Brain Disease Found In NFL Players

SternisheFan sends this excerpt from ABC: "On the heels of the latest NFL suicide, researchers announced today that 34 NFL players whose brains were studied suffered from CTE, a degenerative brain disease brought on by repeated hits to the head that results in confusion, depression and, eventually, dementia. The study was released just days after the murder-suicide of Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher. It's not yet known what triggered Belcher's action, but they mirror other NFL players who have committed suicide. Researchers at Boston University's Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy published the largest case series study of CTE to date (abstract), according to the center. Of the 85 brains donated by the families of deceased veterans and athletes with histories of repeated head trauma, they found CTE in 68 of them. Of those, 34 were professional football players, nine others played college football and six played only high school football. Of the 35 professional football players' brains donated, only one had no evidence of the disease, according to the study." It's a good thing we protect our youth from conditions like this.

Comments

Did we really need a study for this?

[Press2ToContinue]

Do we really need a study to show that repeated hits to the head result in confusion, depression and dementia? If so, I'd like to sign up to be the guy on the research team that whacks this researcher on the head repeatedly so he can discover the effects.

I just want to help. Really I do.

Re:Did we really need a study for this?

[the_Bionic_lemming]

Actually, they need to expand the study and find out what performance enhancers might be in use as well.

Re:Did we really need a study for this?

[Anonymous Coward]

Do we really need a study to show that repeated hits to the head result in confusion, depression and dementia? If so, I'd like to sign up to be the guy on the research team that whacks this researcher on the head repeatedly so he can discover the effects.

I just want to help. Really I do.

We know that hits to the head result in all that and more, but now there's actual quantized data. With hard facts it's harder to muddle the issue with "but they wear protective helmets" or some other wishy washy double talk.

Re:Did we really need a study for this?

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

Do we really need a study to show that repeated hits to the head result in confusion, depression and dementia? If so, I'd like to sign up to be the guy on the research team that whacks this researcher on the head repeatedly so he can discover the effects.

I just want to help. Really I do.

If we want information on such minor questions as "how often repeated?", "Just how hard?", "Are the effects merely additive, or does one hit make the next more dangerous?", "Are hits with no clinicially observable effects safe or do they add up?".

It has never been news that hits hard enough to produce immediate, observable, effects are a bad plan. That hits with no effect, or from which you appear to recover, are a very serious risk for degeneration in the mid to long term? That isn't immediately obvious.

Re:Did we really need a study for this?

[xQx]

In other news, this study was repeated using NFL supporters as a control group.

In that study, no statistically significant differences were found between the level of brain damage found in the control group compared with that of the group studied.

Re:Did we really need a study for this?

[MightyMartian]

Wherever there is money to be made, there will be industry people doing everything they can to keep the money rolling, even if it means insane amounts of damage.

But hey, it's America. Jesus loves a winner. Jesus hates taxes, Mexicans and poor sick people. Jesus loves the guy that gets thirty major concussions in his NFL career and suffers advanced dementia in his fifties.

God bless this great country!

Re:Did we really need a study for this?

[Lord Kano]

Then you are not thinking this through properly.

I, on the other hand, would like to volunteer for the study that seeks to prove that receiving oral sex to completion from large breasted women is pleasurable.

LK

Re:Did we really need a study for this?

[hairyfeet]

But seriously will it matter? Not to be cruel but its not like we all didn't already know getting your brain bashed repeatedly was bad for you, hell look at boxing, not even a helmet there and we have seen so many old boxers drooling on themselves from brain damage it isn't even funny.

But the simple fact is as long as there is huge piles of money to be made from having one guy headbrick the other guy it is NEVER gonna change. if it were ever gonna change boxing would have been outlawed 20 years ago, after all the amount of brain damaged football players is nothing compared to how many boxers get brain damage.

As much as I wish it weren't so as long as the owners and the memorabilia companies and the food vendors and all these others are raking in the cash then these guys are just disposable, sad but true. That is why I think college football and boxing should be banned and the teams have to pay for minor leagues, if these guys are gonna risk getting busted all to hell at least cut them a check for the risk.

Re:1000 ziplocs anyone?

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

Going to be interesting to see if Belcher's brain had this disease, seeing as it was spread all over the parking lot.

One of his former colleagues shot himself in the chest instead, for precisely that reason...

Re:Nothing to see here. Move along.

[lord_mike]

The term "football" is in reference to playing the game "on foot" as opposed to mounted on a horse like polo. Many early versions of games called football in the middle ages involved practically no kicking of a ball at all. The direct precursors to Association Football, or Soccer, allowed one to not only touch the ball with your hands, but catch it, too (i.e. the fair catch, which still survives with Soccer's cousins Rugby and American Football).

As for the brain damage with the North American version of the game, I'm not sure if there is much of a solution. There is a common belief that all the hard shell padding and hard helmets are to blame, and going "naked" like rugby would solve the problem. Players wouldn't feel as invincible and their instinct for self-preservation would kick in, reducing the force of their blocks and tackles. The data doesn't support this theory. There have been positive brain trauma studies of this sort going back 80 years ago during the age of leather helmets and soft padding, so reducing protection is probably not the answer. The nature of the game is simply predisposed to hard hits both in blocking and tackling players. The goal is to always get extra yardage or jar the ball loose. That's not an issue in rugby where there is no line to gain, the ball is loose after every play, and there is no blocking allowed. I'm not sure you could make the game safer without so radically changing its nature that it would essentially become something completely different from football as we know it.

Not surprising

[erp_consultant]

I mean look at the size of these guys today. Even the wide receivers are huge. Bigger, stronger, faster...all to feed our insatiable appetite for violence disguised as sport. In hockey it's the fights. In nascar it's the crashes. In football it's the big hit. Add to that the enormous sums of money available to the stars of these sports and it's no wonder they will do whatever is necessary to win. All to the delight of the fat, shirtless drunk spewing profanities on every play.

The athletes are simply too big and strong. Could you imagine Fran Tarkenton playing in today's NFL? He would get killed. The equipment cannot protect them adequately. The NFL is stuck between giving the fans what they want on the one hand and getting sued on the other hand by crippled ex players. Cutting back on the head shots is a good start but how much can you really do to prevent permanent injury?

Re:Not surprising

[Alomex]

but the hard facts are that fans want to see violence.

This is a tautological statement. People who don't like violence turn off the TV and hence the remaining fans are the ones who like violence. But reality is that viewership would definitely go up if violence was eliminated.

Presently, non-violent Olympic hockey gets the highest viewership figures by far both in the USA and Canada.

Re:1000 ziplocs anyone?

[NFN_NLN]

Going to be interesting to see if Belcher's brain had this disease, seeing as it was spread all over the parking lot.

One of his former colleagues shot himself in the chest instead, for precisely that reason...

Geez, I thought you were trolling but he LITERALLY... "sent a text message to his family saying he wanted his brain to be used for research at the Boston University School of Medicine, which is conducting research into chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) caused by playing professional football" ... and then shot himself in the chest!

This guy was the definition of team player.

Re:1000 ziplocs anyone?

[Anonymous Coward]

Going to be interesting to see if Belcher's brain had this disease, seeing as it was spread all over the parking lot.

One of his former colleagues shot himself in the chest instead, for precisely that reason...

Geez, I thought you were trolling but he LITERALLY... "sent a text message to his family saying he wanted his brain to be used for research at the Boston University School of Medicine, which is conducting research into chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) caused by playing professional football" ... and then shot himself in the chest!

This guy was the definition of team player.

Lucky for him that his heart was in the right place.

Re:nothing wrong with suicide

[pclminion]

Belcher was no victim. He murdered his girlfriend in cold blood and then took the easy way out by killing himself before he could be brought to justice. I suppose his act could be described as rational (having just destroyed his entire life, what reason was there to go on?) But it wasn't brave, or honorable.

It's possible that repeated hits to the head fucked him up, but we don't allow "I was fucked up your honor" as an excuse for other people, such as drunk drivers.

Re:Darwin

[dryeo]

Baby Orcas have a way better survival rate when they have living grandparents. Seems that growing old and helping your children raise your grandchildren enhances the chances of survival of your genes.

Re:Darwin

[actiondan]

There are also animals where the survival chances of offspring is enhanced by the sacrifice of their parents.

Maybe the financial benefits of playing the NFL, which can be passed to offspring, outweigh the potential downside of having a shorter life.

Re:nothing wrong with suicide

[turp182]

Actually we do allow "I was fucked up your honor" for drunk drivers, especially football players.

Back in 1998, Leonard Little of the St. Louis Rams killed a mother of two who was crossing a street in downtown St. Louis late at night (on her way to work). It was his birthday, and he was quite drunk (.19 BAC).

He got a 90 day sentence with work release so he could practice with the team. He also had some probation and public service time (which I bet was served through football sponsored stuff).

He didn't miss a game and, unfortunately, he continued to play for the Rams for several years. I hate to say it, but I wish mental problems upon him as that would represent some justice in a situation where there was none.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Little