Duerson, Concussions, Impacts on Players

[Legacy]

Interesting article and discussion.

Intentional Hits: Preserving The Game We Loved | One Foot Down

 

[IrishLax]

A more interesting article: Deadspin, Sports News without Access, Favor, or Discretion

 

[Old Man Mike]

It's hard to read that second article, and think of Dave Duerson's suicide, and who he was...really was...and not just be silent and sad.

 

[BGIF]

Ex-Football Player Who Killed Self Had Brain Damage, Study Finds - FoxNews.com

Dave Duerson, a former NFL player who committed suicide in February, had "moderately advanced" brain damage related to blows to the head, according to the researcher who made the diagnosis.

"It's indisputable" that Duerson had chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a disorder linked to repeated brain trauma, Dr. Ann McKee said Monday.

...

Dave Duerson had classic pathology of CTE and no evidence of any other disease," McKee said, "and he has severe involvement of all the (brain) structures that affect things like judgment, inhibition, impulse control, mood and memory.

...

The likelihood is that if he hadn't had the CTE, he wouldn't have developed those symptoms that he was experiencing at the end of his life and perhaps he wouldn't have been compelled to end his life.

...

 

[jason_h537]

I remeber reading something about Chris Benoit after he killed his family and he had the brain of a 90yo with severe alzeimers. At least this generations players have the science to protect them. Now we just have to break the idea that sitting out these injuries make you soft

 

[k1ssme1m1r1sh]

It makes sense. Look at Muhammad Ali. He lives not far from where I do, so I've met him several times, and he's deteriorated a lot in the last 10 yrs. He came to my high school once during our Fine Arts festival week, and I got to escort him into our gym for a jazz performace by the Neville Bros...(totally COOL!) but turns out, he needed an escort because his balance is so off kilter.

Don't see him much anymore though because his health is not great. It's a shame, because he's really a great person, and did yall know he can do magic tricks and illusions? He's got parkinson's too, which can be advanced by suffering brain injuries.

It's nice that the leagues are making better helmets for players. It's really sad what happened to Dave Duerson. But the good thing that comes out of it is the technology to prevent it from happening to someone else.

 

[ndcoltsfan2010]

I was so saddened by the Dave Duerson tragedy. I met him many many years ago when he went to the Hula Bowl out in Hawaii and I was amazed at how genuine and nice the guy was. I enjoyed watching him play in the NFL and I always thought he was one of those good guys that represented the league well. It just goes to show you that concussions are in deed serious and are more common than what was once thought. Looking back at it, I'm sure I got more than my fair share as well. Hopefully we can learn more from these studies and make the game a little bit safer. Football will always be a tough sport, but hopefully we can do better in terms of equipment etc to help minimize the seriousness of some tough hits.