The Issue Of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (Cte) In American Football

While the National Football League is arguably one of the most lucrative sports in the world, it is leaving professional football athletes with long term brain traumas that are irreversible. The National Football League is a billion dollar industry that can provide financial freedom and a lifetime of financial independence to the most elite athletes. This desire to succeed could be putting the most influential young athletes in jeopardy. The repetitive hits to the head are putting professional football athletes at increased risk of developing Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE).

According to CBS Sports, the annual revenue of the NFL in 2018 was just over $8 billion in national revenue. Year over year, there are record breaking revenues which results in each of the 32 teams to receive their revenue share of approximately $255 million from the league. With profits being shared amongst owners, managers and agents alike the monetary impact is so massive that the health and long term well being of the professional players athletes may not be seen as critical as many medical experts believe.

With the onset of new studies and research there is an alarming trend with increased CTE diagnosis and the correlation between playing tackle football and the physical contact of the sport. “According to the Boston University CTE Center, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) is a degenerative brain disease found in athletes, military veterans, and others with a history of repetitive brain trauma. In CTE, a protein called Tau forms clumps that slowly spread throughout the brain, killing brain cells”. Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) can only be diagnosed and confirmed after death. The research for this disease therefore requires families to donate their loved one’s brains after death to ascertain true diagnosis. Typical symptoms of the disease and symptoms that appeared evident to families who suspected CTE included memory loss, changes in mood or behaviour, depression, suicidal thoughts and at times resulted in full dementia. According to a New York Times article it suggests that playing football and traumatic brain injuries continues to strengthen. One of the largest studies to date finds that 110 out of 111 deceased NFL players had chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) due to repetitive head trauma.

Football is loved by many and watched by millions of people but the health implications are real. The most common factor in most research articles is clear; CTE is linked primarily to repetitive hits to the head. The severity of CTE is also determined by length of exposure. Children are starting to play football as young as age 7 and the studies suggest the longer the athlete plays tackle football the more likely it is that they will suffer from CTE. Many football athletes are coming forward and expressing their concerns about the future of the game. “In a convenience sample of 202 deceased former players of American football who were part of a brain donation program, a high proportion was diagnosed neuropathologically with CTE. The severity of CTE pathology was distributed across the highest level of play, with all former high school players having mild pathology and the majority of former college, semiprofessional, and professional players having severe pathology. Behavior, mood, and cognitive symptoms were common among those with mild and severe CTE pathology and signs of dementia were common among those with severe CTE pathology. ”

Football to many people, myself included, is considered one of the greatest sports of all time. However young athletes and young adults looking to become professional athletes need to be aware of the possibilities that they could suffer effects of CTE later in life. Their decision to play should be made with full knowledge and full disclosure on potential long term effects of playing this game. Initially, when much of this research regarding concussions and CTE began in early 2000’s there were thoughts that this research would be embraced in order to make the game safer but in reality the truth was that the NFL was not interested in listening. The truth was that the NFL makes billions of dollars on an annual basis and they didn’t want to acknowledge that there could be any long term issues with traumatic brain injuries. In fact, the NFL decided to conduct their own research and their chief editor was a consultant for the New York Giants NFL team. Their findings were published but they were also mocked as the research obtained by the NFL had a much different outcome. “The papers portrayed NFL players as superhuman and impervious to brain damage. They included such eye-popping assertions as ‘Professional football players do not sustain frequent repetitive blows to the brain on a regular basis’.

The medical demise of many professional athletes has led to multiple studies of these players via autopsies after death. Families relive moments and share how personalities of their loved ones changed over the course of many years. Individuals that were once jovial and full of life had changed to being depressed, lethargic and would have terrible mood swings. It has left many spouses and children wondering and suggesting that perhaps these athletes would have made different choices if they were aware of the long term effects of playing ball. There have been many comments made by grieving family members suggesting that these professional athletes would never have played the game if they knew what the long term implications would be. In League of Denial: The NFL, Concussions, and the Battle for Truth writes about the story of Junior Seau. Junior Seau was on the best linebackers to ever play football. He played professional football in the NFL for an astounding 20 seasons. His family shared many stories about how his personality changed over the years and how they feared he may even hurt himself. It was suicide that ultimately killed Juior Seau. He shot himself in the chest with a handgun. His family believes that he did this intentionally so that his brain remained preserved and could be donated for medical research.

In recent years the NFL has made many changes to the rules of the game in hopes of making the game safer to play. These changes resulted in major penalty points for any player not following these new, safer regulations. By many accounts these rules were implemented to provide more favourable playing environment with fewer instances of injuries. It may take many years to understand the impact of the implemented changes and whether this is enough to eradicate the long term effects of CTE. “As of December 2017, the NFL made several changes to its concussion protocol. Prior to the change, if a player left the field with a possible concussion, he had to stay out of the game while he was being evaluated. If he was diagnosed with a concussion, he would continue to be benched for the rest of the game and for as long as it took for a doctor to clear him for play. After incidents in December, the NFL changed the rules in an attempt to better protect the players. These new rules include having an unaffiliated neurotrauma consultant (UNC) for all games, evaluating any player who seems to lack motor stability or balance, and re-evaluating any player who had been evaluated for a concussion during a game within 24 hours of the initial evaluation. Having the decision made by an expert who is not working for either team is a good way to try to better protect player safety. ”