Hernandez had Stage 3 of CTE
BOSTON — Aaron Hernandez had a severe case of the degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy, researchers said Thursday, and the late New England tight end’s lawyer announced a lawsuit that accuses the NFL and the Patriots of hiding the true dangers of the sport. Dr. Ann
McKee, the director of the CTE Center at Boston University, said Hernandez had Stage 3 (out of four) of the disease, which can cause violent mood swings, depression and other cognitive disorders. “We’re told it was the most severe case they had ever seen for someone of Aaron’s age,” attorney Jose
Baez said. Hernandez was 27 when he killed himself in April in the prison cell where he was serving a life-without-parole sentence for murder. Baez said Hernandez had shown signs of memory loss, impulsiveness and aggression that could be attributed to CTE, which can only be diagnosed in an autopsy. The disease has been found in former military members, football players, boxers and others who have been subjected to repeated head trauma, and a recent study found signs of the disease in 110 of 111 NFL players whose brains were examined. The league recently agreed to pay $1 billion to retired players who claimed it misled them about the dangers of playing football. The “loss of consortium” lawsuit filed Thursday is independent of the class-action suit that began making payments this summer, and Baez said it was the first of its kind.
COLLEGE
LINCOLN, Neb. — For the second time in 10 years, Nebraska has ousted an athletic director during a football season that was failing to meet expectations. The school’s top administrators said the Cornhuskers’ embarrassing loss to Northern Illinois last weekend wasn’t the sole reason for firing
Shawn Eichorst on Thursday. But the loss that dropped the Cornhuskers to 1-2 for the second time in three years under coach Mike Riley certainly was the tipping point. Eichorst was hired to replace retiring AD
Tom Osborne in October 2012, and he has about $1.7 million remaining on a contract that runs through June 2019. In 2007, AD Steve Pederson was fired days after a humiliating loss to Oklahoma State. Osborne was brought in to replace him, and he fired coach Bill Callahan after the season. School president Hank Bounds and school chancellor Ronnie Green said Eichorst was a champion of student-athlete welfare and had done a good job keeping the athletic department fiscally sound. But Nebraska has not won a Big Ten championship in football or basketball (men’s or women’s) since joining the conference in 2011. Administrators said they want to be competitive in every sport because the school has the resources to accomplish that. Riley is just 16-13 at Nebraska, which has won five national championships and went to bowl games every year from 1969 to 2003 but has not won a conference title since 1999. The new AD will make the decision about Riley’s status, Bounds said.
BOXING
OAKLAND, Calif. —
Andre Ward decided to end his career on top, announcing Thursday he is retiring from boxing because “my body can no longer put up with the rigors of the sport and therefore my desire to fight is no longer there.” He leaves the sport at age 33 with a 32-0 record, 16 knockouts, the light heavyweight world championship and an Olympic gold medal to his credit. Ward won the WBA super middleweight title in 2009 when he defeated Mikkel Kessler and unified that title in 2011 when he beat Carl Froch in the Super Six super middleweight tournament final. Ward is currently rated the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world by Ring Magazine. On his website, he released an explanatory statement, headlined “Mission Accomplished,” thanking those who helped him throughout his career. HBO said Ward will work as an analyst on its boxing broadcasts.