[Leading up to Super Bowl LVII, Boston Universitys CTE Center
Director Ann McKee says the NFL ignores the risks of repetitive blows
to the head and that it’s “foolish” to think the league will
police itself ]
[[link removed]]

92 PERCENT OF EX-NFL PLAYERS SHOW BRAIN TRAUMA  
[[link removed]]


 

The Brink
February 7, 2023
The Brink
[[link removed]]


*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

_ Leading up to Super Bowl LVII, Boston University's CTE Center
Director Ann McKee says the NFL ignores the risks of repetitive blows
to the head and that it’s “foolish” to think the league will
police itself _

,

 

Setting aside for a moment the hype, the glitz, the money, the
commercials, the athleticism, the scoreboard, and the beer, chili, and
wings—everything that comprises the NFL’s Super Bowl experience
this weekend—the cold, sad truth remains that football is taking a
horrible toll on some of its players. The extent of that price was
made clear Monday in new figures released by the Boston University
CTE Center [[link removed]].

According to its latest report, the CTE Center has diagnosed 345
former NFL players with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, out of 376
former players who were studied, a rate of 91.7 percent. Two retired
players from the two teams facing off in Super Bowl LVII on
Sunday—the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles—were
among those diagnosed with CTE in the last year. Those ex-players are
one-time Eagles quarterback Rick Arrington, who played for them from
1970 to ’73, and former Chiefs defensive tackle Ed Lothamer, who
played for two of their Super Bowl teams. 

To put those numbers in perspective, a 2018 BU study of 164 brains of
men and women donated to the Framingham Heart Study found that only 1
of 164 (less than 1 percent) showed signs of the progressive
degenerative brain disease. And that lone CTE case? A former college
football player. 

[Photo: Dr. Ann McKee, a white woman with shoulder-length blonde hair
wearing a white lab coat, sits and poses in a lab next to a large
microscope.]

Ann McKee, director of the BU CTE Center. Photo by Cydney Scott

The players “feel invincible, at the top of the game, and I
understand that and the power that must hold over them,” says Ann
McKee, director of the BU CTE Center and chief of neuropathology at VA
Boston Healthcare System. “But they are just unfortunately not
living with the real risks of the disease. It makes me sad.”

Amid the frenzy of Super Bowl week, _The Brink _spoke with McKee
about the latest numbers and her hopes for the most-watched and most
popular professional sport in America.

McKee, a William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professor, emphasized
that the center’s data does not mean that roughly 92 percent of all
former and current NFL players have CTE. She says the prevalence of
the brain disease can only be definitively diagnosed after death,
which is why the center relies so heavily on brains being donated for
study. McKee says the biggest risk factor for CTE is not the violence
of one or two isolated head blows, but rather the smaller, repetitive
head impacts, like those that football players experience throughout a
game or season. Those repeated blows cause a buildup of misfolded tau
protein in the brain that is unlike the changes seen from aging,
Alzheimer’s disease, or any other brain disease.

CTE research has advanced considerably in the last five years, with
McKee’s center set to publish its 182nd study on the disease.
“We’d like to thank our 1,330 donor families for teaching us what
we now know about CTE, and our team and collaborators around the world
working to advance diagnostics and treatments for CTE,” McKee says.

_To learn more about the CTE Center, its studies, and its efforts to
recruit more participants, scroll to the bottom of the story_.

Q&A WITH ANN MCKEE

The Brink: Can you first talk about the timing of this new release,
and why you thought it was important to announce these latest numbers
this week?

McKee: All eyes are on the Super Bowl. There are real risks to
playing football. It’s demonstrable in NFL players. The last time we
put this out, in 2017, we had one third of this total number. It’s a
reminder of how we’ve become complacent. The NFL hasn’t done
anything substantial to prevent CTE or diagnose CTE; the risk is still
there. The risk is high. That’s why we released it this week. Also,
it’s a message to people who think they might be suffering from CTE,
that there is help available. With the Concussion Legacy Foundation,
there are resources available directing them to healthcare
professionals to assess and diagnose them. And our CTE Center—we do
see living people and treat their symptoms. There is a lot of benefit
to having a label for your symptoms. Even if the person doesn’t have
a cure, just knowing it’s not your fault, but that you have a
disease, matters to people.

It seemed like for a little while, there were conversations between
you and the NFL. What sort of relationship does the CTE Center have
with the NFL today?

No relationship. At one point, in 2010, they gave us money, one
million dollars. I have had no contact with the NFL in years.

Does that disappoint you?

It disappoints me only in that I don’t think they are actively
pursuing ways to counter this disease. They aren’t working to
actively monitor their players, in any substantial way to look at CTE,
and lessening the amount of head impacts. They haven’t done anything
substantial to reduce repetitive hits.

Are there steps you think could be taken that would make a real
difference?

Absolutely. Keeping head contact out of practice. Emphasizing to young
players to start playing later. They have endorsed flag football, but
they could go further than that. I haven’t seen any attempt to
reduce head injuries. They are very involved in concussions. They are
not monitoring the amount of head impacts, or intensity of head
impacts, they are turning a blind eye to that. There is a lot of,
“If I don’t look at it, it’s not there.”

There have been a number of stories over the years about people saying
they will no longer watch football. Or that we need to look away. But
far and away, it remains the most watched sport in this country.

There is a love for football by the public and individuals that
transcends common sense. They are stuck in a denial because the game
is so important to them that they refuse to look at the facts.

This season saw a number of incidents in the NFL that raised concern
about head injuries, most notably the one with Miami Dolphins
quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, who seemed to have a seizure on the field
following a hit. Did you follow that?

After that with Tua, there were many other incidents. He wasn’t held
back after the first hit. He went back and played on Thursday night
and had another hit, and it looked like he had a very substantial
injury. There was a lot of deep concern for Tua. Then he had a third
concussion and did not pass the concussion protocol for weeks and
weeks. 

I do think the public is becoming wiser to notice these major events.
But there is still no embrace of the idea that it’s the little hits,
where it looks like nothing happened, that lead the players to
deteriorate later.

You have talked before about children playing football. Has your
opinion changed?

The longer you can delay playing the better. Physical maturity varies
by child. A child needs to be physically well developed. Trained in a
way to minimize their risks. And I also encourage young athletes to
pursue other sports.

It seems like this is like trying to put toothpaste back in the tube.
Football is a multibillion dollar business. It’s ingrained in our
culture. Is it going to take the government to get involved to have
real change?

It’s foolish for our society to expect that the league that is
profiting from this is going to regulate itself. It has to be an
outside body. The conflicts are there. It’s so deeply rooted. They
will never be able to fully embrace what is happening. Expecting
people profiting so clearly from the sport to come up with a solution
is not likely.

Are you surprised that more players have not acted with more concern
or alarm to your findings over the years?

I actually think I am seeing younger players pay more attention to the
potential risk. They are more vocal. More aware of what could happen
to them. It takes a long time to change people’s behavior. I am not
that surprised. I think it will be slow. But I am encouraged by what
happened, even this year. There is a groundswell with the public. As
it spreads to all the diverse parts of the US, we will start to see a
change.

Will you watch the game Sunday?

I used to love football. I lived it. I just have no interest in it.
You can’t do this work for 15 years and have the same attitude about
it. Everything looks like a disaster waiting to happen.

Describe your emotions toward football and the NFL? Is it anger?
Disappointment? Frustration?

No, not those things. What is the word? [Long pause] Worry and fear. I
see that they are celebrities. They feel invincible. At the top of the
game. I understand that and the power that must hold over them. But
they are unfortunately not living with the real risks of the disease.
It makes me sad.

Do you think as the CTE Center’s numbers climb from the hundreds
into the thousands, maybe that will make a difference?

I used to think that. I thought 100 would be big. Then 500. I think if
we can diagnose it during life that will shock people. People being
shocked by it—that will be the change we need.

_McKee and her team are inviting former athletes, including women, to
participate in research studies designed to learn how to diagnose and
treat CTE. The BU CTE Center is collaborating with its education and
advocacy partner, the __Concussion Legacy Foundation_
[[link removed]]_ (CLF), to recruit former
football players and other contact sport athletes to five active
clinical studies._

_One of the studies, Project S.A.V.E., is recruiting men and women
ages 50 or older who played five-plus years of a contact sport,
including American football, ice hockey, soccer, lacrosse, boxing,
full contact martial arts, rugby, and wrestling._

_S.A.V.E. stands for Study of Axonal and Vascular Effects from
repetitive head impacts. The major goal is to determine how repeated
head impacts from playing contact sports can lead to long-term
thinking, memory, and mood problems. The results could highlight
strategies to treat and prevent symptoms associated with head impacts
from contact sports. Learn more about Project S.A.V.E. and four other
studies enrolling participants __here_
[[link removed]]_. To sign up
for future clinical studies, enroll in the CLF__ research registry_
[[link removed]]_._

* football
[[link removed]]
* NFL
[[link removed]]
* football injury
[[link removed]]

*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

 

 

 

INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT

 

 

Submit via web
[[link removed]]

Submit via email
Frequently asked questions
[[link removed]]

Manage subscription
[[link removed]]

Visit xxxxxx.org
[[link removed]]

Twitter [[link removed]]

Facebook [[link removed]]

 




[link removed]

To unsubscribe, click the following link:
[link removed]