And...here's the rest of the story...
In 2006, the NFL appointed a new Commissioner, Roger Goodell, who, over the course of 24 years, had come up through the NFL ranks. The chairman of the MTBI was replaced by Dr. Ira Casson, who would go on to be called Dr. No, so named because of his repeated "no" answers to ongoing questions regarding the correlation between concussions and brain trauma.
In 2007, an NFL summit was convened to discuss medical findings relating to concussions. Dr. Omalu, the scientist who first identified CTE, was not invited. Dr Julian Bailes, a former Steeler's team doctor and new believer in Omalu's research, offered to present Omalu's findings.
By this time there were two more cases of CTE to present: Andre Waters and Justin Strzelczyk. After Bailes' presentation, Casson stated that "anecdotes do not make scientifically valid evidence."
Discouraged, Omalu left Pittsburgh and moved to California. About the same time, Dr. Ann McKee, a leading Alzheimer's researcher,was asked to join a team to further Omalu's study at Boston University. And, a new player in the game (of research), Chris Norinski, took on the role of the Brain Chaser. Having played college football and later as a professional wrestler, Norinski came to believe that repeated blows to his head had given him CTE. His first clue? A headache that lasted five years.
With Norinski's help, Boston U began receiving more and more brains of former football players to study. All showed CTE.
In 2009, journalist Alan Schwarz received - from an NFL source - information about a study the NFL conducted with its players. It showed that dementia and memory disorders occurred at a higher rate than the regular community. When Schwarz published an article about the findings, the NFL denied its own study, saying the design was flawed.
Eventually, Congress got involved, convening a series of hearings to assess the situation. Roger Goodell, the NFL commissioner, could not (would not) adequately answer questions put to him; one Senator likened the NFL to Big Tobacco.
Finally, decades after the discovery of CTE, and realizing the potentially catastrophic results of being of being lumped into the pile as the tobacco industry, the NFL took some action. They revised their policy on head injuries: a concussion is now a game ending injury.
Not a career ending injury. You just couldn't go back in the game once your bell had been rung.
They also gave a million dollars to Boston University and designated BU as the preferred brain bank for CTE study.
By now, 20 brains of former NFL players had been analyzed. Nineteen were positive for CTE.
It only gets worse.
Owen Thomas, a 21-year old college student and football player, committed suicide. He had never been diagnosed with a concussion. Dr. McKee began to realize that sub-concussive hits can also lead to CTE. Even if a player is never diagnosed with a concussion, CTE can develop.
Eighteen year-old Eric Pelly, died ten days after being diagnosed with his fourth concussion. McKee was expecting to find Pelly's brain in a pristine condition, due to his youth. Instead, she found the beginning signs of CTE.
Because brains in younger people are lighter, when the head is hit, there's more inertia so the brain hits the skull with greater force. Researchers now say that no one under the age of fourteen should be playing tackle football.
Dr. McKee and her colleagues continued their study. Of the 46 brains they examined, 45 were CTE positive. McKee wonders if EVERY SINGLE NFL PLAYER HAS CTE.
In 2012, Junior Seau committed suicide in California. Omalu asked Seau's son for permission to examine his father's brain. As Omalu was harvesting the brain, the NFL stepped in to stop him from proceeding. The NFL had contacted Seau's son and accused Dr. Omalu of 'practicing bad medicine. Seau's son had changed his mind.
The brain went,instead, to the National Institute of Health, not the preferred brain bank at Boston University. Perhaps the NFL was growing weary of learning that (nearly) every former football player BU examined had CTE. Perhaps they were hoping for a different result.
Seau's brain was full of the tau protein that indicates the presence of CTE. A result of his 1,849 career tackles.
As late as 2013, Commissioner Goodell was still deflecting questions that link football head injuries to CTE. "It is unclear."
That same year, 4.500 retired football players filed a lawsuit, stating that the NFL had fraudulently concealed the risks associated with playing football. In the lawsuit the players asked for two billion dollars. The NFL and the players settled out of court for $765 million; the NFL admitted no liability or weakness.
Which allows them to keep denying and hiding the truth.
The NFL has made its name by marketing the violence of the sport. There is more violence per square foot on a football field than any other sport. The biggest cheers are, of course, for touchdowns. The second biggest cheers are for the most brutal hits. It has a certain Roman empire/gladiator/kill for sport ring to it.
"Everyone now has a better sense of what damage you can get from playing football. And I think the NFL has given everybody 765 million reasons why you don't want to play football."
- Harry Carson, New York Giants linebacker, 1976-1988
Barbaric. Dangerous. Deathly.
Is it worth it?
P.S. Will Smith's new movie "Concussion" is about Dr. Bennet's fight to expose CTE.
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