The Risk of CTE and Tackle Football, Especially in Youngsters

I was watching a PBS special on WGBH, Boston, last night.  I would strongly recommend any parent of young boys who are considering playing football, especially tackle football, to watch this show about the NFL and CTE before allowing their child to join a team.

CTE, for those of you not familiar, stands for, "Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy."  This is a newly diagnosed condition caused by concussive events and even found in those with minor repetitive blows to the head.  You'll remember that I talked about the end effects of repeated micro-trauma in my blog, earlier this week.  The neuropathologists are finding that the frontal lobes of the brains of these men who used to play professional football have developed  multiple holes. The brain of one 18 year old young man who died, suddenly, was found to have holes in the frontal lobe and he had had only 4 known concussive events playing high school football. 

What this means is that we should, as a nation who loves football, at least be willing to reconsider the possible ramifications that those playing this sport face.  Is there irrefutable evidence linking concussions and CTE in every case? No, there isn't.  That fact is enough for the commissioner of football to continue to reflect any questions about this condition.  Remember when the tobacco industry tried the same tactics a couple of decades ago?  The reason they didn't get away with their ridiculous argument that tobacco wasn't addictive  was that the law suits by survivors went to court and all the evidence proving the contrary was able to come to light.  Unfortunately, the same situation isn't possible concerning CTE and the NFL because the scores of ex-professional football players who sued the NFL was settled out of court.  All the data that the football league compiled in regards to the connection between concussions and CTE have been buried.  However, we do have a number of neuropathologists, who are studying the donated brains of deceased professional football players, publishing their findings. 

One neuropathologist, who was interviewed in the PBS program, recommends that no boy under the age of 14 play tackle football.  The main problem is that the brains of children are smaller than the brains of adults and, thus, are more susceptible to damage from concussions.  The brain "bounces" around in the head after it has been hit.  This is called a, "contra coup," injury and can be more damaging because of the continued hits the brain takes after the initial contact.

There have been many reports of retired NFL players having personality changes and committing suicide, all as a result of CTE.  Junior Seau's brain after his suicide just a couple of years ago was found to contain multiple holes in the frontal lobe=CTE.  A survey was done by the NFL of retired players as to how many of them showed symptoms and signs of dementia and/or Alzheimer's.  Their own study showed a disproportionate percentage of players to the general population were suffering from these brain diseases.

I truly hope that we will not offer up our young sons as guinea pigs until all the scientists agree about the cause and effect of CTE and multiple concussions.  We need to protect our children because we want the best for them and for them to live long, healthy lives.  We must decide what we are willing to sacrifice for the sake of our favorite sport: the well being of the players or the thrill of the "killer" hits.
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