Link: League of Denial: The NFL’s Concussion Crisis | FRONTLINE | PBS
Nutshell - they have biopsied 46 NFL player brains - 45 had CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy). Additionally they have biopsied college player's and even high school player's brains and have found CTE.
At this point the data is strong on the presence of CTE but light on causation as well as how much is too much damage.
That said - anyone know a guy or two that seemed to have it all going on and then out of the blue started having problems? Anger / depression / addiction / memory? Rapid decline physically and mentally?
Think about this for a minute - circa the mid 1970s football helmets shifted from a rigid exterior plastic with a fiber (cloth) web suspension systems to that of expanded polystyrene. Soon after that came the gel pads (Riddle) and then Bike air (or double chamber air) and polystyrene. Full face guards (cages); as well as substantially improved shoulder pads. Add to that polystyrene neck pads (rolls, toilet seats, and cowboy collars). Additionally by the early '80s (while uncommon) with ever increasing frequency on a national level it was being reported that kids in high school were using performance enhancing drugs (steroids), college and pros at this time? Hmmphhh. From the very beginning players were taught to lift the face, shrug the shoulders, and hit with their face - making the forehead the focal point of all force.
Starting with the earliest playing days, and continuing on until they stopped playing, most young men incurred hits in which would produce perceivable audible or visual effects, or loose some level of physical control of their body - sub-concussed trauma. Some were in fact knocked out on the field. Most never admitted it.
*IF* it is shown that CTE is in fact highly correlated to repeated head trauma and the threshold incidence of trauma is low to moderate - it is conceivable that we as a nation are at the start of a long line of such cases.
I heard Rush Limbaugh say over the summer that he feared that football may soon be a dying game simply because mothers wouldn't let their sons play.
Nutshell - they have biopsied 46 NFL player brains - 45 had CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy). Additionally they have biopsied college player's and even high school player's brains and have found CTE.
At this point the data is strong on the presence of CTE but light on causation as well as how much is too much damage.
That said - anyone know a guy or two that seemed to have it all going on and then out of the blue started having problems? Anger / depression / addiction / memory? Rapid decline physically and mentally?
Think about this for a minute - circa the mid 1970s football helmets shifted from a rigid exterior plastic with a fiber (cloth) web suspension systems to that of expanded polystyrene. Soon after that came the gel pads (Riddle) and then Bike air (or double chamber air) and polystyrene. Full face guards (cages); as well as substantially improved shoulder pads. Add to that polystyrene neck pads (rolls, toilet seats, and cowboy collars). Additionally by the early '80s (while uncommon) with ever increasing frequency on a national level it was being reported that kids in high school were using performance enhancing drugs (steroids), college and pros at this time? Hmmphhh. From the very beginning players were taught to lift the face, shrug the shoulders, and hit with their face - making the forehead the focal point of all force.
Starting with the earliest playing days, and continuing on until they stopped playing, most young men incurred hits in which would produce perceivable audible or visual effects, or loose some level of physical control of their body - sub-concussed trauma. Some were in fact knocked out on the field. Most never admitted it.
*IF* it is shown that CTE is in fact highly correlated to repeated head trauma and the threshold incidence of trauma is low to moderate - it is conceivable that we as a nation are at the start of a long line of such cases.
I heard Rush Limbaugh say over the summer that he feared that football may soon be a dying game simply because mothers wouldn't let their sons play.
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