mark when they call helmets "brain buckets." Slamming into people and objects with your head is probably very bad practice, whether or not you're wearing a helmet.

I've been following this issue since I first saw it explored on Frontline.

One sequence, in particular, drives this point home. Omalu’s frantic labwork on deceased players’ brains is intercut with similarly thorough research on the game itself. The TV hums to life, and, through Bennet’s eyes, we watch Jacked Up. Until 2008, ESPN’s Monday Night Football pregame show set aside a few minutes for the assembled ex-players to ooh and ahh over the weekend’s gnarliest hits. “Jacked up!” they’d holler, damn near ecstatically, after each brainpan-rattling tackle. Omalu’s work is part of the reason ESPN doesn’t run Jacked Up anymore, and it’s part of the reason that watching football—the bonecrushing hits, sure, but even the stuff in between—feels so queasy these days. But when we watch it with Omalu, when we’re forced to consider what this might look like to a man who’s never seen a day of football in his life, well, the hooting and hollering stops awfully quick.

The People Vs Football

When Jeanne Marie Laskas started reporting on the devastating impact of repeated hits to football players' brains in 2009, the NFL was still in denial. By now the evidence is irrefutable, and every bloody Sunday (and Monday and Thursday) it becomes a little harder not to cringe with each collision. But if you're a guy like former star linebacker Fred McNeill who's living with the effects of those hits, the question is: How can we keep watching the game—and how can we keep asking our kids to play it?

This is brand new information...from the 1980's. I cant believe people, football players in particular, are just becoming aware now that repeated head injuries and the beating they tale during the season are really, really harmfull.

Growing up in the '70's my mother had three no sports. No football. No wrestling. No diving. She wasnt being a cunt, she was being smart. Because even then we knew that football was dangerous.

My dipshit sister and brother in law let their kids play tackle football. I also switched doctors because he lets his 9 year old play. That's just fucking insane.

R8-

Any updates?

High school students aren't playing football- too dangerous. The future liability issues will make insurance impossible.

I doubt the NFL/football as we know it will exist in 10 years due to research like this. With no feeders from high school, colleges will have thin teams.

I hope they don't start importing foreign kids...

r16 this is what drives me crazy about this situation. The science has never been done properly, in the NFL or NHL, and this doctor was on every media outlet trumpeting her findings before she even had a statistically meaningful sample size.

AFAIK, they are also not controlling for other substances that can contribute to the condition, like PEDs and cocaine. This is almost impossible, for various reasons, so the truth may never be known. I do feel sorry for the affected players, but it's not right to just throw proper science out the window,either.

One of the doctors in the linked articles mentioned steroids, and I remember everyone talking about Lyle Alzado doing tons of those, but also that when he got sick he lost control of his limbs and memory

Frig I'm so grateful in hindsight that I didn't play football in high school. I swam. Most danger I faced was green hair.

Maybe this is karma for the ones who were jerks growing up. The ones who probably got away with a lot of bad behavior due solely to their athletic skills. You just know some were probably HS/college assholes who got away with some things

Has the player with the womanly ass commented on this serious issue yet? His guidance and wise words are needed.

No kidding? And I heard that in the old days...gladiators were actually fighting till their death, Football lovers, don't really care, now do they?

Those hit videos are still very popular on You Tube. They're brutal.

Football is basically mandingo fighting.

[quote]They could have safer helmets today if they wanted.

Not really. CTE results from the brain sloshing around inside the skull; no helmet can stop that.

As for whether pro football will change or go away—I hope so, but I'm continually astonished at how many of my smart, educated, and otherwise very progressive, bleeding-heart liberal FB friends cannot shut up about how their favorite teams are faring all throughout the NFL football season. The appeal is lost on me, but apparently, there is something very satisfying about watching about a bunch of guys—most of them African-Americans from backgrounds that afforded few opportunities for success outside of sports—literally pounding each others' brains to mush.

I have a niece and nephew. one in junior high football. The mom says they are too small to cause real problems but studies show it's actually worse for kids whose necks and brains are still developing.

Another family member is my niece who is in competitive hockey since she was tiny and just recruited to very competitive devision1 school she could never get into otherwise. She's awesome and if they had a pro league she would make it so thank god they don't.

women's hockey is actually worse than football and men's hockey as far as concussions are concerned even though there is no checking allowed. She has had 2 and they hide it from college recruiters, all the girls do. I swear she already has attention issues. I told the dad to let her play and then drop out the first year. She loves it so much she'll never do it. It's an ivy so it won't affect the money and they can't kick her out. Kids are just to young to make these decisions, they have no concept the reality of what they are gambling with. I said my peace and now I just worry. i love them so much.

I'll never forget when my dad was in the hospital about 15 years ago and the guy in the next bed was groaning in pain the whole time. He kept saying don't let your kids play football. It was really sad.

Welcome to my world.

Alex's brother Ted, who played for the Bears, died with Alzheimer's earlier this year.

The guy in the r25 link died this past November

The world of heterosexuals is a sick and boring life.

Members of Congress Ask NFL for Information on CTE Study Intervention

By Joseph Zucker , Featured Columnist Mar 25, 2016

The NFL may soon have to answer for why it pulled its funding on a Boston University study into the links between playing football and neurodegenerative diseases such as chronic traumatic encephalopathy, commonly known as CTE.

ESPN.com's Steve Fainaru reported Thursday that four members of United States Congress have pressed the league for its intervention in the research: "The letter, which was sent Wednesday to Commissioner Roger Goodell, includes new information showing how the NFL engaged in a monthslong campaign to derail the selection of Dr. Robert Stern, a longtime critic, and replace him with researchers affiliated with the league."

Last December, Fainaru and Mark Fainaru-Wada reported for ESPN's Outside the Lines that the NFL rescinded a seven-year, $16 million grant it gave to the National Institutes of Health in 2012. League spokesman Brian McCarthy refuted the report:

On March 15, Jeff Miller, the NFL's executive vice president, admitted in front of the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Energy and Commerce that playing football can cause CTE, per Fainaru. It was the first time a league official confirmed the connection.

Earlier in the week, the New York Times' Alan Schwarz, Walt Bogdanich and Jacqueline Williams wrote a detailed report critical of the NFL's research into concussions. They contend data from the studies is skewed by the fact over 100 diagnosed concussions from 1996 to 2001 weren't included in the research.

The Times report also noted connections between the NFL and the tobacco industry, which attempted to cover up the effects of cigarettes and other tobacco products:

Concussions can hardly be equated with smoking, which kills 1,300 people a day in the United States, and The Times has found no direct evidence that the league took its strategy from Big Tobacco. But records show a long relationship between two businesses with little in common beyond the health risks associated with their products. ...

... Still, the records show that the two businesses shared lobbyists, lawyers and consultants. Personal correspondence underscored their friendships, including dinner invitations and a request for lobbying advice.

In an effort to make the game safer, the NFL recently moved touchbacks to the 25-yard line (originally at the 20) and instituted a two-strikes-and-you're-out policy for unsportsmanlike conduct penalties in the same game. Both will take effect for the 2016 season as one-year tests.

That's in addition to a number of other rule changes for 2016, including making all chop blocks illegal.

On the bright side American football might look more like rugby in 10 years time.

Can't we all just learn to dance?

Interesting that this kind of brain damage in players did not occur with players from earlier times. They had leather helmets and were smart enough to know you don't crash your head into that of another player.

I suspect that the newer styled helmets changed the way of play, perhaps encouraging the type of brutal head on hits that lead to CTE.

r43 so maybe someone impartial doing proper science would be needed, not experts who swing between critics and 'friends' of the League? Oh, and have it replicated, too.

Unfortunately, this is now a political minefield that's going to attract partisan researchers, and all those who want to make a name and career for themselves.

If the CDC/NIH, etc. would fund primary research on PEDs and recreational drugs (especially cocaine) that's not affected by perception/politics, we'd probably be further ahead on this issue. Therapeutic hallucinogen research has faced so many hurdles, I don't have my hopes up.

r46 I doubt that earlier players did enough coke and PEDs to choke a horse, either.

Both football and hockey were rough back in the day, yet this didn't happen. Hockey was incredibly violent in the 70s, but the main drugs were alcohol and speed, not coke and various PEDs. I think the causes are multiple and complex, but drug use and lifestyle probably play a larger role than we think now. Because it's so difficult to control for it, especially if using players as subjects, it will be improbable we ever get a definitive answer.

One of the linked articles discussed that, r46 -- they said if the 1920s people played the way they do now, all the players would be knocked out in the initial plays.

They said the solution is to change the rules to keep the players' heads out of the game.

R44, I love rugby. It's hard to understand why anyone prefers football when rugby is played by genuine athletes who are able to run up and down the field for 80 minutes. Everyone has to be able to play offense and defense, with the obvious exception of the goalies.

Football has plastic-titted cheerleaders. Rugby has haka. No comparison.

It used to be called "punch drunk" when the problem was rampant among boxers.

In my town I walk past baseball fields that have been turned into dog parks. Soccer fields everywhere, but the ball fields (and tennis courts) are full of dogs.

Twenty years from now we will be inundated with folks in their 30's and 40's who need knee replacements from all the soccer.

Bring back baseball and tennis.

Lucky them. They must feel like REAL men now. Right Coach?

The size of the lineman has increased by a lot (no doubt with some help of the PEDs). I heard a stat somewhat recently and 20 years ago - not too many people over 3000 pounds, not so much now. The players are getting blasted by bigger, stronger, faster players at every level.

It was probably there before they ever picked up a football.

[quote]Lyle Alzado doing tons of those, but also that when he got sick he lost control of his limbs and memory

He had the AIDS, so it was related to that.

[quote]most of them African-Americans from backgrounds that afforded few opportunities for success outside of sports

Yeah blacks can only do sports, it's not like they can be mayors, or congressmen, or actors or singers or supreme court justices or grow up to be president.

R46

Correct. The helmets created a sense of false security, kinda like the NSA.

Frank Gifford had it, which explains a lot.

Government makes billions off of NFL bullshit.

How is that not fascist?

Kevin Turner

Professional Football Player. Born Paul Kevin Turner, he played the position of fullback for eight seasons (1992-1999) for the National Football League's New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles.

He played football collegiately at the University of Alabama where he provided support for running backs Siran Stacy and Bobby Humphrey, while rushing for 4.7 yards per carry and had 95 receptions.

He was drafted in the third round of the 1992 NFL Draft by the New England Patriots and played for them for three seasons before joining the Philadelphia Eagles in 1995. He missed the entire 1995 season due to injury and came back the next season when he blocked for league leading rusher Ricky Watters. He won the Ed Block Courage Award in 1996 for persistence through his injury. He retired after the 1999 season after two neck injuries and his career statistics were 635 rushing yards (4.0 yards (3.7 m) per carry), 236 receptions for 2,015 yards, and 10 touchdowns.

In June of 2010 he was diagnosed with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) and became involved in research that linked CTE ( chronic traumatic encephalopathy) to ALS. He later became the lead plaintiff in a major lawsuit filed by former players against the NFL regarding the health risks of concussions in American football

Lou Gehrig killed by baseball not Lou Gehrig's disease, study findings suggest

Lou Gehrig, a heroic slugger for the Yankees baseball team, was famed for brushing aside repeated fractures and batting after nearly being knocked unconscious, before giving his name to the disease that was said to have killed him.

But a new study suggests that the player may not have died of Lou Gehrig's disease, formally known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a type of motor neurone disease. Instead, it may have been the baseballs bouncing off his head that claimed his life in 1941.

According to a paper to be published tomorrow in a leading journal, Gehrig and a string of American football players and soldiers recorded as dying of ALS, may instead have died due to brain traumas.

Research at the Veterans Affairs Medical Centre in Massachusetts and Boston University's medical school have identified markings in the spinal cords of two American football players and a boxer who were said to have died of ALS that suggest they died as the result of a disease caused by concussion or other head trauma that attacks the central nervous system.

The finding, published in the Journal of Neuropathology & Experimental Neurology, now means doctors may have to reassess how to treat athletes suffering lasting effects from concussion, and particularly the rising numbers of American soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with brain injuries caused by roadside bombs.

Gehrig, who built a heroic reputation for playing on despite injuries - he played 2,130 games over 14 years - is not named in the study. But Dr Ann McKee, the director of the neuropathology laboratory for the New England Veterans Administration Medical Centers, and the lead neuropathologist on the study, said that the implication is that he may well have died not from the disease named after him but from the repeated concussions he received on the baseball field as well as when he played American football in school and at university.

"Here he is, the face of his disease, and he may have had a different disease as a result of his athletic experience," McKee told the New York Times.

The ALS Association in the US says that about 30,000 people have the incurable fatal disease that mostly kills men aged 40 and older by the wasting away their muscles. Among its most prominent victims in the UK is the physicist Stephen Hawking.

Around 3-5 years ago I read an article about this, and it lead me to believe that American Football would be dead by 2030.

If it makes it to 2025 I'll be shocked. Hell, Super Bowl LIV would be the perfect hybrid of message and numerals to end the game forever.

I hope the parents of America hear this, and rethink their dedication to pushing their kids into sports. They all seem to think it's vitally important that their kid play some sport, that the little monsters are missing some huge developmental milestone if they're not on some sort of sports team. (And I wish they'd rethink their dedication to boring the fuck out of their co-workers with talk of useless kiddie sports, but that's another discussion.)

It's so small-minded of them to insist on sports, sports, sports! Let their kid join a band or an orchestra or a theater group if they want to learn how to be part of a team, and if they want the kids to learn how to compete let them be on a debate team where they'll actually learn something! But no, every middle-class or working-class breeder I know is all about the fucking sports, especially boys' football, and they're pushing the kids into chronic brain damage. Wake up, useless breeders!

R62-

This goes beyond "breeders". The sports industry is just an outgrowth of our Roman society. Panem et Circuses.

They are modern gladiators, killed for entertainment of the masses to numb them to the fascist police state.

No, R63, middle-class ancient Romans didn't threaten suicide if their kids didn't make their school's gladiatorial teams, plan family vacations around watching their kids fight in the arena, tell their sons that they would never be real men if they didn't pick up a net-and-trident and kill some of their classmates, or believe that there are no other respectable extracurricular activities for modern teens.

Sports have become personal and all-pervasive in the middle sectors of US society, and the non-participant fans and parents aren't glorifying in the physical destruction it causes, they're totally in denial about it. I can only hope that once they learn about this issue they'd think twice about pushing their sons into brain damage, but you never know.

The kid that stabbed his mother and brother to death in Texas had suffered from a traumatic brain injury.

This is why so many kids play soccer in the U.S. - nobody wants Brayden and Jayden to break their brain.

C.T.E. Is Found in an Ex-Giant Tyler Sash, Who Died at 27

When the former Giants safety Tyler Sash was found dead at age 27 of an accidental overdose of pain medications at his Iowa home on Sept. 8, his grieving family remained consumed by a host of unanswered questions about the final, perplexing years of Sash’s life.

Cut by the Giants in 2013 after what was at least his fifth concussion, Sash had returned to Iowa and increasingly displayed surprising and irregular behavior, family members said this week. He was arrested in his hometown, Oskaloosa, for public intoxication after leading the police on a four-block chase with a motorized scooter, a pursuit that ended with Sash fleeing toward a wooded area.

Sash had bouts of confusion, memory loss and minor fits of temper. Although an Iowa sports celebrity, both as a Super Bowl-winning member of the Giants and a popular star athlete at the University of Iowa, Sash was unable to seek meaningful employment because he had difficulty focusing long enough to finish a job.

Barnetta Sash, Tyler’s mother, blamed much of her son’s changeable behavior, which she had not observed in the past, on the powerful prescription drugs he was taking for a football-related shoulder injury that needed surgery. Nonetheless, after his death she donated his brain to be tested for chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or C.T.E., a degenerative brain disease caused by repeated trauma that has been found in dozens of former N.F.L. players.

Last week, representatives from Boston University and the Concussion Legacy Foundation notified the Sash family that C.T.E. had been diagnosed in Tyler’s brain and that the disease, which can be confirmed only posthumously, had advanced to a stage rarely seen in someone his age.

R67

27 years old. Twenty fucking seven.

The NFL is toast.

[quote] The NFL is toast.

I wish, but it's too powerful and entrenched to change significantly.

First Soccer Player Diagnosed with CTE Brings Up Sport's Risks

Feb. 27, 2014

The first soccer player to be diagnosed with Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) has drawn attention to the possibility that a sport formerly thought of as “safer” than football or hockey can still result degenerative effects on the neurological system.

Patrick Grange died at age 29 in 2012 from a degenerative motor-neuron disease likely related to his amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or ALS, which is commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

After his death, Grange’s brain was found to have signs of the degenerative neurological disorder called CTE.

Grange, who played soccer on the collegiate level at Illinois-Chicago and New Mexico before spending time at the Premier Development League in Chicago, is the first soccer player confirmed to have had CTE, according to a New York Times report.

The disease can only be diagnosed after a patient's death when their brain is examined for certain protein patterns.

While CTE has been known to affect boxers since the 1920s, in recent years the disease has been diagnosed in players from a wide range of sports -- primarily professional football and hockey. Last year, the first baseball player was diagnosed.

R69-

Do not underestimate the bizarre SJW world we live in.

Bernie could ban the NFL with an Executive Order!

Frank Wainwright, former Pomona Panther and NFLer, dead at 48

Former Pomona Panther Frank Wainwright, who went on to play in the NFL and was a Super Bowl champion with the Baltimore Ravens, died on April 5.

The native of Peoria, Ill., was 48 and no cause of death has been released.

As a 12th-grader, Wainwright’s family moved to Littleton and he played on the Panthers’ 1985 team with current Panthers head coach Jay Madden. He went on to Northern Colorado, where he was a tight end and long-snapper, and played with current Pomona offensive-line coach Jeff Donnel.

A 1991 draft choice in the now defunct eighth round by the New Orleans Saints, he also played with the Philadelphia Eagles and Miami Dolphins before retiring following the 2000 season.

Wainwright also was a lesser-known plaintiff in the 2014 suit against the NFL concerning alleged illegal dispensation of painkillers that apparently didn’t take the players’ longterm health into account, according to pressboxonline.com.

And, according to Wikipedia, Wainwright participated in research and education to create knowledge and awareness in the medical field, specifically to try to make sure sports are safer for all athletes. The site reported that he donated his brain to the Concussion Legacy Foundation to be studied for short- and longterm impact of CTE, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy.

Hehehe, dumb fucks

All the NFL will do is put some glitter on a helmet and declare this newly improved helmet to be the cure for CTE. Then they buy some shady scientist who confirms their claim and that will kick the can down the road so the NFL can make billions for a few more years.

It's not just football --

R12, that's not true. They have a pretty good idea what causes it. They have developed sensors for younger football players in high school and earlier that they are testing now, which register blows that can cause even slight head injuries. Apparently, what they don't have yet is something that registers the effects of repeated small blows to the head over time, which can also lead to brain injury. The PBS News Hour had something on this issue for young players in the last few weeks.

WWE pays tribute to Chyna; Rochester native's brain donated for CTE research

Many years ago when I was a boy I went to see my cousin play a game when he was on his high school football team.

My grandmother was next to me (I was younger than him and not in high school yet) and said 'Don't ever play football.'

Now this was an old Italian lady who grew up in Italy and this was 40 years ago.

I mean how fucking stupid are Americans?

R62 I respectfully disagree. While I wouldn't allow my kid to play football, there's value in kids playing other sports. It builds physical strength and resilience, gives kids foundations for maintaining exercise throughout their lives, establishes friendships and social bonding skills, and can serve as an outlet or channel for energies that might be diverted in unhealthy directions.

Soccer seemed like a good alternative to give all the benefits of sports listed in r79 without the brain injuries, but now even "Commie Round Ball" is coming under scrutiny:

One of my college roommate's daughter has had three concussions playing soccer. After the last one, they recommended that she stop playing.

I wish I knew if I have it from a fractured skull as a boy. A plate was put in my head.

If I knew I'd never work another day In my life . off to travel the world with a small bag I'd go for years and years.

The changes will follow those seen in boxing:

There will be strategic, yet largely ineffective changes to the rules & equipment

Those participating will be the poorest of the poor and/or antisocial types

The interest of the public will take a major nosedive

R79, did you miss the points I made about non-sports activities, ones that could teach kids bonding skills and form lifelong friendships, and use energies that might be used unwisely elsewhere? And which might teach kids skills or open minds in a way that sports do not?

Well, obviously you did. But please don't miss my point about boring the fuck out of other adults by talking about your kids' sports activities.

R62 = always picked last in gym.

It's usually just grotesque wish fulfillment for tubby dads and monstrously masculinized fraus, shoving their optionless children into these dumbass high school sports rituals.

And Hollywood too -- "C'mon, Kip! Win the Big Game!"

And colleges, especially small ones, where even the best players rarely go pro: "Hit'em for Hamilton!"

This is working out quite well since most have low IQs to begin with.

Years ago the writer Nat Hentoff took on boxing because of its dangers.

He got quiet about it real fast.

I wonder if mobsters made it clear he should shut the fuck up.

Nothing is going to happen with the sacred delusional religion of football in this country.

This has been going on for decades and though common knowledge this has been ignored.

The Christian fundies have nothing on the parents of high school sports player and football fans.

Crazy miserable destructive people.

The Canadian version is hockey, nonstop training and camps, in a bid for NHL fame

NFL exec admits to CTE-football head trauma link

WASHINGTON (AP) An NFL official has acknowledged a link between football and the brain disease CTE for the first time.

Jeff Miller, the NFL's senior vice president for health and safety, spoke about the connection during an appearance Monday at a congressional committee's roundtable discussion about concussions.

Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Illinois) asked Miller: "Do you think there is a link between football and degenerative brain disorders like CTE?"

Miller began by referencing the work of Boston University neuropathologist Dr. Ann McKee, who has found CTE in the brains of 90 former pro football players.

"Well, certainly, Dr. McKee's research shows that a number of retired NFL players were diagnosed with CTE, so the answer to that question is certainly 'yes,' but there are also a number of questions that come with that," Miller said.

Schakowsky repeated the question: "Is there a link?" "Yes. Sure," Miller responded.

The NFL has not previously linked playing football to chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a disease linked to repeated brain trauma and associated with symptoms such as memory loss, depression and progressive dementia. It can only be detected after death. Among the players found to have CTE in their brains were Hall of Famers Junior Seau and Ken Stabler.

During Super Bowl week, Dr. Mitch Berger, a member of the NFL's head, neck and spine committee, would not draw a direct line from football to CTE.

Miller appeared at a roundtable discussion of concussions before the House Committee on Energy & Commerce. ESPN first reported Miller's appearance before the committee.

Last month, Berger, chair of the department of neurological surgery at the University of California-San Francisco, repeatedly said that while the types of degenerative changes to the brain associated with CTE have been found in late football players, such signs have also been found "in all spectrums of life."

Tao, a protein that indicates the presence of CTE, "is found in brains that have traumatic injuries," Berger said, "whether it's from football, whether it's from car accidents, whether it's from gunshot wounds, domestic violence - it remains to be seen."

Miller said he was "not going to speak for Dr. Berger" when asked by Schakowsky about those comments.

Just before Miller spoke, McKee was asked the same question about the link between hits in football and CTE. She responded "unequivocally" there is, and went into details about her research findings. Miller told the committee that the issue's entire scope needs to be addressed.

"You asked the question whether I thought there was a link," he said. 'Certainly based on Dr. McKee's research, there's a link, because she's found CTE in a number of retired football players. I think that the broader point, and the one that your question gets to, is what that necessarily means and where do we go from here with that information."

Father of former New England Patriot Ron Brace suggests concussions led to son's death at 29

SPRINGFIELD -- When the father of former New England Patriots tackle Ronald J. Brace III took the microphone at St John's Congregational Church to eulogize his son, he told a packed sanctuary that, despite media reports of a heart attack, it is not yet known what caused Brace's death at age 29.

But Ronald J. Brace, Jr. did have his own suspicion: brain damage from his son's days on the gridiron.

"€œThis concussion stuff is serious. Ron had an extraordinary amount of concussions," Brace Jr. said. "€œI believe the concussions had something to do with his death."

Brace, a Springfield native, Boston College football star and second-round Patriots draft pick in 2009, died at his Springfield home on April 23. The cause of death has not been officially released, though the Boston Globe reported that Brace had suffered an apparent heart attack.

His father said he could not say for sure how his son died, but that Brace had shown symptoms of his frequent concussions prior to his death. He had fainting spells and had crashed his car, Brace Jr. said. Once, Brace collapsed in a CVS, he added.

Brace, Jr., wearing his son's jersey, said he was the one who found Brace dead. At first, he looked like he was sleeping, Brace Jr. said.

"He looked so peaceful in his face, but when I touched him to try to wake him up he was cold," he said.

Brace's early passion was for art, not athletics, his father said. But he joined the track and field team his freshman year at Burncoat High School in Worcester and excelled at shot put, launching an All-State sports career. He won a football scholarship from Boston College, and was selected with the New England Patriots' second pick in 2009.

"That was a dream," his father said.

Brace's aunt Rhonda Brace said that Brace's affinity for charitable work and helping others was evident from when he was a child, long before he returned to Springfield to help rebuild a home after the 2011 tornado. She recalled one outing when Brace was eight years old, and he convinced her to give money to a boy asking for change outside a convenience store.

"That told me then that Ron had a big heart," Brace said.

The link between concussions and early death for football players has drawn national scrutiny, with media investigations casting a critical light on both the NFL's treatment of its players and its research into concussion frequency. In 2012, a study found that 34 deceased NFL players suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a brain disorder caused by repeated head trauma.

R92-

Damn. Something about that just made me cry.

Fuck the NFL.

R89 - I don't remember Hentoff taking on boxing. Considering the positions he has taken I find it very hard to believe he can be shut-up.

There were around two articles about it in the Village Voice years ago by him and then he never mentioned it again.

Antenna TV is airing a binge day or two of Webster, and seeing Alex Karras alive and healthy makes me very sad.

Roger Goodell and the NFL are fighting against this getting publicity or credibility with everything they have. That man lies and then lies some more. The NFL announcde a huge amount of money for research - and then behind the scenes tried to control that money and have it go to scientists who are sympathetic to the NFL. Four researchers from NIH informed Congress and the NFL was called out. But Goodell just lied some more. Unfortunately, no one is holding him accountable. He is doing what the owners want. Fans don't want to hear it. Players don't want to hear it. This will get a lot worse before any changes are made.

Those numbers are a coincidence.

The same is true with inflicting of those who support Hillary over Bernie.

I wonder if they will get to check Ali's brain.

Probably not, R99, even if he were okay with having his brain examined by scientists he may not be okay with letting the world know what boxing does to people.

Maybe he's so grateful for all the wealth and fame that boxing has brought him, that he doesn't want to hurt the sport with hard truths about residual damage.

One of the Websters aired had Frank Gifford on as a guest. He was very hot in the 80s.

He also had CTE.

The recent concern that having your brain constantly banged about in your skull and your head constantly being smashed into all kinds of surfaces might not be a good idea is pretty laughable.

The parents who allowed their kids to play these sports should be brought up on serious child abuse charges.

I hope Ali donated.

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Former Red Sox second baseman Doug Griffin, a Gold Glove winner whose career was cut short after being hit in the head by a pitch from Nolan Ryan, died on Wednesday. He was 69.

Griffin, the team said, died after a long illness in Clovis, Calif.

Known as “Dude,” Griffin was drafted by the California Angels in 1965 and made his major league debut in 1970. He was traded to the Red Sox a few weeks after that season, part of a deal that included the Angels receiving Tony Conigliaro.

Griffin was the Red Sox’ primary second baseman from 1971-73. His defensive prowess was such that Griffin was fourth in the Rookie of the Year voting in 1971 and won a Gold Glove in 1972.

Griffin was an excellent bunter and played second base fearlessly, hanging in for double plays during an era when runners were permitted to bowl over infielders.

Griffin was knocked unconscious on April 30, 1974, when he was hit by a pitch from Ryan during a game at Fenway Park. He was on the disabled list until June 1 with a concussion and hearing loss.

A career .245 hitter, Griffin hit .229 after the beaning with one home run in 660 at-bats.

Griffin was displaced at second base by Denny Doyle in 1975 and became a platoon player. He did not play in the American League Championship Series and pinch hit once in the World Series that year.

Griffin appeared in only 49 games in 1976 and was released in 1977 after playing five games. In all, Griffin played in 614 games for the Sox. In team history, only Bobby Doerr, Dustin Pedroia, Hobe Ferris, Marty Barrett, and Jerry Remy have played more games at second base.

Is this why most of them can't string a sentence together?

His death came after a motorcycle accident, but was CTE really to blame?

(AP) Legendary boxer and Southern California native Bobby Chacon has died at the age of 64, a boxing official announced Wednesday.

"With profound sadness I have learned that our dear champion Bobby Chacon passed away this morning," World Boxing Council President Mauricio Sulaiman said on Twitter. "May God have him now. RIP."

DEVELOPING: More details will be added to this report as they become available

It's amazing what people will put themselves through just to entertain me.

It's disgusting to watch players get their legs broken, too, or occasionally paralyzed. One day people will look back and wonder how we found football so entertaining.

NYT:

Images

Is the N.F.L.’s Concussion Settlement Broken?

The neuroscientist Robert Stern gave a keynote address at a scientific conference in Boston recently. He is the director of clinical research at Boston University’s Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy Center, which has been at the forefront of the research linking C.T.E. — a disease characterized by mood swings, uncontrolled anger, depression, suicidal tendencies and eventually dementia — to repeated head trauma. A focus of the center’s research has been on professional football players.

So far, C.T.E. can be diagnosed only after someone has died; the brain needs to be cut open so that researchers can look for the accumulation of tau proteins, which signal the presence of the disease. According to its most recent count, Stern’s group has examined 94 brains of recently deceased N.F.L. players and found 90 cases of C.T.E.

In his keynote, however, Stern unveiled some results — “very preliminary,” he cautioned when we spoke the other day — that suggested he and his collaborators were making “exciting” progress toward finding a way to diagnose C.T.E. in living patients.

“I really do foresee being able to diagnose C.T.E. pretty accurately while people are alive sometime in the next five to 10 years,” he said. “Hopefully, even earlier.”

On the same day that Stern gave his talk, Deepak Gupta, an appellate lawyer based in Washington, filed a petition asking the United States Supreme Court to hear an appeal by a handful of former N.F.L. players. They are contesting a class-action settlement designed to put an end to the litigation between retired players and the N.F.L. over whether the league hid the dangers of concussions from them.

(After years of resisting, the N.F.L. now concedes that there is a connection between head trauma and C.T.E., but it says the connection is not yet fully understood.)

The former players who object to the settlement say it does not adequately cover medical improvements that make it easier to diagnose cognitive disorders related to repeated head hits.

On one side are the hundreds of retired players currently suffering from obvious brain damage; they stand to receive as much as $5 million each under the terms of the settlement. There are also families of deceased former players who are in line to receive compensation once the objectors stop trying to force changes to the settlement — efforts that have failed at both the district court and appeals court levels.

On the other side are former football players who do not yet evince signs of having C.T.E. — but may someday. The objectors are from this group. They feel that the settlement helps players who are currently showing symptoms at the expense of those who will show symptoms later.

[quote]On the other side are former football players who do not yet evince signs of having C.T.E. — but may someday.

Or, they may not. Until they do the science properly, there is no definitive way to know.

Jake Piasecki, 1970-2016: South Bay pro skateboarder had a national following

Jake Piasecki used to tell his disciples that “four wheels and a piece of wood wil set you free.”

Known for his high aerials and tricks, the pro skateboarder from the South Bay developed a nationwide following, products bearing his name, and admirers who tried to emulate him.

Piasecki’s sudden death last week at age 45 shocked the skateboard community. A husband and father from Redondo Beach, he was at the forefront of the sport’s popularity in the South Bay in the 1980s. His photograph performing an aerial maneuver appeared on the cover of the Daily Breeze on June 19, 1999, when Hermosa Beach opened its skateboard park on Pier Avenue.

“Jake was kind of one of the diehard skateboarders who really lived, breathed and ate skateboarding,” Budro said. “It really showed in his style and the way he rode.”

Hermosa Beach police detectives are continuing to investigate Piasecki’s death, which preliminarily was said to look like a suicide. Coroner’s officials, who have the final say, have not issued a determination.

Police said Piasecki was spotted about 6 p.m. Thursday at the waterline at First Street. He was drinking from a bottle and appeared intoxicated.

Several people, police said, saw him strip naked and walk into the surf line. He swam out and disappeared. When he did not return as night was falling 15 minutes later, someone on the beach called 9-1-1.

Police officers, firefighters, Harbor Patrol officers and lifeguards began a massive search. About 8 p.m., Piasecki was found floating in the shallow waterline at Second Street. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

If he committed suicide, Piasecki’s friends were left without answers as to why. Described as quiet, Piasecki didn’t talk much. If he was suffering, Budro said, Piasecki would not seek help, he “would get out and skate.”

Dave Hatton, a Redondo Beach resident who started a Gofundme account to raise money for Piasecki’s former wife and daughter, wrote that “Hermosa Beach truly lost a legend.”

“There’s nothing that Jake loved more than skateboarding,” Hatton wrote. “He was one of the biggest influences of my life. ... I grew up watching him skateboarding my whole life, and I also had the pleasure of traveling and touring with him for many years on skate trips.”

In a 2004 interview with concretedisciples.com, Piasecki said he was 5 or 6 years old when his uncles would take him from his home in Hermosa Beach to Skateboard World in Torrance. He’d watch the older skateboarders and want to be like them.

“I was just watching them, going ‘WOOOW’ at how rad they were, how high (they) could go,” Piasecki said.

As Piasecki got older, his body felt the spills. The injuries mounted. During the last five years, he suffered knee and ankle injuries, and concussions that kept him from skateboarding.

“He was a skateboarder at heart. That was what he did,” Budro said. “Sometimes when you can’t follow your passion, it can get to you mentally. When someone is as passionate as Jake, I can see it getting to him.”

Hatton’s gofundme account had raised nearly $5,000 for funeral costs through Tuesday afternoon. The site hopes to raise $10,000 for a memorial.

“Jake was one of the most influential skateboarders in Hermosa Beach. He was truly inspired by skateboarding. He loved it more than anything. It was his whole life,” Hatton wrote. “He used to tell me all the time that ‘four wheels and a piece of wood will set you free ... let’s go for a ride!’ ”

They should stop football and boxing and all the sports that injure the head. Maybe hockey, too

Play soccer!

First known soccer fatality from CTE earlier this year

ok, soccer is out, too.

Baseball ok?

Nope r118 -- see r104

Tennis?

Tennis might be okay -- at least I haven't heard anything

Bowling is okay, too

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

So sad and so unsurprising.

So what's the excuse for all of the non-football-playing Republicans who seem to have brain problems?

Latest:

Does this surprise anyone?

Well, it shocks us, r127! Who ever heard of such a thing?

Not that this result means anything...it's all selection bias at work.

It's not like they are forced to do this.

[quote]It's not like they are forced to do this.

It's not like they knew what would happen when they did it, however.

How could you not realize it would lead to brain damage?

Still another reason men need to liberate themselves...take back the penis...stop entertaining the masses by beating their brains out (we've been doing it since the days of the Gladiators) and like women...re-think being male,,,that goes for that "universal Soldier' Buffy Saint Marie used to criticize and sing about during the Vietnam War...no more thousands of boys soldiering like D Day during WWII, when thousands of BOYS lost their lives on the beach before even fighting on land.

No more careless statements like that silly Actress from Grey's Anatomy who said, "We got around the penis" when talking about Patrick Dempsey departure from the show...didn't get around the penises that helped put an end to WWII,

@latimes

High school football participation decreases in California for second consecutive year

Link

Off-topic R132, but, to be fair, it was also 'penises' who started WW2. So it was more an equalizing exercise.

And, unlike the Western Front, there were entire brigades of female-soldiers on the Eastern Front during WW2.

A brigade of Soviet female snipers:

r126 same faulty bullshit 'science' that is meaningless. They basically admit as much in the body of the article.

Gung ho Granny in my office who has 6 grand sons all playing tackle football from peewee league to varsity. Family tradition. Multiple concussions on these young boys. I grieve for them.

Problem is, most of them would have tested positive at age ten!

Washington State quarterback Tyler Hilinski has died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The 21-year-old Hilinski was discovered in his apartment after he didn't show up for practice Tuesday. A rifle "was recovered next to Hilinski and a suicide note was found," according to the Pullman Police Department.

"We are deeply saddened to hear the news of Tyler's passing," Washington State coach Mike Leach said in a statement. "He was an incredible young man and everyone who had the privilege of knowing him was better for it. The entire WSU community mourns as thoughts and prayers go out to his family."

R136= closeted NFL-loving dudebro

If they take a look at OJ's brain when he croaks, there's a 100% chance they will find CTE.

It will be hard for schools and TV and etc to give up football, but they should

Until people start boycotting it, nothing will really change.

New study finds CTE may also be caused by small, repetitive hits

We have more important things to worry about than these over sized and over paid imbeciles. Without football, they’d be lucky to make $20,000/year, so they should be happy for the opportunity or find a new job.

Humans need tribes. In today’s world, sports teams and political parties fill that need.

I suppose we can try to herd the cavemen toward soccer. We certainly don’t need more mucking up politics.

Actually, R145, this is a good-sized public health issue.

The logical response would be to shut down the football programs at all public schools ASAP, because public money shouldn't be spent on something with such a high potential to damage vulnerable young brains. Let all the jocks play soccer or baseball, or get into track and field, the worst that can happen there is knee injuries. But then, public policy decisions aren't being made in rational manners these days, if anything happens it'll be middle-class overprotective parents keeping their boys out of the football program.

I hope my baby, Tom Brady never has CTE.

Still don’t give a shit

It’s not rocket science that brain trauma is bad. Any parent who lets their kids play football is either stupid or desperate. Any kid who wants to play is the same- kids get a pass, parents don’t.

As for the nfl- they’re adults and I have no compassion for them. They make way too much money, but that is capitalism. They all understand the risk and they accept it.