Litany of Disease and Death

Sadly, Duerson’s case is far from isolated; as of this writing the Bedford VA CTSE Brain Bank has studied the brains of fifteen former NFL players.

Fourteen of them suffered from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy.  That’s 93%.

Worse, the majority of these players played in an age when players were smaller and slower, and collisions less violent.  Lew Carpenter retired in 1959, prior to the Green Bay Packers win in the first Super Bowl.  That team did not have a single player who weighed 260 pounds—roughly the average weight for current NFL players.  The speed of the game has also increased; the fastest fifteen times for the forty-yard dash have all been recorded since 1999, and twelve of those times have come since 2005.  Higher weights and higher speeds mean higher-intensity collisions. 

Photograph of a diseased brain.

If Lew Carpenter, victim of a slower and less dangerous game, died with an advanced case of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, what is coming?  What will happen to the tens of thousands of young men who participate on a regular basis in this game?

Are the following cases the tip of the iceberg?

On January 21^st, 2009, former NFL player Shane Dronett threatened his wife with a gun.  For three years he had been suffering from increasing paranoia and anger.  At first, they thought it was caused by a brain tumor, but its removal did nothing to change his behavior.  As his wife fled for safety, Dronett turned the gun on himself. 

Autopsies revealed Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy.  He left behind two daughters.  He was thirty-eight years old.

For 30 years, Lou Creekmur’s thinking slowly clouded; after his death he was found to have advanced CTE. 

On December 16^th, 2009, Chris Henry died after a domestic dispute; although he was never diagnosed with a concussion during his playing career, he was found to suffer from CTE.  He was only twenty-six.

On July 7^th, 2005, Terry Long committed suicide by drinking antifreeze.  He was found to suffer from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. 

The list goes on: on May 25^th, Tom McHale died of a drug overdose.  He had CTE.

Justin Strzelczyk fled from police against the flow of traffic on September 30^th, 2004.  His actions were so bizarre that he was assumed to be under the influence of drugs or alchohol.  He wasn’t.  He suffered from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. 

On February 6^th, 2008, John Glenn Grimsley was shot and killed while at his home in Texas; although the shot was later ruled accidental, he too was found to be suffering from CTE. 

November 20^th, 2006: Andre Waters committed suicide by shooting himself in the head.  Analysis of his brain tissue reveals signs of brain damage caused by football. 

All these men unwittingly sacrificed to play a child’s game.  Every day spent in dementia, every suicide, every funeral procession: football caused them all.

Joe Perry died on April 25^th, 2011, from complications relating to dementia.  After his death, Donna Perry, Joe’s widow, stated, “We have to look at what [football] is doing to our children.”

Football great “Iron” Mike Webster retired with amnesia, dementia, and depression.  His thinking was so clouded that he chose to live out of a pickup truck.  In 2002, Iron Mike lost his battle with Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy and died at the age of fifty, a shell of what he was and what he could have been. 

Webster’s estate sued the NFL and won $1,180,000 in damages.  The NFL fought the ruling, but eventually was held liable.  Could your school be responsible for disabilities its football players incur?