Study shows it’s time to tackle head trauma issue
Link is clear between sports and brain disease CTE, so leagues need to step up efforts to protect athletes
How many more dead athletes do we need before we stop quibbling about the toll of head trauma? How many more autopsies that find brains riddled with disease? How many more heartwrenching stories of mood changes, depression and memory loss?
One hundred? Two hundred? Because we’re already there.
A study published Tuesday in
The Journal of American Medical
Association found chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in the brains of 110 of 111 former NFL players. Let that sink in for a minute. With 53 players on regular-season rosters, that’s the equivalent of taking two teams plus a couple of practice squad guys and finding CTE in every player but one.
It makes you look at your favorite team a little differently, doesn’t it?
It’s not just NFL players who are vulnerable, either. The brains of 202 men who played football at the youth level, high school, college, semiprofessional, Canadian Football League and NFL were studied by researchers from Bos- ton University and the VA Boston Healthcare System, and 177 were found to have CTE. That’s 87%.
Of the 177, 93% had shown symptoms of cognitive trouble before their deaths and 91% exhibited changes in behavior or mood.
Now, this doesn’t mean every NFL player is going to get CTE or that playing in high school is akin to signing a death certificate. All of the brains were donated, mostly by family members who suspected or feared their loved ones had CTE.
Nor does the study show why blows to the head cause CTE or how many blows are too many.
But the numbers and details are staggering enough that they ought to finally end the double talk and denials by the NFL, NHL, FIFA and other professional sports organizations about the role their sports play in the deaths of those who played it.
“My major frustration is that we spend so much time not talking about how to solve this disease, how to find treatments, how to find ways to detect this disease. And we spend loads of money and time debating whether this is a disease,” said Ann McKee, a neuropathologist at Boston University and author of the study.
“To me, that’s obvious,” McKee added in an interview with USA TODAY Sports. “Let’s move. Let’s bring some hope to people that have (CTE) and not contribute to future generations by leaving this problem unsolved. That’s what’s frustrating to me.”
Tuesday, after praising McKee and her colleagues for a study that “adds to the ongoing quest for a better understanding of CTE,” the NFL all but raised its eyebrows at the whole thing.
“As noted by the authors, there are still many unanswered questions relating to the cause, incidence and prevalence of long-term effects of head trauma such as CTE,” the NFL said in a statement Tuesday.
The leagues have been reluctant to admit a link between head trauma and CTE because it leaves them liable. The NFL is paying out a $1 billion settlement to explayers who said the league failed to warn them of the dangers. The NHL is facing a similar lawsuit.
It also could make it hard to attract youngsters to the sport. Parents tend to be a little skittish about signing up their child for something that could have debilitating consequences in 30, 40 or 50 years.
But ignoring the obvious won’t make it go away.
More answers are needed, as is a way to diagnose CTE while someone is still alive; an autopsy currently is the only way to say with certainty that a person had the disease. The brains at the center of Tuesday’s research will help find those answers, and support — and money — from the likes of the NFL and NHL would help speed them along.
“I’m very optimistic that this disease can have an effective cure,” McKee said. “But we have to apply our resources effectively to do that.”
Almost 200 men died without answers. How many more is it going to take?