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Posted on Mon, Nov. 09, 2009 10:15 PM
Here’s why one former Chief fears CTE
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Some recent scientific findings must be chilling for current NFL players.
Former Chiefs offensive lineman Michael Oriard wrote an essay for deadspin.com last month chronicling his concern and he’s been out of the NFL since 1973.
One scientific term in particular caught Oriard’s attention.
“Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), of which I’d never heard until a few weeks ago,” Oriard wrote, “suddenly seemed the NFL’s version of the Black Death.”
So what is chronic traumatic encephalopathy?
CTE is a progressive neurodegenerative disease caused by repetitive trauma to the brain, said Robert Cantu, co-director of Boston University’s Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy.
“What it is structurally is a deposition of a hyperphosphorylated form of a protein named tau in nerve cells and their connections, the dendrites, which causes them to die,” Cantu said in a phone interview. “It’s toxic to nerve tissue. Over a period of time, it will cause the death of nerve cells and the destruction of their connections. It’s particularly concentrated in the medial temporal lobe structures, the hippocampus, amygdala, entorhinal cortex, but it is present throughout the brain.”
When scientists at the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy examine a brain, they shave thin slices which are then covered with special amino stains that are needed to see the tau protein deposition. The tau protein stains brown/black in color, which is visible with the naked eye, “although it’s more dramatic under magnification,” Cantu said.
In its mildest form, CTE results in recent memory failure. However, it can lead to progressive dementia and ultimately emotional instability and a lack of impulse control, which can result in suicidal or homicidal behavior.
“Commonly, it’s 10, 15, 20 years after an athlete’s career is over and when they are in their 40s that the symptoms begin to occur,” Cantu said.
CTE was first described in 1928 by Harrison Martland, a New Jersey coroner. It was mainly associated with boxers, but in the last five years or so, it was described in former NFL football players. Mike Webster, Terry Long and Andre Waters were the first three, but that number is now up to almost 20, Cantu said.
Jarring hits to the helmet can rattle a player’s brain, but the damage is not necessarily from the big hits you see on ESPN. Offensive and defensive linemen routinely suffer jarring hits on every snap. That’s life in the trenches.
Webster and Long were offensive linemen, while Waters was a safety.
Ten football players’ brains have been examined at the Center, all from players who were in the NFL over the age of 25. All 10 had severe CTE.
“But that’s not to say that all players who played in the NFL have it,” Cantu said. “These are players who died with symptoms. We don’t know the true prevalence of it, because it’s never been studied in the NFL. Those studies would need to be done, I would hope, but as of yet have not been done.”
Unfortunately, CTE has also been found in former college football players who never played professionally.
That’s why the Center has been actively seeking a commitment from former football players to donate their brains when they die. Researchers hope to learn more about CTE.
But one thing is for certain.
“It is the only preventable dementia,” Cantu said. “All the others … there’s about 10 or 12 of them, they’re all hereditary and there’s nothing you can do about it before you get it. If you’re born with that inherited disposition, you’re going to get it. This is the only preventable dementia, but it’s only preventable by stopping the trauma that’s producing it before it’s full-blown.”
To read Oriard’s essay, go to deadspin.com/5392883/messing-with-our-heads-a-former-players-lament
To reach Pete Grathoff, call 816-234-4330 or send e-mail to pgrathoff@kcstar.com
Posted on Mon, Nov. 09, 2009 10:15 PM
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