Study: Junior Seau had degenerative brain disease caused by blows to the head
Junior Seau, who committed suicide in May, two years after retiring as one of the premier linebackers in NFL history, suffered from the type of chronic brain damage that also has been found in dozens of deceased former players, five brain specialists consulted by the National Institutes of Health concluded…
“I think it’s important for everyone to know that Junior did indeed suffer from CTE,” Gina Seau said. “It’s important that we take steps to help these players. We certainly don’t want to see anything like this happen again to any of our athletes.”
She said the family was told that Seau’s disease resulted from “a lot of head-to-head collisions over the course of 20 years of playing in the NFL. And that it gradually, you know, developed the deterioration of his brain and his ability to think logically.”
Blowback
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Easy solution. Replace football with chess.
Paul-Cincy on January 10, 2013 at 12:42 PM
Obama will grab the footballs, too.
John the Libertarian on January 10, 2013 at 12:45 PM
Why is this suddenly such an issue? We’ve known about this phenomenon for decades. This is so common among boxers who’ve taken a lot of blows to the heard that there’s a medical term for it – something like pugilista dementia. Better known as being punch drunk or punchy.
tommyboy on January 10, 2013 at 12:45 PM
Robo-football!
Shy Guy on January 10, 2013 at 12:49 PM
Remove the helmets. Then they won’t be so willing use their head as a battering ram.
portlandon on January 10, 2013 at 12:49 PM
So how did 50 million people hit their heads enough to vote for obozo twice?
Flange on January 10, 2013 at 12:52 PM
Pounding your dead against the ground or another man, week after week for years creates head trauma?? Imagine that…
right2bright on January 10, 2013 at 12:53 PM
And then, there is this …
http://www.examiner.com/article/the-muslim-prayer-bump-and-traumatic-brain-injury
http://www.barenakedislam.com/2012/12/16/what-a-surprise-muslim-prayer-bump-otherwise-known-as-shitstain-is-reportedly-linked-to-traumatic-brain-injury-and-mental-disorders/
Pork-Chop on January 10, 2013 at 12:54 PM
Guess what else…if you are a quarterback and run the ball week after week, you will eventually have knee problems…I know, hard to believe, but it happens…I even hear boxers sometimes lose more than the match…
right2bright on January 10, 2013 at 12:56 PM
first they will take away our guns
next they will take away football
just wait and see….
cmsinaz on January 10, 2013 at 12:57 PM
This started when football players stopped tackling, and started ramming to knock a ball carrier down.
They do it to themselves. But some insist the game is doing it to them.
Moesart on January 10, 2013 at 1:02 PM
Explains everything.
nobar on January 10, 2013 at 1:02 PM
watch a football game: subsidize a murder/suicide today!
sesquipedalian on January 10, 2013 at 1:07 PM
When they came for our bacon, that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Ward Cleaver on January 10, 2013 at 1:08 PM
Ban footballs, helmets, football stadiums, running fast, falling down, landing on your head, collisions and naming your kid Junior.
That should do it. Ahh, a safer world.
fogw on January 10, 2013 at 1:09 PM
That would be fun. Geeks would rule, according to their abilities to create football gladiators.
Lightswitch on January 10, 2013 at 1:14 PM
Support planned parenthood. Subsidize a million murder/suicides a year.
tommyboy on January 10, 2013 at 1:34 PM
Amen WC
cmsinaz on January 10, 2013 at 1:55 PM
That’s probably the only idea that would actually work. Dump helmets and shoulder pads, and the kind of head-down tackle that causes a lot of these injuries would be history. The game would probably be more like rugby, and you’d get more minor injuries, but less major ones.
john bono on January 10, 2013 at 2:02 PM
Bail out the car industry and subsidize the purchase of cars . You too can support the killings of thousands upon thousands.
/
B8tch you’re as dumb as phuck … you have less than brayam. That is saying a lot .
CW on January 10, 2013 at 2:07 PM
Weirdly Seau’s friends did not see this coming at all. Even in the days surrounding his suicide.
I have been saying it for a while that I hope Troy Polamalu quits football and I am a Steelers fan.
CW on January 10, 2013 at 2:08 PM
Yep.
Works in Rugby (although it took me awhile and a lot of pain to adjust after having been so used to, after 13 years of football, tackling by “driving my head into the numbers”) …
ShainS on January 10, 2013 at 2:21 PM
I don’t think the title of the article is correct. He may have had brain damage, but I don’t think the direct correlation has been made that is what caused his brain damage.
reddevil on January 10, 2013 at 2:32 PM
Eventually they will have to change the rules, and the counter-intuitive idea of limiting protective gear might actually be the best idea. They should also limit the the length and number of cleats on shoes which will reduce the amount of energy players can leverage through contact with the ground.
novaculus on January 10, 2013 at 4:57 PM
Cause of death — he killed himself. We don’t know if brain damage contributed to that. You can’t tell someone’s mental state from a brain scan. You can guess, but you don’t know.
Paul-Cincy on January 10, 2013 at 6:47 PM