
Since 1896, the game of football has become an American tradition. Every Sunday American's gather around their televisions for hours to enjoy the popular professional sport. After the sport established it grew rapidly, and continues to do so today. Kids are starting to play sports at a younger age with each generation. Sports are no longer only played at professional and collegiate levels. Parents and encouraging their children to perform at an "elite" level as young as youth sport recreation leagues. The more contact each person receives over their lifetime, the more susceptible they are to injury. Specifically, head injuries. Even with an assumption of risk whenever participating in a contract sport, newly discovered medical conditions are questioning the integrity of the safety and the management behind each of these organizations. One diagnosis specifically comes to mind when discussing recently found illnesses that come along with contact sports, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or, CTE. In sum, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy is a serious disease and the NFL needs to take aggressive precautions to prevent the development of this illness. Through the complexness of this disease, the diagnosis of many former NFL players, and rule changes that the NFL has made, people need to understand the extent of CTE. The NFL needs to take action in order to lessen the amount of cases and decide what type, if any, compensation they are going to provide to those families.  

Dr. Bennett Omalu first discover Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy in 2002. After performing an autopsy on Mike Webster's brain, a former Pittsburgh Steeler, Omalu saw abnormalities. Caused by repetitive brain trauma, "Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy is a 

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degenerative brain disease" found in athletes. Because of the continuous hits to the head, the athlete doesn't necessarily need to have a diagnosed concussion to develop this disease. When you receive contact to your skull, there's nothing to support your brain inside. Your brain shakes inside of your head and makes contact with the skull, causing brain injuries. The repeated blows to the head "triggers the progressive degeneration of the brain tissue, including the build-up of an abnormal protein called tau." The physical changes to the brain don't necessarily develop immediately. The degeneration can take up to years or decades to progress. Symptoms of this disease include "memory loss, confusion, impaired judgment, impulse control problems, aggression, depression, and, eventually, progressive dementia" (BU). 

Almost everyday, another former NFL player is diagnosed with this disease. Articles reveal that family members question the final years of their loved ones lives because of their drastic change in personality. 

The first victim, and possibly the most well known, is O.J. Simpson. Simpson was convicted back in October of 2008 of and armed robbery and kidnapping, and has been in jail ever since. What's unique about this case is not all the complex details that came along with his trial, but that recently new light has shown that his countless hits to the head and concussions may in fact be the cause of his convicted crimes. In the beginning of this year, Dr. Bennet Omalu, the founder of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy claimed that he would bet his "medical license that he has CTE", given Simpson's profile. The article then goes on to state that within the past five years, three former NFL players have committed suicide and all of them were eventually diagnosed with Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy after an autopsy was performed. Four years after Simpson was convicted, he "argued that he deserved a new trial 


because new evidence would show that the 'numerous blows to the head' during his football career caused several concussions, which led him down a dark path' prior to his conviction. Simpson also expressed that during his football career he would continue to play in games despite being knocked out from strong hits to the head. All in all, many factors lead to the belief that Simpson is in fact, suffering from this disease. Although it can only be diagnosed after death, lots of evidence points to CTE. Simpson serves as a prime example as someone who can be a well known and liked celebrity, who's personality can drastically change and cause them to do something which is seemingly out of character for them (Breech).

Mike Webster is a well known NFL star. Webster played for the Pittsburgh Steelers as the center, one of the toughest positions to play. Researchers say that center is one of the most vulnerable positions in football. Centers are known to take more hits than any other position in the game, which is why Mike sustained such incredible brain damage. When Mike Webster passed, Dr. Bennet Omalu was the one to perform the autopsy. All eyes were on Omalu to find out what happened to such a well-liked man at a such a young age. Webster's physical appearance was so diminished that according to Omalu, "he looked far older" than fifty because "football had taken a punishing toll on his body". After performing the autopsy Omalu claims that when examining the slides, he "looked again and saw changes that shouldn't be in a 50-year-old man's brains, and also changes that shouldn't be in a brain that looked normal". Based on Omalu's findings, a disease that had never been found before was seen in Mike Webster's brain. Now that the disease was found in a football player, medical professionals were able to link playing football and permanent brain damage that can occur from participating in this sport (Breslow). 

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Because this disease was now centered around football players, after Omalu publish his findings, he was hoping to receive a response from NFL officials. Instead, they attacked his research. Because there was so much about the disease that was still unknown the NFL "demanded a retraction" of Omalu's findings. Omalu later found out that it wasn't necessarily his findings that irked NFL officials. It was the fact that Omalu's research would give football a bad image, and officials didn't want viewers to believe or even know about the detrimental affects the game can have on the player's health (Breslow). 

Tyler Sash is another former NFL player who has been diagnosed with CTE. Sash, who played football for a total of sixteen years was found dead in his home at the age of twenty-seven due to a drug overdose in September of 2015. Back in 2013, Sash was eventually cut from the New York Giants after receiving his fifth recorded concussion. Since then, Sash's family reports that he "increasingly displayed surprising and irregular behavior" and also suffered from "confusion, memory loss, and minor fits of temper". Because of Sash's condition, he was never able to find another job once cut from the NFL. Sash's sudden change in behavior raised a lot of questions for his family "about the final, perplexing years" of his life. However, once Sash's passed his family donated his brain to medical research in order for him to be test for CTE.  Once diagnosed, professionals stated that they rarely see people of his age with such an advanced form of this disease. Sash was considered to have Stage 2 Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, and a four-stage grading scale. However, before diagnosed Sash's mom reports that she tied most of her son's behavioral changes to the "powerful prescription drugs he was taking for a football-related injury that needed surgery". Sash played football for a total of sixteen years. What's so troubling about this number is that medical professionals are finding that "it's the duration of 


exposure to football that give you a high risk for CTE", and Tyler Sash certainly had a high exposure. Another factor which so frequently can go unseen are the head traumas that go undiagnosed. They happen so frequently in high contact sports, but if it's not a concussion, nothing is done about it. Although the final years of Sash's life were out of character for him, his diagnoses helped to bring some clarity and light for his loved ones (Pennington).

Ken Stabler is another former NFL star who fell victim to Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. After Stabler's passing, his brain was "dissected for clues" to find answers as to "why his mind seemed to slip so precipitously in his final years". Stabler was said to have had Stage 3 of CTE, considering his long career in football, the extent at which his disease progressed comes as no surprise to medical professionals. Out of the long list of players who have already been diagnosed with CTE, Stabler is the seventh reported quarterback to be diagnosed with this disease. Stabler, like many other players, began displaying a "rapid decline in his cognitive function". Stabler's family gave some horrific details describing all the ways in which he changed during the final years of his life. His wife explained that during his last year alive, "he once gritted his teeth so hard that a broke a bridge in his mouth and had to get dental implants". His daughter also told reporters that noise and light became very difficult for him to deal with, as well as frequently repeating himself. He also no longer listened to music when he drove. He was described as "a lifelong lover of music" who then chose "to drive hours in silence". Although many of these specific scenarios cannot be directly tied to symptoms of CTE, his diagnoses certainly help to explain all the changes that occurred during the final years of his life (Branch). 


After analyzing multiple players and all of their individual stories regarding Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, taking a look at a timeline of statement made by the NFL regarding 

the concussion crisis, helps to put these events and this troubling problem into more of a perspective in a year by year basis. 

The main question being raised regarding the concussion crisis is, what did the NFL know and when did they know it? The issue was first brought up as early as 1994. When the Mild Traumatic Brain Injury, MTBI, board was first established by the NFL, Dr. Elliot Pellman stated that "concussions are part of the profession, an occupational risk". At the time, this statement did not seem absurd to the public, or those involved. However, as time went on, and the problem continued to grow, future statement questions the integrity of the NFL. Later that year, Paul Tagliabue, another person on the MTBI committee, made a statement expressing that the "so-called" concussion crisis was just a media issue, and not an actual problem within the NFL. In 1999, years after Mike Webster's retirement, the NFL Retirement Board stated that Mike Webster was "permanently disabled" due to the amount of head injuries he suffered during his football career. After the NFL admitted to this, Bob Fitzsimmons, Webster's attorney, responded saying that the NFL should have been aware of the link between football and brain damage. Later that year the MTBI then released a statement expressing that "serious brain injuries are a rarity in the NFL". Despite the fact that in that point in time, many other players, including Webster, had suffered significant head trauma during games. The integrity of the NFL is further questioned in 2000. When asked about a players return to play, Jerry Jones, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys, "tells ESPN that he'd push Aikman to ignore concussion concerns if it was a key game". This statement helps prove that the NFL, and the people involved, care more 

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about the game itself, then the health and safety of their players. A few years later in 2003, a player on the New York Jets was sent back into the game after being knocked out. What's so 

significant about this specific case is that at the time, the New York Jets doctor, was also an MTBI chair. Someone who should be taking all head injuries seriously, no matter who the player, and how important the game is. Later, in 2004, the MTBI states that NFL players are less likely to sustain head injuries, because their bodies eventually adapt to the many hits they receive over the course of their careers. A year later they then say that a players return to play after a hard hit, does not increase their chances of injury. In 2006, after Dr. Bennet Omalu published his findings on Mike Webster, the NFL refutes his work saying he used "fallacious reasoning". They then demand that Omalu retracts his research because of this. However, despite their hard reactions, in 2007, the NFL holds its first Concussion Summit. Here, they explained the significance of head injuries to players, coaches, and other staff involved with the NFL. In 2009 although the NFL states that studies being done regarding head injuries are flawed, this is also the first time they admit that concussions can have long term effects. They also then establish new return to play guidelines. These guidelines enforce that players who show any concussion symptoms after a hit should not return to play the same day. Since 2009, the NFL begins to move forward and its recognition of head injuries, without explicitly doing so. As years go by, they provided 30 million dollars for brain research. They also made another significant rule change in 2011. This rule change pushed back the kick off by five yards. The point in implementing this rule is to hopefully reduce the speed of collisions during kick off. However, despite the subtle changes the NFL begins to make, researchers find a 14 percent rise in concussions in 2012 (Ezell). 


As you can see from the statement made above, the NFL and committees involved, does a lot of contradicting themselves regarding the concussion crisis. It makes sense that they would 

quickly deny relationship between football and head injuries in earlier years. However, once they begin to make preventative changes, they still refuse to explicitly state that there is even a crisis. 

However, despite the lack of cooperation from the NFL regarding this issue, within the past few seasons, they have attempted to make rule changes that allow for the better quality of play, hoping to eliminated and lessen injuries. Although, the other side to this argument questions, when are these rule changes too much? (Tracy). 

Overall, the NFL has done an insufficient job with handling the many head injuries that are continuously occurring within their organization. The list of players who are being diagnosed with Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy is constantly growing. As of now, the list is over one hundred names long, and at least seven of these players were elected into the Professional Football Hall of Fame. Ninety-four former NFL players have received brain autopsy in order to test for CTE. Out of these ninety-four players, ninety of them were found to have this disease. Football players from virtually every position are found to have suffered from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. This frightening statistic shows that no player on the field is immune, even the quarterback, who is virtually protected by the offensive lineman and who have specific rules in place that "discourages severe blows to players in the most important position on the field" (Branch). 

