BU study finds more brain damage in former football players

[tk13]

http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/...otball-players

This is a really long article... so I'll just post a couple excerpts, sounds like ESPN is going to do an entire special about this tomorrow afternoon.

Researchers at Boston University have discovered 28 new cases of chronic brain damage in deceased football players -- including 15 who played in the NFL -- more than doubling the number of documented cases connecting football to long-term brain disease.

The NFL players include two Hall of Famers: running back Ollie Matson, who played 14 seasons in the 1950s and 1960s, and Colts tight end John Mackey, who played 10 seasons and once served as the head of the NFL players' union. Both died last year after suffering from dementia.

The study examined brain tissue from 85 people with a history of repetitive head trauma, including military veterans, boxers and football and hockey players. Some of the cases had been previously reported. Sixty-eight were found to have chronic traumatic encephalopathy -- a degenerative brain disorder linked to memory loss, depression and dementia.

According to the study, the BU researchers now have 50 confirmed cases of former football players with CTE -- 33 who played in the NFL, one in the CFL, one semi-professionally, nine through college and six who played only through high school. That included Nathan Stiles, 17, who died of a subdural hematoma after a hit in a 2010 high school homecoming game in Spring Hill, Kan.

"The sheer volume of cases I think is going to just overwhelm anybody that wants to be in denial about the existence of this problem," said Robert C. Cantu, a co-director of BU's Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy and a senior adviser to the NFL on concussions.

Previously, CTE had been found in 18 of the 19 former NFL players whose brains were examined. The 15 new cases in the BU study mean that of the 34 brains of former NFL players that have been examined, 33 had the disease. Linemen made up 40 percent of those cases, supporting research that suggests repetitive head trauma occurring on every play -- not concussions associated with violent collisions -- may be the biggest risk. BU also reported CTE in four former NHL players.

The findings, published in the December issue of "Brain," a medical journal affiliated with Oxford University, are certain to feed the growing debate about the risks of playing football and the work of the BU research team, which has gained international recognition while arguing that football-induced brain damage is indisputable and possibly widespread.

---

The BU researchers say they have never drawn conclusions about the prevalence of CTE in football. Findings based exclusively on individual cases "will never establish the incidence or prevalence" of the disease but instead will lay the foundation for further research, the study states.

BU is drawing from a sample size that is "skewed beyond belief," acknowledged Cantu, because the brains invariably come from subjects who were profoundly impaired.

At the same time, McKee, Cantu and others describe the growing body of cases as significant and ominous, particularly for the NFL.

Cantu cited another recent study that examined death certificates of former NFL players and concluded they were four times more likely to suffer from neurodegenerative diseases.

"So probably at the lowest level, the incidence of CTE is four times greater in NFL players than the population at large would lead you to expect," Cantu said. "But that's really the bottom of what it is. And where, how much higher than that it is, we really don't know."

Long-term brain damage was first documented in boxers in the 1920s. It was not seen in football players until 2005, when a Pittsburgh pathologist, Bennet Omalu, diagnosed late Hall of Fame Steelers center Mike Webster with CTE -- a finding that was hotly contested by the NFL but is no longer disputed.

The data indicate that CTE advances both with exposure to head trauma and with age, according to the BU study. So typically, the longer a player spent in the NFL, the worse his case looked.

"We believe that this is a dose-related phenomenon -- not just to concussions but total brain trauma," said Cantu. "So clearly there's a relation to how many hits you've taken, and that does correlate with how long you played."

The NFL's $1 million research gift to BU in January 2010 acknowledged its right to conduct independent research, but the league also agreed to steer brains from former NFL players to the center's brain bank, which is administered jointly with the Veterans Administration. The bank currently holds 135 brains from military veterans, athletes and other subjects. More than 600 athletes have pledged to donate their brains to BU after their deaths.

[Shox]

The pinnacle of football is in our rear view mirror. In five years the game will have been watered down dramatically and in a decade or so it will be reduced the level of soccer.

1. The trend to make the game safer is well under way. The only way to make the sport truly safer is reduce contact. You take the contact out of football and it no longer will hold our attention.

2. A storm is brewing on the horizon in the form of a lawsuit. All the ingredients are there; lawyers looking for a payday, players who suffer from various physical problems, money and lots of it, the right liberal judge. BOOM.

As a fan I'm very sad to think this is even a possibility. On the other hand I do believe guys pay a huge price to play this game, including brain damage. If I was raising kids today I would discourage them from playing the sport.

[notorious]

I think that the NFL will include waivers (if they don't already) in contracts from here on out.


If they NFL lessens the contact further from this point they are going to lose fans.

[ShowtimeSBMVP]

Let's see run full speed into someone every play what did you think would happen ESPN?

[notorious]

ESPN should chill out on the subject to protect their own product.


If football goes down they will be ****ed until soccer takes over.

[htismaqe]

Nick Leckey said this morning on 810 that in 10 years (or maybe it was 5), football is going to look more like rugby.

[Dayze]

i think alot of these concussions are due to shitty tackling technique.

now the defensless player shit, yeah....you can't avoid that and it's terrible.

but watch an NFL game; no one gets in proper position, and 90% of the time lead with their head /head down when making a tackle.

I'm not saying bad technique is what causes all of them, but there is a certain percentage that does. the NFL is almost horrible to watch because of the 'tackling'.

[notorious]

The NFL has an ace up their sleeve. The Players Assoc. has power when it comes to fighting fines, suspensions, etc.

They are protecting the very people that are causing these injuries. That will bite them in the ass down the road.

[FRCDFED]

Players can't have it both ways. They.....

1) Can't argue that the risk of injury from severe contact shortens their period of employment due to injury so they deserve to make millions...

2) Get paid millions based off of that argument........

and then

3) Attempt to make an argument after they've made millions over their career that they were injured and entitled to more money or better insurance.

It's common sense that impacts cause brain damage. That's why they get the money up front. It's a trade. They know its a trade. They go into it knowing its a trade.

[notorious]

Originally Posted by FRCDFED

Players can't have it both ways. They.....

1) Can't argue that the risk of injury from severe contact shortens their period of employment due to injury so they deserve to make millions...

2) Get paid millions based off of that argument........

and then

3) Attempt to make an argument after they've made millions over their career that they were injured and entitled to more money or better insurance.

It's common sense that impacts cause brain damage. That's why they get the money up front. It's a trade. They know its a trade. They go into it knowing its a trade.

This is the United States.


You can hand someone a billion dollars and a pound of radioactive material labeled with warnings of cancer. The person will take both, get cancer, and sue and win.

[Dayze]

Originally Posted by notorious

This is the United States.


You can hand someone a billion dollars and a pound of radioactive material labeled with warnings of cancer. The person will take both, get cancer, and sue and win.

...wait a minute......you can get cancer from that shit?