NOTRE DAME POLICIES
Among the 86 brains in which Boston University found CTE, three were from Notre Dame alumni. Duerson and Duranko played at ND and in the NFL. The latter was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which BU has linked to CTE. Although McKee cautions that much is still not known about the causes of ALS, she estimates that 10 percent of CTE victims whose brains she examined suffered the symptoms of that disease. The third alumnus was Peter Grant ’83, who played high school football and hockey, and committed suicide in 2011. Former Notre Dame star wide receiver Pete Demmerle ’75 died in 2007 after being diagnosed with ALS, but he was not part of the BU study. Demmerle never played in the NFL, opting out after being drafted by the San Diego Chargers.
Dr. James Moriarity, chief of medicine at Notre Dame, has been involved with football since 1987. Although the avalanche of publicity over concussions has brought more scrutiny to programs at all levels, Moriarity says the University is not doing anything different than when he started here 28 years ago. “I really don’t think we have changed our policy; I think we’ve always been ahead of the curve on it. And we’ve always been conservative.”
Notre Dame, he adds, pioneered computerized testing of concussed athletes, to determine whether they can return to the field, and has always followed the accepted guidelines current in all of the various contact sports. And Moriarity says he has permanently barred some injured players from returning to the field.
That said, he concedes that football is a dangerous sport. “You’d have to be an absolute fool to go out on a limb and say it’s safe to play football from a long-term standpoint.” On the other hand, he maintains, unlike McKee, that there is no consensus among medical researchers as to whether concussions and other head injuries cause CTE or other degenerative diseases.
“The research on the long-term consequences of concussions is in its infancy, and I mean infancy. We really do not know,” he says.
He also points to issues besides head injuries. For instance, he says, athletes who have reconstructive surgery for a torn ACL (anterior cruciate ligament), a relatively common football injury, “are almost certain to develop osteoarthritis in that knee within 10 years. That’s a fact.” (Some medical literature I reviewed is a bit less certain but generally recognizes the risk.)
His job carries heavy responsibilities. “There wasn’t a Saturday that went by that you didn’t worry about what was going on on the field,” he says. He adds, however, that the presidents of the University, from fathers Hesburgh to Malloy to Jenkins, along with the athletic directors he has served, made his mission simple. They said: “Your job is to protect the athlete and do the right thing. As long as you do that, we’ll stand behind you. Deviate from that, and you’re done.”
Moriarity predicts that changes will continue to take place to make the game safer and that before long tackle football will not be played until the high school level.
