Only brainless are still not concerned
For years now, evidence has been mounting that playing football can lead athletes to suffer the ravages of brain disorders and diseases, sometimes rather quickly but often many years after the participants have hung up their cleats.
And for years, the National Football League attempted to deny there was any link between its sport and long-term brain injuries.
In more recent years, the NFL has pulled its head out of the sand and is working to change rules and improve equipment in the hope of protecting players’ health, but the body of information about the inherent risks of playing football just keeps growing.
The latest addition to our knowledge about the dangers of tackle football comes from a survey by Dr. Ann McKee, a neuropathologist who examined the brains of 202 deceased football players. That number included 111 athletes who played in the NFL, and McKee, whose study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that 110 had chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative disease linked to repeated blows to the head that causes, among other things, memory loss, depression and dementia.
According to a report in The New York Times, the brains studied by McKee came from ex-players ranging in age from 23 to 89. You’ve likely never heard of most of these people, but some were star-caliber, such as Oakland Raiders quarterback Ken Stabler. One of the lesser-known players whose brain was studied was Ronnie Caveness, who was a linebacker in the NFL after playing for the undefeated 1964 Arkansas Razorbacks squad. Interestingly, one of his teammates at Arkansas was current Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who as recently as last year was still denying any link between football and CTE.
We should note that it’s not a surprise that nearly all the brains of former NFL players tested by McKee showed signs of CTE. Their brains were donated for study specifically because they had showed signs of the disease. But as the Times noted, 110 is still a significant figure pointing to a serious issue regarding football and the health of its participants.
One of the younger athletes whose brain was studied was Tyler Sash, who died of an accidental painkiller overdose in 2015 at the age of 27. He played on the winning New York Giants Super Bowl team in 2011, but his career ended two years later after he suffered what was reported as his fifth concussion.
“Those concussions are the ones we definitely know about,” his older brother, Josh, told the Times. “If you’ve played football, you know there are often other incidents.”
Tyler Sash had been playing football for 16 years, since the age of 11. His family, the Times said, asked for his brain to be tested because he had shown signs of confusion, suffered memory loss and had fits of anger.
With all the evidence that is accruing, it would be foolish not to be concerned about children playing football. Rule changes and equipment can make the game somewhat safer, but football can never be made totally safe. Year after year, players get larger, faster and stronger. Collisions are harder, and occur at greater speed. And it’s not just those bone-jarring, open-field hits we’re talking about. On virtually every play, offensive and defensive linemen are banging into one another. There’s a cumulative effect.
At this point, with all we know, it seems reckless to allow young children to play tackle football. For older kids, parents still must consider that allowing their youngsters to play the game might have long-lasting, terrible effects.
Tennis, anyone?