CTE In Football

Statistics have shown that over 300,000, student athletes have sustained concussions per year. Concussions are the leading factor to student athletes getting CTE. CTE is a degenerative brain disease that involves a buildup of the abdominal protein (Tao). Studies have shown that 21% of high school players will contain CTE in their life (Haelle). Not only are concussions tackling athletes, but football is also causing serious bone injuries. Student athletes suffer an estimated 2 million injuries every year, which results in 500,000, doctor visits and 30,000 hospitalizations. Injuries go from broken figures all the way up to a broken neck or back. Studies have shown and will continue to show that football puts the greatest risk of injury on student athletes.

CTE is a brain disease found in individuals with annals of head trauma. It has specifically been found in athletes with numerous concussions. So far it can only be diagnosed in the deceased, but Dr. Julian Bales and his staff in UCLA have discovered symptoms in living players such as Hall of Famer Anthony “Tony” Dorsett, Hall of Famer Joe DeLamielleure, and NFL All-Pro Leonard Marshall. CTE can cause memory loss, dementia, depression, suicidal thoughts, cognitive and emotional difficulties (Waldron par 1, 2, 3). Is it a compelling issue? A total of 171 concussions were reported in the NFL in the 2012-2013 season; 88 thus far in the 2013-2014 season (Frontline pt). Those are just numbers in the professional level. There are thousands of kids playing football either in youth, middle school, high school, or college level. The diagnosis is currently in progress, researchers are optimistic this could lead to a legitimate treatment, how to manage, and hopefully a cure. Furthermore, this can also possibly lead to an answer to a connection between football and chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Junior Seau, Mike Webster, Terry Long, and Justin Strzelczyk (all of whom are dead now) are all men who played in the NFL for an extent period of time. This is not the only thing they have in common. These former players had an uncustomary

CTE affects many different athletes all over the world. Chronic Traumatic encephalopathy or normally referred to as CTE is a brain disease that affects people who have had multiple head injuries. It is found in many cases of ex NFL players who took many hits to the head when playing over their careers. There are many documented cases of it across other sports and some military veterans as well. We have made large strides in learning more and more about the terrible disease. The game of football has changed since we have learned so much more about the terrible disease in recent years. We could prevent concussions by changing the way players practice.

While the NFL is putting new rules and regulations on equipment and which type of tackles are allowed, living retired NFL players are found to already have symptoms of CTE (Fainaru, 2013). Through brain scans and research done by UCLA, they have identified proteins in player’s brains that cause CTE, which as Dr. Julian Bailes, co-director or North Shore Neurological Institute said, is the “holy grail” to studying CTE and finding ways to cure and prevent it (Fainaru, 2013). While this is a break through, there is still no cure or way to treat CTE (Fainaru, 2013). But this research also raises questions about CTE and the NFL. Will players be required to be tested for CTE? Can players be denied playing anymore if CTE is found? Will this greatly affect the way that football is currently played? As the research is still being collected, there is still no definite answer to any of those questions, but the NFL has acknowledged the correlations of CTE and concussions caused by playing in the NFL and assures that they will do all they can to help prevent severe brain trauma to their players, including donating $30 million to the National Institutes of Health to conduct further research on CTE (Kroll, 2013).

According to James Bukes of the Pittsburgh Post, “The physical manifestations of CTE are a reduction in brain weight with atrophy of the medial temporal lobe, the frontal and temporal cortices, the brainstem, cerebellum hippocampus and other parts of the brain” (Bukes). This reduction in brain weight and brain size is caused by repetitive hits to the head, which is most often found in sports such as boxing, hockey and most notably, American Football. Due to the reduction of brain size, CTE has become known as an extremely debilitating disease, as well as life threatening. In an article from the Northeastern University the symptoms of CTE have been stated as, “depression, anger, memory loss and suicide” (Polnerow). There have been several cases reported of football players committing suicide, and then later being found to have been afflicted by this disease, most notably Dave Duerson, who donated his brain to CTE research after having committed suicide. Even though CTE has been proven through repeated studies, the general public is still in conflict over the true dangers of CTE and even if CTE is a true disease. In one study, 90 brains that had been examined of football players postmortem, 86 of them had cases of CTE (Storin). This is nearly 96 percent of examined brains that were found to contain CTE, meanwhile only 10 percent of the public are reported

Football is one of the most popular sports in the United States and has brought the talk of concussions into the spotlight. A movie was recently created called Concussion to raise public awareness and educate its viewers on the seriousness and severity of head trauma that occurs in the NFL. In total, there are 1,696 players in the NFL, which reported 271 concussions in 2015 alone.1 Concussions have become an important issue because it leads to the condition known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which is also known as CTE, and in recent years the National Football League settled a lawsuit that was brought on by 4,500 former players for concussion-related injuries.2 CTE has been diagnosed in

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy effects over 1.2 million professional athletes every season from the pop warner leagues to the professional leagues. There are several ways to get a concussion. The most common way to get a concussion is through the engagement in sports, and sports-related activities. Other common ways are car accidents, motorcycle accidents, falls from a big playground obstacle, and more. The symptoms of a concussion can last for various intervals of time, most concussions that occur as a result of full blown hit to an athlete last for months and years. The ignorance of not knowing what a concussion is, results in the death of various prominent athletes in the professional league. Athletes such as : Owen Thomas , Mike Borich , Junior Seau , John Mackey , John Grimsley , Lou Creekmur , Ray Easterling , Dave Duerson all committed suicide due to concussion trauma and injuries.

Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) is most commonly found in pro athletes, military victims, and boxing/MMA(Mixed Martial Arts). Lately people in the NFL and people looking into the NFL have been finding some players to have some kind of brain disease or damage because of the

Of the 1,696 players, 271 players suffered a concussion through the first day of practice to the Super Bowl. That is roughly twelve percent of NFL players suffering a concussion in this latest season. In all of the articles researched, the authors have mentioned CTE, which has been stated as a fact after multiple traumatic brain injuries. With the mentions of CTE addresses the suicides of Junior Seau, Frank Gifford, and many other players who played back in the time with less rules and notifications of players having head and neck injuries.

Signs such as memory disturbances, behavioral and personality changes, parkinsonism, language, and gait abnormalities are just some of the few consequences people have to live with who are affected with CTE.1,5 The condition is characteristic of atrophy associated with medial and temporal lobes, ventricle dilation, and widespread tau-immunoreactive pathology. Evidence all points that repetitive traumatic brain injuries lead to CTE before any clinical manifestations arise.1 By instituting proper head protection, as well as safer return to play guidelines after head injury, CTE can be dramatically reduced in athletes all around the world. In more drastic approaches, certain high impact sports can be eliminated as a whole in order to greatly reduce CTE in athletes. There is no cure, no treatment options, and no tests available yet to diagnosis this disease. Experts urge that the best preventative to CTE is to avoid all contact sports in altogether, something that millions fail to

A CTE, or Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, is a, “progressive degenerative disease that is believed to plague people who've suffered severe or repeated blows to the head” (Murphy). A player can have a CTE and not even know that they are suffering from it. This is because CTEs can only be discovered after the person dies. Paul Bright, for example, was a football player who played from the time that he was seven until he was a freshman in high school. He had experienced only one concussion, but it changed his entire life. His family and friends described him as hard working and upbeat, but then, something changed. He became reckless and erratic; these traits caused him to die at age twenty-four from a motorcycle wreck. His mother sent his brain off to be tested and discovered that he had been suffering from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. This brain disease had caused him to make the type of impulsive decisions that took his life (Murphy). In addition to the CTEs players may experience, the likelihood of dying from brain and nervous system issues increases significantly for football players. Studies from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health discovered that, “death involving neurodegenerative causes among the retired players was three times higher than in the general U.S. population, and the risk for two major

It is estimated that over 90% of today's NFL players have a brain issue even if they do not know about it. On average, each football player gets hit 2,500 times to the head in a career. The centers take about 25,000 tackles to the head in an average career if they go to the NFL. After 9 or 10 concussions, you probably have a disease in you. In the year 2015, there were 271 concussions, in 2014, there were 206, in 2013, there was 229, and in 2012, there was 261 concussions. That adds up to 967 in 4 years. Dr Bennett Omalu was the first doctor to find this brain issue, and he has a foundation to help the players and families that have suffered with this issue. He named it Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or CTE. CTE is a brain disease that

Over the past several years, concussions and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) have become hot topics in the world of football. The long lasting effects of concussions and CTE experienced

CTE, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, has become a serious issue for NFL players and that issue is only continuing to grow. CTE is a progressive degenerative disease of the brain found in athletes, mostly boxers and football players, with a history of repetitive brain trauma, including symptomatic concussions as well as hits to the head.

To finalize, CTE is a serve illness that affects many athletes of contact supports and us as parents of our children need to be educated on CTE and need to educate our children so they know what is in store for them and what the possibilities are of playing these sports. We often allow our children to play these contact sports at young ages, and the damage can be that more dangerous since most parents let their children play sports before the age of four at that age brains are still developing the human brain is not even complete develop until age twenty-five. I hope you learned from reading this paper and are aware of the risk factors of playing sports. We need to educate families of athletes that play contact sports and the athletes themselves, so they can be aware of symptoms and signs of CTE and seek help before it is too late.