#given the rates of CTE in the NFL

[tanadrin]

❤️American football

lol shit that's a tough one

I think fun is underrated as, like, one of the fundamental purposes of human existence. It's good that we have fun. We are a playful species; it is good for us to play games, to be invested in games, to channel our energy into games and to be rewarded for that with strong social bonds, relaxation, a sense of identity, etc., etc.

Sports provide that, and they do it well, but American football is, in the U.S. anyway, probably the preeminent sport, and the sense of joy and connection that football provides is real and meaningful. I also think it's genuinely good for a sense of tribal identity to be channeled into sports and to become a thing that is at least partially sequestered within that area, because I think that satisfies our urge for tribal identification without turning it to destructive political ends.

I am admittedly finding it challenging to think of things that are good about football which are not equally good for similar sports. Um. There's a lot of down time in football, which means more time for bathroom breaks when compared to soccer, I guess? But it's not as slow-moving as baseball, which can be downright soporific. It is probably safer than similar games played without protective equipment, like rugby. And the NCAA is now required to allow college football players to be compensated, which I think is a very good thing!

[jackiestoryteller-blog]

Manno Written Assignment-Interview with neurologist on CTE

Aggressive contact sports, such as boxing and football, are an integral part of America's culture. However, the pride Americans obtain in these events often cause the health of those participating in said games to be overlooked. While certain injuries are to be expected, life-threatening head injuries are extremely common and often lead to devastating consequences. Professional athletes frequently suffer from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a serious neurodegenerative disease caused by repeated concussions. A strong correlation between playing football and head injuries that led to CTE was found in a 2017 study conducted by The American Medical Association. The results of the findings concluded that 110 out of the 111 NFL players studied were diagnosed with CTE.

Modern medical advancements and overall progressing knowledge when it comes to this debilitating condition raise a necessary alarm for doctors treating those who participate in football regularly. Doctors face the ethical responsibility to value the safety of their patients. However, when dealing with professional athletes, it is often difficult for medical professionals to make sweeping recommendations for their careers, given the amount of money and stakes involved in legal ramifications. Although the most effective way to lower the rates of CTE is to abstain from dangerous sports altogether, most doctors are hesitant to directly dissuade their injured patients from participating in the extremely high-risk sports, due to the potential consequences.

“If you tell somebody you don’t think they should play football anymore, and some star football player quits based on your advice, you set yourself up legally for potential problems.” Dr. Manno, Professor of Neurology at Northwestern University explains. "The best you can do is outline the potential risks and allow them to make a decision.”

Dr. Manno received his medical license from the University of South Carolina in 1988 and has been involved in many sports-related head trauma cases. Although he has treated multiple professional NFL players for head injuries such as concussions and CTE, HIPPA laws prevent the patients from being named directly.

Although the circumstances are often concerning, once treated for a head injury and properly informed of the potential risks and severity of CTE, professional athletes will often choose to prioritize their health by retiring from the sport completely, according to Dr. Manno.

“A lot of these players get really banged up, and they’re gonna limp the rest of their lives, that doesn't bother them. But when you tell them they're gonna get cognitive disabilities and neurological impairment, they start to think a little harder. Some of them, not ones that I’ve treated, end up quitting for their families. The salaries they make in the NFL tend to make this decision easier.” He claims.

Although many athletes choose to depart from the sport after sustaining multiple injuries, many do not retire from their profession until after irreversible trauma to the brain has been inflicted. CTE is a lifelong condition that significantly declines the quality of life of those suffering from it. Symptoms such as depression, memory loss, weakened senses, difficulty thinking and speaking, coordination issues, and dementia are undetectable until several years after the initial injuries have occurred.

With more in-depth information being discovered when it comes to the connection between contact sports and CTE, a dialogue is necessary regarding Western culture's glorification of violent sports, and the negative consequences these mindsets produce. A deeper inspection to the safety of those affected, and addressing methods of further prevention of these grave injuries is essential.

Dr. Manno offers a more simplistic input: “If you’re gonna play football, be a lineman. It's better to hit people than to get hit.”

[science-criticaltheory]

The NFL's moral collapse - Judd Legum

Buffalo Bills players react after teammate Damar Hamlin #3 was injured against the Cincinnati Bengals during the first quarter at Paycor Stadi

On Monday night, Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin tackled Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins. It seemed, at first, to be a violent but routine NFL play. Higgins hit Hamlin's chest with his shoulder during the tackle, but Hamlin quickly rose to his feet. 

A few seconds later, however, Hamlin abruptly collapsed on the turf. 

Hamlin lay on the field, motionless, for ten minutes as medical personnel administered CPR. Players from both teams kneeled, some with tears streaming down their faces, while Hamlin was placed on a stretcher and taken to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center in an ambulance. As of Tuesday, Hamlin remains hospitalized in critical condition.

The fact that an NFL player suffered a severe injury during a game is not unusual. Among major sports, NFL football is by far the most dangerous. A Harvard study published in May 2017 found that "mean number of injuries suffered per game in the NFL is approximately 3.4 times higher than the combined rates of MLB, the NBA, NHL, and [the Union of European Football Associations] combined." Concussions also occur during NFL games at much higher rates. 

The real consequences of all these injuries are often opaque to fans. Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), for example, is a "degenerative brain disease associated with repeated blows to the head." One study of former NFL players' brains found 99% had diagnostic signs of CTE. Symptoms of CTE include "depression, apathy, anxiety, explosive rages, episodic memory loss, and problems with attention and higher order thinking." But these symptoms do not fully emerge until after the player retires. 

What was unusual on Monday is that the full impact of Hamlin's injury was on display in the middle of the field during a primetime matchup. Typically, players who suffer injuries are rushed off the field so the game can resume as quickly as possible. This mentality — "next man up" — is glorified in NFL culture. 

That reportedly was the initial plan following Hamlin's collapse on Monday night. ESPN announcer Joe Buck said multiple times that players were given "five minutes" to prepare for play to resume. Cincinnati quarterback Joe Burrow was seen making warmup throws. 

The NFL Just Showed the World What It Thinks of Its Players.

[datainsights2022]

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy – a potential orphan indication for Alzheimer’s drugs

In July, scientists at Boston College revealed that 110 out of 111 minds gave by groups of previous NFL players gave indications of ongoing Encephalopathy Drugs Development Market, an uncommon condition set apart by tau tangles in the cerebrum.

The predominance pace of the condition is obscure. While the exploration group isn't anticipating any rates for the future, the review shows a strong connection among CTE and American football, making it as a neglected market areas of strength for with potential for drug development.

No treatment has at any point been endorsed for CTE. It has a place with a gathering of neurological circumstances set apart by collected types of tau protein. In the same way as other tauopathies, CTE presents side effects that range from discouragement and self-destructive considerations to language and engine lacks.

Albeit much about CTE is at this point unclear, it has a potential for being distinguished in a lot more patients, especially in American footballers, rugby players, fighters, and military veterans.

Various items are as of now being produced for the most well-known tauopathy, moderate supranuclear paralysis (PSP ). Organizations creating items in this market incorporate Otsuka , TauRx, AbbVie , Merck and Co, and Bristol-Myers Squibb .

Numerous makers are examining their tau-focusing on items in PSP patients, considering that PSP is the best perceived of all tauopathies and it has the biggest patient populace. Notwithstanding, once endorsed for use in PSP patients, these PSP-showed items are probably going to be involved off-name in other firmly related signs, making tauopathies an appealing sign gathering.

What's more, tau-focusing on drugs are probable possibility for treating Alzheimer's sickness, given the two circumstances share tau-based pathology. This implies that the item will get motivators for focusing on a specialty tauopathy sign through vagrant assignment, and will can possibly turn into a blockbuster in the event that it is, demonstrated to be viable in patients with Alzheimer's illness.

The first tauopathy medication to market is supposed to see a sharp take-up in patients, given the immense neglected needs around here. As' how scientists might interpret CTE improves and its analysis during patients' lifetimes becomes conceivable, the possibilities for these tauopathy drugs will keep on developing.

[thesportssoundoff]

The XFL Is Back? Five Ideas To Try To Make It Work Somehow.

Joey

Jan 25th

At 3 PM today, we're going to be getting an announcement from Vince McMahon as it pertains to potentially a new sports franchise. Chances are in 2020, the XFL will be back in our lives again for whatever it is they plan on doing. At the start, I can say that I do not see this league surviving for very long. The first run came during the height of the WWE and it was a flop so I can't imagine a reboot at a time where both the WWE and football are slumping in popularity will be any more successful. This CTE pandemic is not going to go away either and I'm not sure if Vince really wants to deal with yet another concussion related issue. Throw it a step further, we saw what a secondary league with an active TV deal (FS1) did when the Big 3 launched. It wasn't pretty. Now imagine MORE money for a 53 man roster (in theory) plus full on coaching staffs and this is going to be on par with the PBC in terms of flaming money pits.

NOW having said that, there's plenty of good things that can come from this! More athletes earning guaranteed money is always a good thing. More sports on TV is always welcome by me and the one thing the WWE can do is produce and promote things when they really want to. I don't think it could replace the NFL obviously (nothing will ever replace the NFL) but could it potentially find a niche? Here are some ideas I'd go with if I was asked to help out the XFL.

1- Tebow, Kaepernick, Manziel, Hackenberg (?), Griffin

Everybody with a bit of common sense will point to this. It's in that "so easy a brain surgeon could do it" type decision making. There are four big name QBs sitting on the outside of the NFL who need the work. All of these guys would bring serious attention to the XFL reboot. Colin Kaepernick on his own would probably guarantee some high ratings if you're willing to balance the backlash for it. Tim Tebow vs Colin Kaepernick in a football game sounds like the sort of car crash action that the XFL should have their eyes on. Robert Griffin IMO can still play somewhere and obviously Johnny Manziel is a lightning rod for attention. Matt Leinart is still in his prime so to speak at 34 so maybe you can snooker dude out from behind a desk. Plus by 2020, who knows what washout flamed out QB could wind up needing a gig. Paxton Lynch? Christian Hackenberg? Conor Cook? Tom Savage? There's going to be plenty of NFL quality quarterbacks looking for work in a few years and they could be enough to entice viewers into watching the XFL.

2- The right kinds of gimmicks

I watched the XFL from their debut until about the third week of the season. Part of the reason I tuned out was primarily due to the gimmickery they were running off the jump. The first game I saw, the QB was introduced and then he cut a god awful promo with a gimmick cheerleader which basically amounted to a twenty second joke about rough sex. There was more shit like that to the point where it become impossible to believe for a second that this was attempting to be a sports league. They tried to tone it down toward the end but once the damage was done, it's done. Those are the wrong kind of gimmicks, the sort which were bound to either a) run people off or b) burn people out quickly.

Going back to the concept of the "right" kind of gimmicks? The Big 3 had some serious success (at least in my opinion) with using celebrities and former players in the right way for the most part. Allen Iverson burned them but using former players as coaches to give the league some name panache was a right idea. Guys like Gary Payton, Charles Oakley, Clyde Drexler and Julius Erving all brought something unique to the table and while I'm not going to act like they're all NBA head coaches in the making, it at least gave a casual viewer some legends to get excited about. Do the same thing! The NFL has a bit of a "Good Old Boys" network among the league where the same dudes get recycled over and over and over and over again. IF you're the XFL, you should be on the phone with all sorts of former players with name value who can't play but might fit in as a coach somewhere. Who doesn't want to see Michael Irvin coaching WRs? How about Jason Thomas coaching DEs and linebackers? Prime Time as a defensive coordinator? Jason Randle with defensive tackles? Litter your coaching staff with names and find some guys who were head coaches who might need something to do. Just no Jeff Fisher for the love of all that is good and holy.

3- No Catch Rule

Simply put. If you really want to be an alternative to the NFL, remove the catch rule. If guys secure the ball and get their feet down, it's a catch. That's really it. You don't have to do that much anymore. We all know what a fucking catch is at this point, we don't need a rule to complicate matters.

4- Try something new!

Why not consider modifying special teams? Nothing gets fans more excited than fourth down so maybe you can do something where kick offs are eliminated. That's actually where most concussions happen on a given Sunday so I imagine that's a welcome reprieve. Remove kick offs and just start each drive at the 30 yard line. If you really want to get crazy, you can eliminate punting and go for it on every 4th down as well. THAT would get people giddy. Make everybody go for two! What about overtimes that are seven on seven? College rules? You're not going to beat the NFL so you might as well try something different and see if you can top the CFL or something of that nature.

5- Pick a side.

Judging by the opening presser, there was a lot of words said but not much of a vision presented. They want it to be family friendly but also be an alternative that gives it back to the fans. Right off the bat we've got a contradiction since, unfortunately, the one thing you're going to hear from football fans is how much more violent they want the game to be. They want the "old days" where there were less unneccessary roughness and more NFL Blitz style collisions. That's fine and all except in the same presser, they discussed wanting the game to be as safe as possible. You can't please every master possible---but the XFL will need to decide what it wants to be and decide it quickly.

[ericfruits]

CTE Overhyped? Study On Former NFL, NHL Players Reveals No Evidence Of Early Onset Dementia

BUFFALO, N.Y. — The subject of head trauma and athletes involved in hard-hitting contact sports has become a hot button topic among both the scientific and athletic communities in recent years. Many now believe that these athletes are putting themselves at a much greater risk of serious neurological and cognitive problems later in life, but a recent study has come to contradictory conclusions.

A study by researchers from the University at Buffalo compared former National Football League and National Hockey League athletes with current participants in non-contact sports. Due to recent research into chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a neurodegenerative disease caused by repeated head injuries, the researchers expected to find much higher rates of early-onset dementia among retired professional sports players. However, the study revealed no evidence of early-onset dementia in the retired players.

The study assessed 21 former players for the NFL’s Buffalo Bills and the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres based on neuropsychological measures associated with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and executive function.

Many players who suffer from CTE also suffer from early-onset dementia, but complicating matters is the fact that CTE can only be diagnosed after death through an autopsy. There is also evidence that it’s possible to suffer from CTE brain damage without any clinical symptoms.

Seeking to discover just how prevalent CTE is in athletes, the researchers tested the 21 professional athletes for signs of MCI using a series of comprehensive neurological assessments. These assessments included questionnaires plying the participants with questions about personality and executive function.

Researchers also scanned each athlete’s brain to look for signs of MCI, which is thought to be a precursor of early-onset dementia. The participants were asked about their diet, lifestyle, drug and alcohol use, and common cardiovascular problems. They gave blood samples to test for cholesterol levels, and were given thorough physical exams.

“We don’t deny that CTE exists in some former athletes,” says co-author and lead investigator Barry S. Willer, PhD, a professor of psychiatry at the university, in a release. “It has been linked to contact sports and concussions that happen while playing those sports, but it’s not a sure thing. The larger question is, how prevalent is the problem?”

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“We went into this study with the expectation that we’d find any number of former athletes with dementia,” adds study co-investigator John Leddy, director of the UB Concussion Management Clinic and professor of orthopedics, in a university news release. “And while some of the former professional athletes reported concerns that they felt they were experiencing a decline in memory, and other cognitive issues, the study results did not bear this out.”

Researchers then compared the professional athletes’ results to a control group of 21 amateur participants in non-contact sports such as swimming, cycling, and running. Surprisingly, they found little to no difference between the variable group and the control group in cognitive ability, memory, and executive function.

The largest differences in health between the pro hockey and football players and the non-contact athletes were that the professional players had significantly higher risks for obesity, chronic pain, orthopedic surgeries, and severe sleep or anxiety problems. But, those differences were mostly attributed by the research team to overall health differences among the two groups. The non-contact sport athletes were considerably healthier, more educated, and weighed less than the retired pro athletes.

Leddy and his co-author Barry Willer have long been known for their research on concussions, CTE, and early-onset dementia. They developed a new recovery method for concussions that assists concussion sufferers in becoming more active after only a relatively brief rest period.

The study is published in the Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation, the official journal of the Brain Injury Association of America.

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[toldnews-blog]

New Post has been published on https://toldnews.com/united-states-of-america/bob-costas-and-nbc-broke-up-over-concussion-remarks/

Bob Costas and NBC broke up over concussion remarks

Costas was set to host his final NFL game last year on Super Bowl Sunday, but months before the Eagles took on the Patriots on February 4, 2018, the famous sportscaster was dropped from the broadcast, setting the stage for the end of his 40-year career at NBC.

Costas — who has hosted nearly every sports event imaginable, from the Olympics to the Kentucky Derby — had been critical in the past of the NFL’s role in the concussion crisis. But remarks he made the year prior at a journalism symposium went a touch too far for his bosses.

“I think the words were, ‘You crossed the line,'” Costas told ESPN’s “Outside the Lines.” “And my thought was, ‘What line have I crossed?'”

In 2017, Costas told a crowd at the University of Maryland that “The reality is that this game destroys people’s brains — not everyone’s, but a substantial number. It’s not a small number, it’s a considerable number. It destroys their brains.”

The comments quickly went viral, prompting NBC to put out a statement saying that Costas’ opinions were his own and did not represent the views of NBC Sports. Costas also went on CNN at the time “to make it clear he wasn’t being critical of NBC,” according to ESPN’s report. NBC pulled him from the Super Bowl LII telecast anyway, according to Costas.

“I recall the phrase, ‘It’s a six-hour, daylong celebration of football, and you’re not the right person to celebrate football,'” Costas told ESPN. “To which my response was not, ‘Oh please, please, change your mind.’ My response was, ‘Yeah, I guess you’re right.'”

A NFL spokesperson told ESPN that the league did not ask for Costas to be pulled from the broadcast.

Costas also told ESPN that an essay he wrote in 2015 pegged to the release of the movie “Concussion” was killed by NBC Sports because the network was in negotiations with the NFL to air Thursday Night Football. “Concussion” is a sports drama about the doctor who discovered the link between CTE and head trauma and the NFL’s efforts to discredit his research. Costas wanted to use the release of the movie to address the issue on national television.

“It was a natural lead-in,” Costas told ESPN. “I thought that the movie would make an impact, and I thought this was a way not only for NBC to acknowledge it, but to get out in front of it.”

That detail underscores the outsized influence the NFL has on its television partners. In a highly fragmented television landscape, the NFL is the biggest ratings juggernaut. Networks pay billions of dollars to the league for the right to broadcast its games. Even when ratings fell in the last few seasons, NFL games were still some of the most-watched events on TV. The NFL’s regular season viewership went up about 5% in 2018 compared to the previous year, attracting an average of 15.8 million viewers.

“Look, the NFL isn’t just the most important sports property, it’s the single-most important property in all of American television,” Costas told ESPN. “And it isn’t even close.”

NBC and Costas quietly ended their decades-long partnership earlier this year. NBC issued a statement about ESPN’s report.

“We have historically given our commentators a lot of leeway to speak on our air about issues and controversies, and Bob has benefited most from this policy,” a NBC spokesperson told CNN Business. “We’re very disappointed that after 40 years with NBC, he has chosen to mischaracterize and share these private interactions after his departure.”

[estelagellison9]

Aaron Hernandez’s Dangerous Drug Use Prior to Suicide Hidden By State investigators

New Post has been published on https://www.therecover.com/aaron-hernandezs-dangerous-drug-use-prior-to-suicide-hidden-by-state-investigators/

Aaron Hernandez’s Dangerous Drug Use Prior to Suicide Hidden By State investigators

The former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez was 27 years old and serving time for first-degree murder at the time of his suicide. He hung himself at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center just days after he was acquitted in another trial for a double shooting homicide. While in prison State investigators concealed the degree of Aaron Hernandez’s K2 drug use in prison prior to his suicide- information that was kept in public records and from his family and lawyers.

During an interview between The Glove Series and an inmate days after Hernandez’s’ suicide said, “”Well he’s spent the last two days smoking K2 in his cell and he wasn’t in the right frame of mind.” “That shit is all these young kids up.” “They aren’t going to stop no matter what happens in here.” Noted by the Globe, it’s a significant statement hopefully bringing a new focus to Hernandez’s mental health as well as the overall state of the prison.

Five days earlier prior to his shocking suicide, he’d been found not guilty in the shooting deaths of two men in Boston back in 2012. Hernandez had already been in Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center for murdering an associate, Odin Lloyd, in 2013.

Department of Correction spokesman Jason Dobson revealed the inmate’s interview was blacked out due to information dealing with an ongoing investigation into drugs at the prison. “A separate investigation was ongoing into suspected inmate drug activity [at the prison, the section was redacted so as not to compromise that investigation.”

According to the Center on Addiction “K2” known as Synthetic marijuana is a mixture of industrial chemicals intended to mimic the effects of THC, the naturally occurring active compound found in marijuana. Synthetic marijuana use can lead to side effects like rapid heart rate, vomiting, agitation, and hallucinations. Many inmates will use K2 in prison as their drug of choice because it’s tough to detect in tests and has been easy to smuggle in jail.

The case of Hernandez drew national attention as the only active NFL player to be on trial for killing three people. During an autopsy, he was found to have one of the most severe cases of CTE — chronic traumatic encephalopathy — for someone of his age. The brain disease is known to lead to poor judgment and lack of impulse control, among other behaviors-link indirectly with football. Toxicology tests were given by an outside laboratory, NMS Labs of Willow Grove, Pa.

Two weeks after Hernandez’s death, May 4, 2017, the State Police released a report stating that a “postmortem toxicology of Hernandez’s blood came back negative for all substances tested to include synthetic cannabinoids,’’ leading them to close the case. Spokesmen for the state’s Executive Office of Public Safety and Security, Felix Browne, refused to comment on how thorough the toxicology results were, explaining the examiner does not by law release case-specific details to the public. Although documents detailing his alleged K2 use have not been made public until now.

Hernandez’s cell where he was found was filled with eerie religious writings and symbols. Walls covered with religious writing. He wrote 3:16 in blood on his forehead and had the Bible citation “John 3:16” open on his desk. John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”Gerard Breau, the guard on duty the night Hernandez killed himself, was cited for misconduct. He skipped his nightly 2 a.m. round, to find Hernandez hanging at 3:03 a.m.

Lawyer George Leontire said the Department of Correction’s hiding of the K2 allegations “was a further attempt to cover up wrongdoing.”

By: Mckenzie Santa Maria 

Source: The Recover News Room

from The Recover https://ift.tt/2AzL8BR

[ellymackay]

NFL Players Diagnosed with CTE May Actually Have Sleep Apnea Or Other Treatable Disorders

The following article NFL Players Diagnosed with CTE May Actually Have Sleep Apnea Or Other Treatable Disorders Find more on: www.ellymackay.com

A postmortem exam of the brain remains the gold standard for diagnosing chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), the neurodegenerative brain disease believed to arise from repeated hits to the head.

Yet a small but by no means trivial number of former professional football players say they have received a diagnosis of CTE, according to a new study from Harvard Medical School and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health published April 13 in Annals of Neurology.

The research—based on a survey of nearly 4,000 former NFL players, ages 24 to 89—was conducted as part of the ongoing Football Players Health Study at Harvard University, a research initiative that encompasses a constellation of studies designed to evaluate various aspects of players’ health across the lifespan.

[RELATED: Why Linemen in Football Should Be Educated in College About Their Sleep Apnea RIsk]

Even though the results are based on player self-reports rather than on documented clinical diagnoses, the researchers say their findings are alarming for a number of reasons.

First, CTE is a post-mortem diagnosis and cannot be diagnosed definitively in living individuals. Second, an erroneous, or clinically unverifiable, diagnosis of CTE could obscure the role of other treatable conditions common among former football players that could cause a cluster of cognitive and behavioral symptoms mimicking CTE. Third, delivering a verdict of an untreatable disease could render patients hopeless, discouraging them from pursuing healthy behaviors and focusing on modifiable risk factors and conditions that may give rise to symptoms attributed to CTE.

Researchers emphasize that any cognitive and behavioral symptoms should be investigated thoroughly, and CTE concerns should never be dismissed.

“Former football players are rightfully worried about brain health and CTE concerns should not be overlooked, yet in the absence of validated clinical criteria and diagnostic methods for CTE, the fact that former players report being told they have the disease is highly concerning,” says study lead author Rachel Grashow, PhD, a researcher at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, in a release. “A diagnosis of CTE could downplay the effects of other conditions and discourage the pursuit of alternative explanations, while creating a sense of despair among those who believe they might have an untreatable brain condition.”

Nearly 3% of the players in the current study (108 out of 3,913) reported they had received a diagnosis of CTE from a physician or another clinician. Those older than 60 were more likely to report a CTE diagnosis than younger players (3.7%, compared with 2.3%).

Symptoms of cognitive impairment—difficulty concentrating, forgetfulness, mood changes—were notably more common among former players who reported CTE diagnoses, regardless of age. Those who reported a CTE diagnosis were also more likely to report sleep apnea, heart disease, hypertension, stroke, depression, high cholesterol, obesity, use of prescription pain medication, and low testosterone.

All of these are relatively common in former football players and can cause certain cognitive symptoms, which could be fueling clinical suspicion for CTE among some physicians, the researchers say. Given that safe and effective interventions exist for many of these conditions, it is critical that these patients are evaluated and treated before cognitive problems are prematurely or wrongly attributed to CTE.

Former players who self-identified as Black had higher percentages of CTE diagnoses, the study found. Researchers say the higher prevalence of conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease among Black men may explain the higher rate of CTE diagnoses in this group.

The current study was not designed to determine why or how the CTE diagnoses were made. The researchers, however, say a number of factors could be at play.

For example, some clinicians may suspect the presence of CTE because past studies have identified a link between neuropsychiatric symptoms in the decade preceding an athlete’s death and subsequent postmortem CTE diagnosis. Also, clinicians may be seeing certain behavioral and cognitive changes as markers of brain degeneration, propelling them to consider a CTE diagnosis, while downplaying or not fully exploring alternative explanations for the symptoms, such as sleep apnea, heart disease or depression. Clinicians may also be more likely to consider—and suggest—CTE to players who spent their careers in more high impact positions, the researchers say.

Lack of clarity about symptoms and possible causes might leave patients prone to over-interpretation and set the stage for misunderstanding, the researchers say.

“Given the high visibility and intense media coverage of CTE, former football players may be highly sensitive to any hints or suggestions of CTE and assume a connection between their symptoms and this rather high-profile, but not necessarily accurate or appropriate, diagnosis,” Grashow say. “Either way, it is incumbent upon the physicians who care for former athletes to ensure that such clarity is achieved.”

None of this is to say that some former players may not, in fact, have CTE.

“CTE is real, and it probably plays a role in the cognitive or behavioral symptoms experienced by some former players, yet many of these symptoms could also arise from a number of other, more treatable, conditions,” says study senior author Ross Zafonte, DO, head of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

Zafonte cautioned that a grim diagnosis like CTE could magnify symptoms, a psychological phenomenon known as the nocebo effect. It could also discourage people from engaging in healthy behaviors and pursuing critical treatments for other conditions responsible for the symptoms, adds Zafonte, who is also principal investigator of the Football Players Health Study.

First described in the 1920s as boxers’ dementia or “punch-drunk syndrome,” CTE gained public attention over the last 20 years after a series of reports identified the hallmarks of the disease—abnormal protein clumps in certain parts of the brain—in postmortem exams of former football players, many of whom had shown cognitive, emotional, and behavioral symptoms for more than a decade prior to their postmortem exams. CTE develops predominantly in people who sustain repeated blows to the head, including athletes in contact sports such as boxing, football, hockey and rugby, in military personnel who sustain head trauma and in victims of domestic violence.

from Sleep Review https://www.sleepreviewmag.com/sleep-health/sleep-whole-body/brain/nfl-players-cte-sleep-apnea/

from Elly Mackay - Feed https://www.ellymackay.com/2020/05/04/nfl-players-diagnosed-with-cte-may-actually-have-sleep-apnea-or-other-treatable-disorders/

[thompson2000blog]

A Lifelong Concussion

A lifelong Concussion

When one thinks about the National Football League, hard hitting and the roughness of the game are the first things that come to mind. The NFL is one of the most popular sports in the world and is still growing to this day. The millions of dollars to be paid to players is one among many incentives that keeps players pursuing the NFL and active NFL players to maintain their spot. The glory and excitement of the sport, however, causes many to overlook the long-term health effects and even fatal consequences of playing the sport.

             Over the years, many studies and improvements have been conducted on the players helmets to help reduce head related injuries. Although over time the amount of concussions has reduced, it is inevitable that players will still experience trauma to the regardless the helmet. Within recent years, many studies have been done on CTE (Chronic traumatic encephalopathy). CTE is a brain disease caused by repeated trauma to the head. It is common among former NFL athletes. Last year, The Journal of the American Medical Association conducted a study on CTE and stated, “CTE, which is believed to be caused by repetitive head trauma — in 110 out of 111 brains it examined of deceased former NFL players.” The crazy part is that the study was conducted on deceased NFL players, which means some people are currently living lives unaware that they have a serious brain disease. Many players who have been diagnosed with this disease while still alive were said to experience depression, memory loss, and even suicidal thoughts. Aaron Hernandez, a very well-known name in sports, was a college football star and standout Tight End for the New England Patriots. Throughout his NFL career, Hernandez was involved in multiple murders and convicted years later. After killing himself in his cell, a research by Boston University found that, “Aaron Hernandez suffered the most severe case of chronic traumatic encephalopathy ever discovered in a person his age, damage that would have significantly affected his decision-making, judgment and cognition.” Aaron Hernandez’s violent behavior became noticeable at The University of Florida. Hernandez and many others were forced to live with a disease that not only affected their brain, but their everyday decision making and well-being.

 While CTE is seen in many former NFL players, concussions are far more common. While it is said that once a player undergoes concussion tests they are fine to play, they really are more vulnerable to experiencing another concussion. A friend from high school played wide receiver with me which is a high contact position. He got a concussion for the first time in his life after never experiencing one. The trainer underwent protocol and kept him out for multiple weeks. After getting cleared to play, he got another concussion the second game he was back. While one could argue that he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, studies done on concussions say otherwise. According to a study performed by Science line, “After having one concussion you are more likely to have another — some doctors estimate you increase your risk up to three times.” A concussion heavily affects ones mental health. Common symptoms are confusion, headaches, and lack of common knowledge. Unfortunately, there is no certain thing that can prevent concussion completely in the game of football. Over the years, players helmets have been studied thoroughly and improvements have been made, but a solution has yet to be found. The NFL has even changed rules of the game in response to the high number of concussions. Unlike prior years, if a player hits a defenseless player or someone who is in midair, the player is subject to ejection from the game and/or a fine. The NFL could take additional steps to prevent head injuries but is hesitant due to the number of upset fans regarding the new rules. The NFL ratings have slightly declined, and the league has received a high volume of negative feedback. Fans say that, “The NFL is not what it used to be.” And, “The NFL is getting softer.” The NFL is a business. With that being said, the NFL must keep their “Customers” happy in order to keep making money. Reducing the number of head injuries is not as simple as just changing the rules

 Many players have so much love for the game that an injury will not stop them from playing. If they are forced to miss a week for an injury, they will focus on the countdown to their return date rather than healing their injury. While the NFL concussion protocol is effective, if players who get a concussion were forced to sit out the rest of the season the risk of a player not being fully recovered or evaluated once returning to play would diminish. There have been many cases in which a player has not been honest about their well-being in attempt to return to play. Players will say they have no more symptoms then return to the game with a high potential of causing their current injury to become worse. If players were to sit out a full year, they would have plenty of time to get back to the speed of the game while performing contact drills and undergoing training on their own time, which is not possible when they jump right back into the game. Players such as lineman would benefit the most from this. Offensive and defensive lineman experience the highest amount of contact to their head. Every play they hit someone face to face. The average NFL game consists of 60 to 70 plays. That means that a lineman in the NFL will bang his head more than 60 times each week. While there is a high risk to any part of the body in the game of football, the brain is the most vulnerable. That is why it is essential to give it more than enough time to recover. Players who fail to treat a concussion properly and re-injure themselves cause worse effects and create a longer recovery time. Players think by sitting out a year, they will lose their spot and be worse off than if they just returned to play right away. Aside from having a higher risk of getting another concussion, players who re-injure their brain can experience an attention deficit that will remain with them for life. If players were to realize that waiting a year as opposed to living with health issues their entire life would benefit themselves and future NFL players, the NFL would no longer be responsible for health issues experienced by many former players. With the recent news of CTE found in former NFL players and concussions, people need to start taking head related injuries more seriously, given the short- and long-term effects.

 Trauma to the head from the NFL is a rising problem that is currently being studied and has been for many years. Due to the number of failed attempts to prevent head injuries, having players with head related injuries sit out a year would be a safe investment. Players avoiding those long term affects with concussions would not only benefit themselves, but their friends and family. Once a player experiences many concussions, they become more subject to experiencing CTE. An ex NFL player living with CTE, such as Aaron Hernandez, is likely to experience pain, violence, and other symptoms. Families have suffered from abuse and losing a loved one at an early age due to having CTE. In “ Researchers learning more about causes and effects of CTE” by Edward-Elmhurst Health, it was found that “Typically appearing in a person’s late 20s and early 30s, the symptoms of CTE include: Memory loss, headaches, anger, depression, impaired judgement, and even dementia.” While a player sitting out a year after a concussion has never been done and would possibly lead to angered fans, it is the most reliable option to prevent further brain injuries. Whatever the NFL’s next step is to reduce concussions, someone will be unhappy. Seeking the current and future health of an NFL player should be the leagues top priority, even if it means upsetting fans. No player should be forced to live with the consequences of CTE from being eager to get back on the field early. With the current knowledge the NFL has received from studies done on players with CTE, there is no reason that having them sit out a year should not be a set rule. By doing this, the NFL could avoid a lawsuit in the future and reduce the number of concussions substantially. There is no solution that will make every person happy. Fans are not the ones who endure the violence of the NFL and the long-term effects. If the NFL would have players who experience a concussion sit out a year, they would be prioritizing the health of the players, which should be the NFL’s top priority.  

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The NFL's Attempts to Absolve Itself of Liability and Use Longtime Social Conditioning to Its Advantage

As things currently stand, the NFL has continued facing legal challenges from former players and their families, arguing that more must be done to protect players and to support those effected by football-related brain injuries. The league currently uses legal arguments that are similar to those used by Big Tobacco companies after the Surgeon General officially linked cigarettes and cancer in 1964 (Paolini 2019:610). The NFL asserts that players assume the risk of CTE by continuing to play in the face of evidence that their cognitive functions are likely to ultimately suffer. This is in-line with Big Tobacco’s assertions during 20th century lawsuits, where they would argue that smokers assumed risk by smoking while knowing evidence linking cigarettes to cancer (Paolini 2019:610). An issue with this defense, though, is that the NFL long misled players and the public about the link between football and things like CTE. One cannot assume risk of something that they are told is not a risk for them. Simultaneously, given there is a financial and job security incentive to play, even with injury, players are not always assuming risk because they are willing to assume it. But rather, they are being pressured or forced into assuming such a risk (Paolini 2019:631). The assumption of risk is also impacted by the social conditioning that exists around football in the United States, with the violence and injuries of the game being normalized in the eyes of many. The attitude of assuming risk, because “you’re supposed to,” is common among players at all levels of the sport, including even kids. A survey found that 44.7% of high school players that were surveyed answered “yes” when asked if having a “good” chance to play in the NFL was worth a “decent chance” of permanent brain damage. 54.1% of those same kids surveyed also responded that they would play a concussed athlete in a state title game, despite only 2.1% of coaches and 9% of trainers opting to do so (Paolini 2019:634). These kids have been conditioned to think this way and are a part of the future generation of NFL players who will actually have to face these scenarios as a part of their reality.

The NFL cannot argue that players are willingly assuming risk of brain injury and disease when playing the sport, due to a variety of financial factors and social conditioning. Though football players that end their careers for non-medical reasons rate their health status and quality of life after retirement significantly better than players who had to retire due to injury, the prevailing belief amongst athletes, due to social conditioning, is that they must play until their bodies can no longer take it, happily accepting injury as a part of one’s life (Koch et al. 2021:3566). When this is the case for our society, in large part due to their own propaganda into the mainstream for decades to promote the sport and maximize popularity and revenue, the NFL cannot then plead a lack of accountability when faced with lawsuits.

One recent lawsuit that the league faced and was forced to settle on regarded the termination of race-based adjustments in dementia testing. To collect the aforementioned benefits provided to former players for cognitive diseases, as a result of added CBA provisions, one must pass the proper testing to be diagnosed and recognized for eligibility by the NFL. In a 2019 civil rights lawsuit it came to light that the league was using “race-norming” to adjust the results for black participants, which may have prevented hundreds of Black former players suffering from dementia to receive awards that average at around $500,000 or more. As a result of the settlement, the league will retest or provide a new round of cognitive testing for black retirees that were initially denied and for all those tested going forward. Due to 70% of the active players and more than 60% of living NFL retirees being Black, this settlement will likely be costly for the NFL. It is suspected that white retirees were qualifying for financial rewards at two or three times the rate of Black retirees since the payouts began in 2017. In the settlement, the league will have to pay out $1 billion in concussion claims. Though, like their approach in other cognitive disease-related lawsuits, the league assumed no wrongdoing as part of the agreement to provide a payout settlement (NPR 2021).  No matter how much progress might be made in regards to the health of current and former NFL players, whether it be improving the safety of the game or protecting the financial stability of those that have played, the league has repeatedly made it clear that they will exercise every possible way to hamper, stop, and misconstrue that progress. For the league, revenue and the growing of the brand will always come first. Maximizing the yearly profits for the team owners will come first. But protecting the players will not.

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College Football is Back, and I Will Be Watching

College Football is back! Since I was a young lad I have enjoyed watching college football; the pageantry, the passion, the rivalries, the tailgates, the hours of lying on a couch and being entertained. In college I was fortunate to attend during a time when my university was at the height of the sport and won a national championship. That only fueled my intense focus on the sport even more. But wait......aren't there a litany of problems in college football and college sports in general? Yes, yes there are. Problems that may affect the passion one has for the sport, possibly diminishing it enough not to watch or at the very least, watch with keeping these issues at the forefront of one's mind? Again, yes. This was supposed to be a pure, unadulterated and unfettered celebration of the return of America's premiere secular experience, it's now going to turn into one of those unbearable think pieces on the state of the game and how it relates to society, isn't it? Also, yes.

I suppose we can start at the fundamental argument of football itself. We all know football is a violent game, once so violent that in the infant days of college football it was almost outlawed due to the severe injuries and in some cases, death of ts participants.   It has only been recently that focus in the form of research and litigation that the overall merits of the game versus health of players has been examined. 

The most chilling accounts are of former players that have had severe declines in physical and mental health after leaving the game. Some have had the courage to have their bodies and in particular their brains donated to science to be examined after their death. The result have been mostly cases of severe CTE. What was more haunting than anything in the college football realm was Washington State quarterback Tyler Hilinski committing suicide this offseason and subsequently being found to have CTE. This was a player, in the most protected position in the game was found to have CTE while he was still in college. It gives some people pause to cheer on this sport that could have such grave implications. Increasingly, we are seeing lawsuits brought on by former college football players as the NCAA scrambles to fend off the lawsuits with one hand, and develop reasonable and protective concussion protocol with the other.  Unlike the NFL, college football is a scattered enterprise, comprised of hundreds of schools in their own conferences and at various levels of competition (Divisions I, II, III, NAIA, etc). These various levels of existence create various levels of funding and medical training staff. You do not have to be an SEC starter to be affected by an injury that will stay with you for years beyond your time on the field.

So how does one reconcile the potential crippling nature of the sport? Some don't mind, others will point to the voluntary nature of participation. While it is true that college football athletes are not held in captivity and forced to participate like gladiators of Rome, in certain cases football is the only means by which an individual can improve the status of their livelihood, or at least that is what they are told. The best I can offer is to recognize the issues that are happening, and not ignore them. Player safety has to be paramount, even when the game is based on violent collisions. Rule implementations have sought to decrease the worst kind of collisions by eliminating hits targeted at the head of other players, or by using the helmet as a launch weapon. There needs to be increased oversight of both coaches and players when it comes to injuries. Coaches want their best players to be out there, and players want to play just about no matter what. Still, when a player is lying motionless on the field after a big hit, or a player wobbly stumbles to the sidelines, the feeling of the why I watch and invest so much in watching creeps up the back of my neck.

The other prime element that makes for uncomfortable watching is the system of amateurism within college football. Having worked in the industry of college athletics, I could spew a book worth of thoughts on the framework of amateur college athletics in this country. To boil it down, the players deserve more. I do not believe they should be salaried employees, but they need to be compensated more than they already are at present. My main issue settles around the right for a player to use his(or her for female sports) image and likeness for monetary gain. I won't go into details here, but it can be accomplished without making it the wild west for boosters. Johnny Manziel, for all his flaws and faults deserved to capitalize on the swell of popularity while he played at Texas A&M. Whatever he was getting compensated for under the table, or outside the rules is irrelevant to this argument. If you are a public figure of note and entities around you are reaping the monetary benefits of your success, something is wrong. Again, I am not advocating for the third strong long snapper to get the same rate as the starting quarterback, but when billions in television deals, ad revenues and apparel sales for the school and other entities are being collected, something has to be done.

The laziest argument to be made for this issue is to simply say a scholarship/education is sufficient for these individuals at their collegiate institution. This is laughable considering the strides in awards the players are able to receive within the past decade. Scholarships can now go up to the university's listed cost of attendance which accounts for expenses outside of the traditional tuition, room and board, and books scholarships had been allowed to contain in the past. Furthermore, medical and academic expenses have no limit in terms of what the school can provide. Travel expenses, including for family members, have been expanded. If an education was enough, why has there been an increase in what players receive.Still, most polls show the public is in favor or just about even on the topic of paying collegiate players. The populace likes their tradition, especially when it comes to college football. As I watch on Saturdays, I again have that bad taste of knowing some of these players who will not make a living playing football professionally will have failed to make their due in college due to archaic rules. One glimmer is that things have changed and continue to change with great momentum in this area and in time we could see proper compensation or at least something closer to it. I doubt that is of comfort to those on the field now.

If I had to target one other major area which puts a significant cramp in my enjoyment of the sport of college football, it is the deification of coaches. Coaching a successful college football program is difficult, exceedingly so. My intent is not to diminish that or the profession in general. The problem I have is the autonomy, and in some cases the recklessness with which they are allowed to operate. I won't begrudge the enormous salaries, we do live in a free market now, don't we? It is amusing to me, however, how often athletic departments can get taken for a ride on a coach that has not proven much. This includes bloated buyouts on the back end so when a coach does fail or flame out in spectacular fashion, they are given a suitcase full of cash on the way out the door. Well, come to think of it, I guess that is little different for high-level executives in the corporate world. 

My grievances are more of certain individuals to resemble even a small slice of what they portend to be to their athletic departments, universities, the public at-large, and the parents of the players they coach. Too many times, and sadly mostly after tragedy occurs, we hear of how a coach operated with impunity, and fostered an environment that either put his players in danger or allowed his players to be a danger to others. There are countless examples, but I would like to focus on two. One is Butch Jones at Tennessee. There was a clear culture issue going on during his tenure there but the sole incident that burned me up was when a wide receiver was assisting and helping to report a victim of sexual assault by his teammates, Jones called him a traitor for betraying his teammates. The player also faced the wrath of his teammates and ended up transferring. Jones denied the allegations, but I remain dubious. Even if Jones is correct in that he never told the player that, it indicates the kind of toxic culture that can be fostered in football programs. Where crimes, and particularly those against women are not punished and reported correctly and those that want to report them fear the repercussions.

The other incident is the recent tragedy at Maryland. A young man lost his life because he was being put through physical conditioning drills while displaying signs of distress. This followed with players providing information to ESPN about the coaching and strength staff bullying players, and forcing them to workout without proper safety precautions. Furthermore, the article has a quote from an anonymous staff member saying they wouldn't let their son play in the program. This really infuriates me because it is the number one duty of athletic staff members to lookout for the welfare and well-being of student-athletes in their charge. Being aware of a bad situation and remaining silent is just as much of a horrid act as the perpetrators themselves. It is mind-blowing to me that in this day and age, with all the lives that have been lost in previous incidents, including recently, and everything we know about the science of performance, that we still have coaches that are pushing kids to extreme limits. Working them out past the duration that is healthy and denying them proper hydration. This doesn't mold men into battle-tested warriors, it puts their health and lives at risk. In game situations, you see trainers everywhere, water is provided at every turn, and if a player is fatigued he gets substituted. Why some feel the need to restrict these safeguards in training because they think it will make them perform better I'll never know. If you are familiar with the story of Bear Bryan't Junction Boys, you think to yourself that situation would never happen today. Unfortunately, there are coaches out there with this mindset. It is clearly a foolish and risky behavior.

These coaches are held on such pedestals they often think themselves beyond reproach. Urban Meyer's situation is still unfolding while he will remain as the coach at Ohio State, but the lengths that people have gone to in order to defend him and keep him there as their coach is telling about the culture across the country. These cultures are so embedded, they want their program to win and remain protected from outside forces, even in the face of criminal and horrifying atrocities. These people cannot be reasoned with, and any attempts at finding the real stories behind their coaches' scandals are met with extreme blowback. I don't know what exactly happened at Ohio State, but I know it wasn't good, and there were most likely negative situations that were not dealt with because of wanting to keep the status quo in place, which was winning football games.

These are not singular attacks on specific programs, if you root for a major college football program, myself included, you have witnessed a situation where the consideration of the football program or a high profile coach has been placed before human decency or even the law. It definitely affects how I have viewed the "purity" of college football. But in the end, is any large enterprise we consume a pure endeavor? We can answer "no" rather quickly because these all deal with human beings, and the fallibility humans show, particularly in college football, is both unsurprising and a reflection of bigger problems in society as a whole. However, with all this considered, knowing everything I know, being witness to how the sausage gets made and unable to simply be blissfully or willfully unaware of the blotches, I continue to watch. Not only that, I get excited to watch, I get animated when I see something online about my team or other teams that are meant to elicit a reaction. I won't say that I can't help it, or that I am an addict. It is a conscious choice to continue to consume college football. Despite the negatives, it is a great spectacle, with great story lines, characters, traditions, and a following that evokes every emotion imaginable. I don't watch in defiance of the apparent negatives, but with the acknowledgement that I am experiencing something I love, that I wish it will to strive to be better, and that is imperfect.  

[actsoflancaster-blog]

“The Game, the Brain and the Scary Truth” -by Joseph H. Lucas PsyD

 Aaron Hernandez Had Severe C.T.E. When He Died at Age 27

The Game, the Brain and the Scary Truth

- by Joseph H. Lucas PsyD

 For many football players across the country Mini Camp or summer practice will soon begin for “Pop Warner” through College and even the National Football League (NFL).  Though many parents, coaches, athletic trainers and team physicians will be focused on ensuring players safety from heat exhaustion.

 The most publicised and perhaps most important aspects of the game, “Player Safety” will be put to the test.  The terms “Player Safety” and “Heads Up Football,” mean brain safety.  Through the promotion “correct” tackling technique which is not leading and tackling with the crown of one’s helmet and the teaching of “better tackling techniques,” such as tackling with your “head up looking straight ahead at your target,” safer football’s goal is for players to sustain fewer concussions and Mild Traumatic Brain Injury (MTBI).  

 We now know the dangers of head injuries in sports and any of life’s arenas can have immediate and life-altering effects.  For instance, Twice concussion syndrome (sustaining a significant concussion, before the sequela or adverse neurological and neuropsychological symptoms for the initial concussion have abated) can lead to death and/or permanent brain damage.  The latest brain research and cadaver brain studies indicate that multiple concussions and MTBI can lead to Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), an inorganic and devastating brain “disease” that ultimately leads to death.

Many parents across the country may be considering or even acting upon not allowing their children to participate in football due to the inherent dangers that the game presents to their children’s brains.  Our brains control every organ and process in our body; from our heart rate, blood pressure to thoughts and emotions, even creativity, it is not surprising that parents may balk when signing the consent or permission to play form.

 Perhaps the sport that has arisen to “America’s New Pastime,” but increased awareness of the dangers that lurk inside each and every game, and the lack of evidence to support the fact that tackling with “heads up” is reducing any or immediate or long-term term brain damages, would make this parent get “writer's cramp” when it would come to sign the parental consent form to play football.  You may ask why would an ex-high school cornerback and quarterback make such a blasphemous statement?  Then, I direct you to read the disturbing and sobering article regarding Aaron Hernandez, who at just 27  years old was posthumously diagnosed with Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE).  The Ex-New England Patriot and All-Pro Football Player died of a suicide inside the walls of a prison and it is not doubted in my mind that his murderous behavior turned suicidal; both most definitely due to playing football and sustaining multiple concussions and MTBI.”  So read on and hold on for the ride and I warn you, you made need a box of tissues.

 “BOSTON — The brain arrived in April, delivered to the basement of the hospital without ceremony, like all the others. There were a few differences with this one — not because it was more important, but because it was more notorious.

It went to the lab outside the city, instead of the one in Boston, where most of the examinations are performed these days, because it was less likely to attract attention that way. Instead of being carried in through the service entrance, it was ushered in secretly through the underground tunnel system. The brain was given a pseudonym, and only three people knew how to identify it.Other than that, the brain came alone and disconnected from its past, unattached to its celebrity. The sordid details of the man’s rise and fall, the speculation over what went wrong, the debate over justice — all that was left behind for others to assess.

It was just a brain, not large or small, not deformed or extraordinary in appearance, an oblong and gelatinous coil weighing 1,573 grams, or about three and a half pounds, just carved from the skull of a 27-year-old man. The coroner took special care, and it arrived hours later in near-perfect condition.

“They handled everything beautifully,” the neuropathologist said.

The laboratory was a 30-minute drive from the prison where the man hanged himself a night or two earlier. His name was familiar to the scientists, just as he was to people throughout New England and many around the country. Now his brain was about 30 miles north of where the man had most recently worked, in Foxborough, Mass.

They expected a normal brain because of the man’s age.

“I didn’t equate his behavior with the disease,” the neuropathologist said. “I just thought that’s who he was.”

On the table, the brain appeared healthy. The meninges, the layers of translucent membranes that coat and protect the brain, still enveloped it. The brain had a healthy sheen.

The brain was sliced into sheaths, maybe a half-inch at a time, starting at the front. That was where the first inkling came that this was not just another 27-year-old brain. Even to the naked eye, the cross sections had substantial gaps in the tissues — fluid-filled ventricles that expanded as the brain tissue itself shrank. A cross section of a healthy 27-year-old brain looks robust, fleshy. This one was hollowed by boomerang-shaped caverns.

“The reason the skull grows is to make room for the growing brain,” the neuropathologist explained. “Everything is packed really tightly. Nature doesn’t leave any gaps.”

The septum pellucidum, a small membrane between the two halves of the brain, was atrophied to the point that it looked withered and fragile, even perforated. When the neuropathologist later went to look for others in a similar condition, the youngest comparable example was a 46-year-old boxer.

The fornix, a C-shaped bundle of nerves, was similarly deteriorated, stripped of its relative heft. The hippocampus, too. Even some of the most famously diseased brains that the neuropathologist had explored, from men who had died decades later, did not have such obvious signs of destruction when examined by the naked eye.

But only under a microscope could the disease be diagnosed with certainty. Wafer-like tissues were immunostained, using antibodies designed to discolor a specific protein — in this case, tau, which clumps and spreads, killing brain cells. That is where the full scope of the damage was apparent.

Tau, stained brown, appeared like bursts of fireworks in the frontal cortex, the part of the brain that controls decision making, impulse and inhibition. The neuropathologist could see it spreading through the brain. It was in the amygdala, the part of the brain that regulates emotions like fear and anxiety, and the temporal lobe. She spotted “a perfect demonstration” of lesions around the tiny blood vessels, a telltale sign. She found previous microhemorrhages and astrocytic scarring around the ventricles.

She declared the case Stage 3 on her own scale of severity, which goes from 1 to 4. It was the most damage she had seen in anyone that age. Among the hundreds of other brains she had examined and graded, the median age of a Stage 3 brain from \his profession was 67. Now she had one that was only 27.

What made the brain extraordinary, for the purpose of science, was not just the extent of the damage, but its singular cause. Most brains with that kind of damage have sustained a lifetime of other problems, too, from strokes to other diseases, like Alzheimer’s. Their samples are muddled, and not everything found can be connected to one particular disease.

This one looked as if it had been lifted from the pages of a textbook devoted to just one disease.

“It’s rare for us to get a brain of a person this young in such good shape,” the neuropathologist said. “It is a classic case. And it tells us a lot about the disease.”

The brain is no longer a brain, in function or form, because it has been sliced into pieces. Those pieces have been numbered, archived and stored. Scientists still study it, probably will for years, because it is such a perfect, fascinating specimen.

The neuropathologist and her closest associates kept this all to themselves for months, though, until the man’s family agreed to let the results go public. In September, the news came out and the headlines returned, but the neuropathologist did no interviews. She released only a short statement confirming the results of the examination.

“I didn’t want to contribute to the sensationalism,” she said.

But science cannot advance without the cumulative power of research, which was why she was in a university ballroom on Thursday, in front of more than 150 neurologists, pathologists and other scientists.She stood in the dark and put a PowerPoint presentation on the screen, several dozen slides of images showing an immensely atrophied young brain, the mind of a former star in his field who was also a convicted murderer. “He had beautiful pathology, if you can call it beautiful,” the neuropathologist had said earlier.  The particulars of the damage that the neuropathologist detailed — the tangled tau proteins, the battered frontal cortex, the shrunken tissues and the enlarged ventricles — have long become familiar to those paying attention to brain science. They are the things that threaten the long-term future of the industry in which the man worked.This is where his job faces the most scrutiny — under the microscope in darkened labs and in the scientific presentations at academic conferences.

“It’s scientifically interesting,” the neuropathologist said. “To me, it’s a fascinating brain.”

Retrieved 11/14/2017 from: https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/11/09/sports/aaron-hernandez-brain-cte.html?smid=tw-share&referer=

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The NFL's Impossible Mission: Making Us Feel Less Guilty About Watching

The 2017 NFL regular season has mercifully reached its end. The ratings were down again, the concussion protocol continues to be extremely unreliable, and the league's most exciting new stars, DeShaun Watson and Carson Wentz, both suffered season-ending injuries. To make things worse, we're about to enter a postseason where once again, the Patriots look like the clear favorites. If this were the NFL's first rough season in awhile, no one would be noticing much, but football has been trending downward on a consistent basis. There's always a scandal for Roger Goodell to handle poorly. There's always atrocious Thursday games to complain about, and overhyped Sunday Night games to disappoint. And finally, there's always the CTE crisis lingering in the background of our consciences. The NFL's problems aren't going away, But will fans?

New York magazine wondered if the league could be crumbling, noting that the combination of liberals appalled by the game's barbarism and conservatives outraged at anthem protests could leave the game without a logical audience. Bill Simmons, no stranger to criticizing Goodell, rang in the season with a piece bemoaning the many ways the league has fallen under Goodell's reign, noting that "football might have to go away" at some point. David Roth posited in Victory Journal that we might just have to get used to the NFL being a shell of its former self. The picture being painted here and elsewhere is one of increasing pessimism regarding the NFL in recent years and this year was the bleakest.

Then again, maybe things aren’t as bad as writers on the internet will have you think. Yes, the ratings are down, but it's not because fewer people are watching the games, but rather because they don't watch for quite as long. This is still a problem when we consider the recent issue of poor quality of play, but it would indicate that there hasn't actually been a widespread drop-off in viewership due to anthem protests or concerns about player safety. And with Wentz, Watson, and the rise of Jimmy Garoppolo, not to mention a loaded draft class this year, the NFL appears to be getting a much-needed boost in marketable, star-caliber quarterbacks. So what’s going on? Is this the beginning of the end, with people growing increasingly troubled by what the NFL is actually selling? Or could we just chalk all this existential NFL dread up to a momentary blip, the bust portion of the cycle that always follows the boom?

We like to think this depends on the NFL’s leadership, that this is a watershed moment for Roger Goodell and Co., but the truth of it is that it mostly comes down to us, the fans, casual and die-hards alike, and what we are willing to countenance in exchange for our entertainment. We know that the league is at least trying to sell a safer product to us, despite hearing about most of the initiatives from Roger Goodell’s forked tongue. Still, the part of us that would desperately like to watch football without being ravaged by guilt would love to see the concussion protocol somehow work, or get some concrete evidence that things are actually getting better. When we become outraged by events like the Tom Savage debacle in Houston, we like to believe our righteous anger is on behalf of the players in question. How could you let that poor man back in the game when he had clearly had a concussion?! Really though, our rage has more to do with a desperate desire for someone, in this case Goodell and the NFL, to make it OK, or at least palatable, to watch 300-pound men give each other brain damage each week. This is not to absolve the NFL of its never-ending string of fuckups, but we should also acknowledge that ultimately, we're the ones watching, and we have no choice but to turn our moral outrage inward.

Pro football requires players to assume significant risks to both their current and future well being. They do assume this risk in exchange for large paychecks, but we have only just realized that for a very long time, they did not know the extent of this risk. In fact, the league actively misled players about the inherent dangers of playing. If we're torn between knowing how bad football is and still liking it in the present, can you imagine the dilemma as fans and players continue to educate themselves? We might feel that the morally righteous thing would be for both the NFL and football as we presently know it to fall off the face of the earth. And yet, we already know such horrible things about the toll football takes, and many of us still watch. We might just want the game to continue to exist because we like it so much.

Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

Of course, we could defend ourselves here by saying that even if we want the league to be safer for selfish reasons, at least we still want it to be safer, right? But that’s the thing: we don’t want the league to be safe—injuries at this point are a feature of football, not a bug—we just want it to be safer. Safe enough that we won’t be harangued by our guilty consciences when we tune in for America’s Game Of The Week. The absolute best-case scenario is that there’s less CTE. A concussion protocol that actually worked could remedy the situation somewhat, but it wouldn’t change the fact that CTE has more to do with the accumulation of hits throughout a career than concussions. But if we’re being honest, most football fans just want the amount of brain damage to decrease to a more manageable level, where they wouldn’t have to hear about it so much.

That's where I continue to face my own hypocrisy. Ask me if I'm watching football on any given weekend, I'll say "yes" even though the right answer is "no, I haven't watched that Barbaric garbage since 2011!" Same goes for the future, when I ponder the possibility of whether I want the league to survive its current morass or be taken down once and for all, I know that I'm supposed to want it to die. And yet, I don't. I hate everything the NFL's empire stands for, and yet, deep down, I still want it to be there when I'm pushing 60, and I’m guessing you do, too. We’re all massive hypocrites, in part because football is our most paradoxical game: it's the most brilliantly designed combination of strategy and athleticism ever conceived, and it's also a factory of violence, brain damage, and early death that has no place in a civilized society.

And, at the end of the day, maybe that is really what’s going on here. Between a lull in bona fide stars in recent years, and an increased awareness of just how brutal the sport can be for those who play it, watching every game every week for many is suddenly not worth the mental gymnastics required to justify it. It has never been about the anything league itself, or Roger Goodell, has done or will do. And it’s not about anything Colin Kaepernick has done either. The single greatest threat to the NFL has always come down to how much of our humanity are we willing to ignore in order to tune in.

The NFL's Impossible Mission: Making Us Feel Less Guilty About Watching published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv

[amtushinfosolutionspage]

The NFL’s Impossible Mission: Making Us Feel Less Guilty About Watching

The 2017 NFL regular season has mercifully reached its end. The ratings were down again, the concussion protocol continues to be extremely unreliable, and the league’s most exciting new stars, DeShaun Watson and Carson Wentz, both suffered season-ending injuries. To make things worse, we’re about to enter a postseason where once again, the Patriots look like the clear favorites. If this were the NFL’s first rough season in awhile, no one would be noticing much, but football has been trending downward on a consistent basis. There’s always a scandal for Roger Goodell to handle poorly. There’s always atrocious Thursday games to complain about, and overhyped Sunday Night games to disappoint. And finally, there’s always the CTE crisis lingering in the background of our consciences. The NFL’s problems aren’t going away, But will fans?

New York magazine wondered if the league could be crumbling, noting that the combination of liberals appalled by the game’s barbarism and conservatives outraged at anthem protests could leave the game without a logical audience. Bill Simmons, no stranger to criticizing Goodell, rang in the season with a piece bemoaning the many ways the league has fallen under Goodell’s reign, noting that “football might have to go away” at some point. David Roth posited in Victory Journal that we might just have to get used to the NFL being a shell of its former self. The picture being painted here and elsewhere is one of increasing pessimism regarding the NFL in recent years and this year was the bleakest.

Then again, maybe things aren’t as bad as writers on the internet will have you think. Yes, the ratings are down, but it’s not because fewer people are watching the games, but rather because they don’t watch for quite as long. This is still a problem when we consider the recent issue of poor quality of play, but it would indicate that there hasn’t actually been a widespread drop-off in viewership due to anthem protests or concerns about player safety. And with Wentz, Watson, and the rise of Jimmy Garoppolo, not to mention a loaded draft class this year, the NFL appears to be getting a much-needed boost in marketable, star-caliber quarterbacks. So what’s going on? Is this the beginning of the end, with people growing increasingly troubled by what the NFL is actually selling? Or could we just chalk all this existential NFL dread up to a momentary blip, the bust portion of the cycle that always follows the boom?

We like to think this depends on the NFL’s leadership, that this is a watershed moment for Roger Goodell and Co., but the truth of it is that it mostly comes down to us, the fans, casual and die-hards alike, and what we are willing to countenance in exchange for our entertainment. We know that the league is at least trying to sell a safer product to us, despite hearing about most of the initiatives from Roger Goodell’s forked tongue. Still, the part of us that would desperately like to watch football without being ravaged by guilt would love to see the concussion protocol somehow work, or get some concrete evidence that things are actually getting better. When we become outraged by events like the Tom Savage debacle in Houston, we like to believe our righteous anger is on behalf of the players in question. How could you let that poor man back in the game when he had clearly had a concussion?! Really though, our rage has more to do with a desperate desire for someone, in this case Goodell and the NFL, to make it OK, or at least palatable, to watch 300-pound men give each other brain damage each week. This is not to absolve the NFL of its never-ending string of fuckups, but we should also acknowledge that ultimately, we’re the ones watching, and we have no choice but to turn our moral outrage inward.

Pro football requires players to assume significant risks to both their current and future well being. They do assume this risk in exchange for large paychecks, but we have only just realized that for a very long time, they did not know the extent of this risk. In fact, the league actively misled players about the inherent dangers of playing. If we’re torn between knowing how bad football is and still liking it in the present, can you imagine the dilemma as fans and players continue to educate themselves? We might feel that the morally righteous thing would be for both the NFL and football as we presently know it to fall off the face of the earth. And yet, we already know such horrible things about the toll football takes, and many of us still watch. We might just want the game to continue to exist because we like it so much.

Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

Of course, we could defend ourselves here by saying that even if we want the league to be safer for selfish reasons, at least we still want it to be safer, right? But that’s the thing: we don’t want the league to be safe—injuries at this point are a feature of football, not a bug—we just want it to be safer. Safe enough that we won’t be harangued by our guilty consciences when we tune in for America’s Game Of The Week. The absolute best-case scenario is that there’s less CTE. A concussion protocol that actually worked could remedy the situation somewhat, but it wouldn’t change the fact that CTE has more to do with the accumulation of hits throughout a career than concussions. But if we’re being honest, most football fans just want the amount of brain damage to decrease to a more manageable level, where they wouldn’t have to hear about it so much.

That’s where I continue to face my own hypocrisy. Ask me if I’m watching football on any given weekend, I’ll say “yes” even though the right answer is “no, I haven’t watched that Barbaric garbage since 2011!” Same goes for the future, when I ponder the possibility of whether I want the league to survive its current morass or be taken down once and for all, I know that I’m supposed to want it to die. And yet, I don’t. I hate everything the NFL’s empire stands for, and yet, deep down, I still want it to be there when I’m pushing 60, and I’m guessing you do, too. We’re all massive hypocrites, in part because football is our most paradoxical game: it’s the most brilliantly designed combination of strategy and athleticism ever conceived, and it’s also a factory of violence, brain damage, and early death that has no place in a civilized society.

And, at the end of the day, maybe that is really what’s going on here. Between a lull in bona fide stars in recent years, and an increased awareness of just how brutal the sport can be for those who play it, watching every game every week for many is suddenly not worth the mental gymnastics required to justify it. It has never been about the anything league itself, or Roger Goodell, has done or will do. And it’s not about anything Colin Kaepernick has done either. The single greatest threat to the NFL has always come down to how much of our humanity are we willing to ignore in order to tune in.

The NFL’s Impossible Mission: Making Us Feel Less Guilty About Watching syndicated from http://ift.tt/2ug2Ns6

[thesportsplanet]

The Unraveling of the NFL

If you’ve been following the news at any point in 2017, you are aware that the NFL hasn’t had a great season: the frequent diagnosis of CTE amongst former players, a decline in TV ratings and the ongoing national anthem protest debate are areas the league’s hasn’t performed well in.

Player safety is ultimately the largest threat to the sustainability and future of the sport. When asked to choose between a future of degenerative brain disease, ACL reconstruction, or Tommy John surgery, parents will sign their children up for the sports with higher life expectancy ages attached to them. While efforts are made to try to make the game safer, a Bengal can’t change its stripes. Fans may not care as much about this, but as a business always looking to its 5-year and 10-year projections; this is definitely an area of concern for the NFL. What appears to be at the forefront are the TV ratings and player protests. This is where I believe the NFL has found itself in a bit of a jam, as the narrative has been that the former is occurring due to the latter. Football is the most popular professional sport in the country and a product based on a team’s proclivity for winning. In theory something so unrelated to the “X’s and O’s” of football should not be able to turn fans away, especially given how matters of domestic abuse and rampant drug use haven’t done so already.

A breakdown of the relationship between NFL fans and the players warrants an entire post by itself.  In short, the dynamic serves as a microcosm of American society. Professional sports provide a bit more leash in the realm of race relations compared to America as a whole but a closer look reveals this leash is still tied to a fence. Case in point was Houston Texans owner Bob McNair using the analogy of preventing the inmates from “running the asylum prison” to explain some owners’ desire to curb player protests.

From the social media wide discussion of this incident, I came across a tweet from sports radio host and NFL analyst Benjamin Allbright (@AllbrightNFL) that struck a chord with me, it said: “The owners need the players. The players don’t need the owners, a new league would be up and running in 6 months.”

The notion of this tweet goes against the foundational fabric of the NFL. Part of consuming sports at any level is to understand the values that they exude. Football teaches the importance of the collective. One system aids another and together the unit is able to succeed. As fans we like the team and generally frown upon any player whom would dare to put his own benefit above the team. If the player is hurt, we expect him to play through the pain, as it would be seen as a sacrifice for the team. What are the owner’s providing the players for their sacrifice? Most will point to the millions of dollars NFL players make, but fail to point out that the league trails its peers in average career length and is the only major American sports entity without guaranteed contracts. I would imagine one of the first things you’d look to establish control over the players would be to continually glorify the notion of the team and the player’s duty to the fans and the local community. Throw in a collectively bargained agreement, make a few concessions, and create the illusion that the owners are the handlers of the deck.

Ben is correct. The NFL enjoys a monopoly as not only the premier organization for high-ranking football but also as one of the few that exists. American football isn’t a worldwide phenomenon like soccer or basketball. Rival leagues would simply not be able to compete with the NFL for top talent or sponsors. The best shot any competitor has at the moment is to offer a slightly different product that would provide solutions to the issues the NFL currently faces. If leagues have attempted to operate with the NFL in town, imagine the flood to the market that would occur if the NFL ceased to exist. Ben’s tweet is so poignant as it drives home the precarious situation NFL owners are in. They are not the ones with the talent, they are the ones with the money.  If all it takes to put on a show like the NFL is people with money, then the owners should recognize how replaceable they truly are.

The catalyst is and has always been the players. This is a key moment in the history of the NFL because this era features the players coming together to understand and utilize their power. Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones stated that any player of his, not in full acknowledgement of the flag and the national anthem, would not play. The response from many immediately questioned the validity of that vow as it would have related to star players such as Dak Prescott, Ezekiel Elliot or Dez Bryant. If the name of the game is wins and losses, how could you answer to essentially forfeiting a game by sitting your three best players?

In response to McNair’s “inmate” comments, Houston Texans wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins did not participate in practice and would have been joined by teammates had coaches not persuaded them to take part. The NFL is between a rock and a hard place, in the middle of a battle with its players and its consumers over an issue that isn’t football related. While football has historically always been able to serve as a distraction for many world problems, this issue remains—with players opting to use their platform to enact societal change. The league’s neutrality is still making a decision against the players in a issue that demands a side be taken. Not one based on politics but one based on humanity and respecting your players as such.

Maybe instead of attempting to prevent the players from running the league, you work with the players to create not only a better league and but a better society as well.

(Photo Credit: NY Daily News)