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Jake Wells
Professor Blakelock
ENG 2100-30
7 February, 2016
Concussion
Frontline, an investigative journal that is a subsect of PBS, reported on
numbers from the Department of Veterans Affairs and Boston University, where
researchers studied the brains of 165 people who played football at the high school,
college, or professional level. Evidence of CTE was found in 131 of them79
percent. Of the brains studied, 91 of them belonged to former NFL players, and 87
of those 91 (96 percent) had signs of CTE (Beck, 2015). Since 2002, when Dr.

Bennett Omalu discovered this disease in former Pittsburgh Steelers player,

Mike Webster, it has continued to come to the attention of many people
about the risks involved in playing high contact sports, such as football. The
NFL has had to fight lawsuits that former players have brought against them
due to the concerns that they were hiding information about the risks
involved in playing football. Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy is a very
serious issue, some considering it to be the start an epidemic, among
athletes that can only be diagnosed posthumously. The prevalence of CTE in
football players demands further study to prevent more deaths and/or
prevent more athletes from developing it.

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Concussions, injuries caused by blows to the head, can lead to Chronic

Traumatic Encephalopathy, also known as CTE, but not all concussions cause
CTE. However, research is inconclusive that one would need to have a
concussion to be diagnosed with CTE even though CTE is caused by high
impact hits to the head. Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or CTE, is a
progressive neurological disease that is found especially in athletes (such as
boxers, wrestlers, or football players) who have experienced repetitive, mild
injury to the brain and is characterized by short-term memory loss,
concentration deficits, confusion, depression, behavioral and personality
changes (such as an increase in irritability, impulsivity or aggression), speech
and gait abnormalities, Parkinsonism, and dementia-called also dementia
pugilistica or punch-drunk syndrome (Webster).

In the study from University of Pittsburgh, the case studies were

categorized by the most likely source of potential head impact. The
categories were: Boxer (amateur or professional), American football player
(national football league (NFL), Canadian football league (CFL), semiprofessional (semi-pro), collegiate football (collegiate), and high school (HS0,

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ice hockey player (amateur or professional), wrestler (amateur or

professional), military veteran or miscellaneous. If there was a military
veteran that also was an athlete, that person was categorized by the sport
that was played. Motor vehicle accidents and fights were also included
because they can sometimes cause head trauma. The highest chance of
head trauma was boxing, with football coming in at a close second with
athletes being ten times more likely to develop CTE.
Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy is most prominent in athletes, the
majority being football players, between ages 45 years old to 80 years old.
People aged sixty to sixty-nine years of age made up the vast majority of
cases in 153 cases studied by the Department of Neuroscience at University
of Pittsburgh. While it is more prevalent in older athletes, there have been a
few cases where younger adults, one example being an unnamed 25 year old
ex-college football player, that had CTE. This unnamed person played about
sixteen years of football and sustained more than ten concussions during his
playing career, with his first one being at age eight(Healy, 2016). The
problem with CTE is that it cannot be a confirmed diagnosis until the athlete
has died, and it is determined in an autopsy. Current football players, such
as Cincinnati Bengals offensive lineman Eric Winston, and families of former
football players who have died, such as Lawrence Phillips and Javon Belcher,
have pledged to donate or have donated their brains to CTE research. Javon
Belcher, the former Kansas City Chiefs linebacker who was involved in a
murder-suicide in 2012, was determined to have CTE, which could be one of

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the key causes of his mental issues he had during his life. Lawrence Phillips,
former Nebraska running back and top pick in the NFL draft, recently died
due to what is currently being ruled a suicide by prison officials but is still
being investigated, took numerous hits to the head and is currently having
his brain examined by doctors to determine if he had CTE.

As seen in Table 3, 37 out of the 153 cases that were studied reported
a positive history of substance abuse, and also reported that 52% of retired
football players used opioids during the NFL career, of which 71% reported
misuse (Maroon, 2015). Suicide and accidental death have been more
prevalent since 2002, with 70% of those accidental deaths and all suicides
coming post-2002. The prevalence of suicides in football players that were
diagnosed with CTE is higher, 17.5%, compared to those from other sports
diagnosed with CTE, 5.26% (Maroon, 2015).

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As seen in Table 1, the study at the University of Pittsburgh that

studied 153 cases of CTE, 63 of them had a history of playing football, the
majority of that 63 being at the professional level. Despite majority of the 63
being made up of professional football players, there were high school
athletes that played football as well that had signs or were diagnosed with
CTE. Three of the seven football players that were found to have CTE from
playing high school football died prior to the age of 20. Contrary to popular
belief, people can develop CTE without ever being diagnosed with a
concussion. Former Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver, Chris Henry, suffered
from CTE despite never being diagnosed with a concussion. CTE can be
caused by multiple head impacts, without those head impacts resulting in a
concussion. Chris Henry died when he was only 26 years young and never
was diagnosed with a concussion during his career in the NFL or at West
Virginia University (Raby, 2010).
The National Football League has implemented rules into the official
rulebook to attempt to make the game and the practices safer for the

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players. For example, there have been numerous new rules implemented to
put player safety at the forefront. Some of the new rules include, but are not
limited to: Illegal peel back block (Rule 12. Section 2. Article 4), initiating
contact with the crown of the helmet (Rule 12, Section 2, Article 8), and
players in a defenseless posture (Rule 12. Secion 2. Article 7). The player in a
defenseless posture can be any player on the football field as long as they
fall under certain criteria to consider them a defenseless player. Any of
the aforementioned acts committed during play will result in a fifteen yard
penalty against the offending team. USA Football has also started
implementing a program, called Heads Up Football, designed to advance
player safety in the game of football (CITE). Heads Up Football helps the
youth football players learn how to tackle correctly, educate coaches about
concussions and other football related injuries, and also educate coaches
about properly fitting their players with equipment to reduce the risk of
football related injuries. The National Football League has donated a lot of
time, money, and other resources to USA Football to help not only raise
awareness about the issue, but also help prevent concussions from even
happening.
The NFL is finally publically admitting the dangers of playing football by
noting the link between CTE and head trauma that happens predominately in
football players. As reported by The New York Times on March 14, 2016, the
NFLs senior vice president for health and safety, Jeff Miller, admitted on
Capitol Hill when asked by Representative Jan Schakowsky, that there was a

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link between football and degenerative brain disorders like C.T.E (Belson). A
lot of media outlets have come down hard on the NFL and the doctors that
are involved with the NFL for vehemently denying that there was a link
between CTE and football despite numerous amounts of medical data that
contradicted the NFLs claim. Current and former players have denounced
the NFL for their covering up of the risks and dangers of playing football at
any level, and it has caused many stars of the game today to retire at a very
early age due to concerns of issues later in life if they continued to play
professional football.
In conclusion, the medical studies that are immensely increasing to
study CTE and how to prevent it and if possible, cure it, are a start to help
reduce or somehow eliminate this epidemic that is taking many peoples
lives away from just playing a game for entertainment. It is a step in the
right direction for health and safety of the players, but a step back for the
NFL in the entertainment aspect since there will not be as many thundering
hits on players that get fans going crazy.

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Works Cited
Beck, Julie. "The NFL's Continuing Concussion Nightmare." The Atlantic Monthly
Group. 21 Sept. 2015.
Belson, Ken. "N.F.L. Official Affirms Link Between Playing Football and C.T.E." The
New York Times. 14 Mar. 2016. Web.
"Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy." Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, n.d.
Web. 9 Feb. 2016.
Healy, Melissa. "Athlete Had Chronic Brain Trauma at 25; Ex-college Football Player
Is the Youngest Diagnosed with Widespread CTE, a Degenerative Disorder."
Los Angeles Times. 6 Jan. 2016.
Maroon, Joseph C., et al. "Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy In Contact Sports: A
Systematic Review Of All Reported Pathological Cases." Plos ONE 10.2 (2015):
1-16. Academic Search Complete. Web.
Norton, Amy. "ALS Deaths Higher in Ex-NFL Players; A Study of Retired Players
Found Death Rates from ALS and Alzheimer's Four times Higher than in the
General Population." The Globe and Mail. 6 Sept. 2012
Raby, John. "Doctors: Bengals' Henry Had Chronic Brain Injury." Sentinel &
Enterprise. 29 June 2010.