American Football has a rich history of competitive rivalry, sportsmanlike camaraderie, and incredibly talented players. For decades now, millions of America’s fans, families, enthusiasts, and critics have tuned in on Sunday to watch their favorite team play in the NFL. But for the entire time the National Football League, which is currently celebrating its 100th season, has existed, one aspect has always remained medically prevalent for the league and difficult to prevent – concussions. This is due to the physically demanding nature of the sport that often requires a player to utilize any and all parts of their body, including the head, to make a tackle, stop a drive, and be a playmaker. Concussion research has proven detrimental effects of heavy impact to a player’s head over an extended period of time, leading to a disease in the brain known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). The NFL needs to exhaust every effort and resource to further study and understand the symptoms and effects of CTE, and take extensive preventative measures to protect the players that it pays so well.
Chronic traumatic encephalopathy is a degenerative brain disease that the medical world has been familiar with for years, but CTE carries one tricky characteristic: modern medical science is not refined enough to examine the brain for a proper diagnosis until the person is deceased. Caused by repeated head injuries, such as those suffered on a regular basis by professional athletes, a CTE sufferer might show symptoms of mood swings, irrational cognition, and memory loss. Many of these symptoms do not begin to surface until years after the trauma occurred, and since it is a degenerative illness, CTE symptoms often get worse and eventually result in dementia. This is why there is so much science that goes into the design and production of the helmets that are protecting the heads of these athletes, but there is still a strong call to action to improve.
One of the most recent, and maybe even the most notable examples of NFL players suffering from CTE is the late former New England Patriots’ tight-end Aaron Hernandez, who committed suicide while he was incarcerated for first-degree murder in April 2017; he was twenty-seven. Barlow (2017) included studies from Dr. Ann Mckee, a neuropathologist, a professor at the Boston University School of Medicine, and co-director of Boston University’s CTE Center, claiming Hernandez suffered from CTE so badly that it “would be the first case we’ve ever seen of that kind of damage in such a young individual.” An autopsy of Hernandez revealed that he had been suffering from one of the most severe cases medical professionals had ever seen. Hernandez had played football his entire life, played college ball at the University of Florida, helped lead the Patriots to the Super Bowl in 2012, and remained in the NFL for a total of three years as a popular and valuable player. He’d had a few brushes with the past, all instances of erratic behavior resulting in violence, and in June 2014 was arrested on murder charges involving a close family friend. With the story gaining media coverage of almost OJ Simpson-like proportion, Aaron Hernandez was found guilty and convicted of first-degree murder in 2015. The notion that Hernandez could possibly be suffering from CTE was not discussed, or even considered by neither the prosecution nor the defense. It was not until his self-inflicted death two years later that we would learn of his illness or how severe it was. If the NFL had taken stronger measures for the prevention, identification, and proactive treatment of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, Aaron Hernandez could have had more of a rational mentality when faced with potentially violent dilemmas.
Another important player to analyze is the late, NFL Hall of Famer and linebacker, Junior Seau, who was drafted in 1990 by the San Diego Chargers, and eventually helped lead the Patriots to the Super Bowl in 2007. With an excessive amount of concussions throughout his career, Seau suspected he had been suffering from severe CTE. He had struggled with this for years throughout his career that ultimately lasted for twenty seasons playing in the NFL, before committing suicide in April of 2012 by means of self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest at the age of forty-three. Seau lived a wholesome life in addition to his widespread NFL fame, being a father of three and a husband for eleven years. Fainaru-Wada, & Fainaru (2013) included statements from Seau’s family pertaining to his gradual change of character for the worse, ultimately leading to his demise.
Much before that, there was Dave Duerson, former NFL safety who had a career that lasted 11 seasons, seven of which were most notably played for the Chicago Bears. Retiring in 1993, Duerson began experiencing impaired judgement, impulse control, and memory loss, before eventually committing suicide in February 2011 at the age of fifty, also by a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest. Gever (2011) quoted Dr. McKee who acknowledged that after a post-mortem autopsy and analysis of Duerson’s brain, both revealed and confirmed Duerson “had classic pathology of CTE and no evidence of any other disease.” In the cases of both Duerson and Seau, the chosen method of death (that specifically being a blow to the chest from a gunshot), was carried out by each player with the intention that their brains be preserved and intact enough to study afterward to formally diagnose CTE.
This is a topic that is both age-old and current in the NFL, even being the subject of the 2015 Hollywood blockbuster film, Concussion, starring high-profile actors Will Smith and Alec Baldwin. Prior to the film’s theatrical release, it managed to stir up renewed media attention and public outcry for enhanced preventative measures for the disease. Because of this focus on the matter, the NFL agreed to give funding to three different technologies to minimize and reduce the risk of concussion, including those from a company called Viconic, The University of Washington, and The U.S. Army. Roberts (2015) reported that Viconic had received $750,000 in funding from the NFL to develop preventative helmet technology while The U.S. Army and The University of Washington each received $250,000.
In addition to the media hype brought on from the release of Concussion, the NFL has taken measures in the past to minimize overall concussion rates for its players, and continues so with every passing season. Sprecher (2017) pointed out progressive steps on new reports, helmet schematics, and precautionary regulation changes on the way tackles are to be made on the field every year. In 2017 the League had implemented 50 rule changes since 2002 to further implement a player’s physical protection. Sprecher (2017) observed a 2017 NFL released statement confirming that research conducted on the brain samples of one hundred and ten former players by Boston University could not confirm that the existence of CTE was a common condition in most football players, but did reflect high occurrences in the samples provided. Even though the NFL claimed that CTE could not be confirmed as a common condition in their players, the League still supported independent medical research and engineering advancements in neuroscience related to the topics in addition to what had already been funded early on.
In conclusion, although breakthroughs in medical technology continue to advance, and the causes and awareness of CTE are steadily increasing in prevalence, we still do not have the means to perform a full, 100% diagnosis of CTE on a player until long after it is too late. With the risk and rate of concussions in the NFL being at an all-time high, it is imperative that concussion prevention for players remains at the top of the priority list for the historic National Football League.
Keith Hudak 