Support NeoGAF

[chadskin]

Aaron Hernandez, the former New England Patriots tight end who committed suicide in April while serving a life sentence for murder, was found to have one of the most severe forms of C.T.E., the degenerative brain disease linked to repeated head trauma that has been found in more than 100 former N.F.L. players.

A lawyer for Hernandez, Jose Baez, in announcing the result at a news conference Thursday, said researchers determined it was ”the most severe case they had ever seen in someone of Aaron's age," which was 27.

Hernandez is the latest former N.F.L. player to have committed suicide and then been found with C.T.E., or chronic traumatic encephalopathy, joining Dave Duerson, Junior Seau, Andre Waters, Ray Easterling and Jovan Belcher, among others. Seau and Duerson deliberately shot themselves in the chest so that researchers would be able to examine their brains. Hernandez was found hanging in his prison cell.

Seau, Duerson and Waters were all older than 40, making him one of the youngest former N.F.L. players to have been found with C.T.E. In July, researchers at Boston University released findings that showed that they had found C.T.E. in the brains of 110 of the 111 former N.F.L. players they had examined.

Baez said he has filed a lawsuit in federal court against the Patriots and the N.F.L. on behalf of Hernandez's daughter.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/21/sports/aaron-hernandez-cte-brain.html

Well damn.

 

[norm9]

Of course. The question is whether his rage was a part of him before the CTE. All signs point to yes.

 

[Kayhan]

Whoa!

Really drives home how big a deal this kind of brain trauma is.

 

[ElectricBlanketFire]

Unfortunately not surprising.

My son won't be playing football, that's for sure.

 

[Arc]

Oh wow. That's terrible. This brings up some interesting morality questions kind of right?

Either way bad bad news for the NFL.

 

[Emarv]

Obviously not totally exculpatory, but at some point we really need to hold the NFL accountable for what's happened over the last few decades and demand some type of larger medical action going forward.

 

[Lord Fagan]

Pretty sure the quote is, "If one out of ten American mothers believes football is dangerous, that's the beginning of the end of professional football."

 

[Xamtheking]

At some point we really need to hold the NFL accountable for what's happened over the last few decades and demand some type of larger medical action going forward.

NFL has been trying to bury CTE research for quite some time
The book/movie Concussion goes into that a bit

 

[smokeymicpot]

All the drugs probably didn't help either.

 

[Tender Joe]

Of course. The question is whether his rage was a part of him before the CTE. All signs point to yes.

No doubt, but would anyone disagree that the amount of trauma the doctors say his brain went through added fuel to that fire?

 

[TS-08]

And bear in mind that he was like 23 when his career ended.

 

[kirblar]

Pretty sure the quote is, "If one out of ten American mothers believes football is dangerous, that's the beginning of the end of professional football."

They're already seeing reduced enrollment rates in HS football and below.

 

[Randolph Freelander]

Oh wow. That's terrible. This brings up some interesting morality questions kind of right?

Either way bad bad news for the NFL.

And college football...
And high school...
And Pop Warner...


(And I love college football. NFL, not so much.)

 

[I H8 Memes]

We have evidence of Hernandez shooting people during his recruiting trip during highschool. Stop making excuses for a long time phsychopath.

 

[Barzul]

Probably aggravated any tendency for violence he might have had. Football, needs to be redesigned, with more of this stuff coming out it can’t survive in its current setup.

 

[norm9]

Pretty sure the quote is, "If one out of ten American mothers believes football is dangerous, that's the beginning of the end of professional football."

That's why football ads are targeting women a lot more nowadays.

 

[kirblar]

We have evidence of Hernandez shooting people during his recruiting trip during highschool. Stop making excuses for a long time phsychopath.

This isn't about blaming him for being a guy with serious, serious issues, this is how football may have ended up amplifying those issues.

 

[5taquitos]

We have evidence of Hernandez shooting people during his recruiting trip during highschool. Stop making excuses for a long time phsychopath.

Yeah let's just ignore all this science.

No one is saying this exonerates him.

 

[see5harp]

I'm done trying to figure out why this dumb fucker was such a dumb fucker and just let him be a dumb fucker.

 

[SArcher]

Football players are more like modern day gladiators.

 

[ArkhamFantasy]

We have evidence of Hernandez shooting people during his recruiting trip during highschool. Stop making excuses for a long time phsychopath.

Obviously its possible he was a bad person before CTE, but also remember by the time he finished high school he would have been playing football about 10 years, thousands of blows to his head. Its possible he had CTE even at that age.

 

[jph139]

No doubt, but would anyone disagree that the amount of trauma the doctors say his brain went through didn't fuel that fire?

That's really the issue there. No doubt Hernandez was a shithead with or without football - but would he have had the lack of foresight and impulsiveness to go from shithead to murderer? You can't really say for sure, but you have to raise an eyebrow.

 

[entremet]

Football is going to be over in 20-30 years.

Or changed drastically. Don't underestimate the power of parents.

 

[BobLoblaw]

Damn. How many years was he even in the sport?

 

[norm9]

No doubt, but would anyone disagree that the amount of trauma the doctors say his brain went through added fuel to that fire?

I would hope not. We've got testimony from all sorts of former players talking about how they're uncontrollably angry all the time, etc. that the only way to stop the mental anguish is suicide.

 

[Saint Gregory]

We have evidence of Hernandez shooting people during his recruiting trip during highschool. Stop making excuses for a long time phsychopath.

Considering that he was done playing at 23 and his lawyer is saying this was an advanced case why do you assume that he wasn't already suffering the effects at 18? There was a 19 year-old linebacker who committed suicide and was later diagnosed with it if I remember correctly.

 

[mechashiva]

CTE doesn't give you a crew that helps you kill someone and try to cover it up.

 

[entremet]

Damn. How many years was he even in the sport?

According to the researchers, you want to start measuring as soon as they start playing tackle football. Could be Pee-Wee. However, the bigger and worse hits tend to come in HS/College, which have less player protection rules.

 

[uncredited male]

Seau, Duerson and Waters were all older than 40, making him one of the youngest former N.F.L. players to have been found with C.T.E.

Well no shit. Wait till CTE can be tested on living people and watch how fast the NFL changes things.

 

[TS-08]

Damn. How many years was he even in the sport?

3 years in the NFL. Last season was in 2012, when he turned 23.

 

[JABEE]

We have evidence of Hernandez shooting people during his recruiting trip during highschool. Stop making excuses for a long time phsychopath.

And the New England Patriots drafted him, because they could get him for a steal in the later rounds. He threatened one of his teammates, but Bill has to win.

Meyer and Belichick made every allowance for him, because he was an All-Pro.

Let's stop pretending these clubs didn't enable him all the way through. He was used and pushed on through the system since he started playing football. It's how the system works. No care for mental or long-term health.

It's all about keeping the coach's job.

 

[Mesousa]

We have evidence of Hernandez shooting people during his recruiting trip during highschool. Stop making excuses for a long time phsychopath.

He had brain damage then.

It starts with little league.

That Bengals player that died after jumping on top of his wife's speeding car had CTE too if I remember. He was also in his 20's when he died.

 

[Alligatorjandro]

I wouldn’t be surprised if all football players have it.

Hell I bet most athletes have it

 

[KHarvey16]

CTE doesn't give you a crew that helps you kill someone and try to cover it up.

Oh I guess the theory that everyone here so far has been advancing that everything was good and no one ever did anything bad before CTE is false.

 

[smokeymicpot]

Damn. How many years was he even in the sport?

He probably started to play when he was in High School or before that so maybe 10 years or so.

And the New England Patriots drafted him, because they could get him for a steal in the later rounds. He threatened one of his teammates, but Bill has to win.

Meyer and Belichick made every allowance for him, because he was an All-Pro.

Let's stop pretending these clubs didn't enable him all the way through.

Exactly. He always had problems. When he was 17 he punched someone in the head. Dude always had problems and chances are all the drugs he did didn't help. If he didn't play football chances are he would have gotten locked up a lot sooner.

 

[Sweeney Tom]

I hope the family wins their lawsuit. Against the Patriots and against the league

 

[TS-08]

We don't have to establish some link between his CTE and his criminal past for this to be an important story, by the way.

 

[Randolph Freelander]

3 years in the NFL. Last season was in 2012, when he turned 23.

Though head trauma likely started as soon as he playing the game. NFL was just the last step in the journey.

 

[17 Seconds]

not surprising.

football is in trouble.

 

[LifEndz]

Lebatard show going to be great tomorrow. Years from now our children are going to look back at football and wonder what the hell we were doing.

 

[ElectricBlanketFire]

CTE doesn't give you a crew that helps you kill someone and try to cover it up.

I don't get this post. No one is excusing what he did because he had CTE.

 

[The Jazz Cabbage Master]

football needs to change with all of the evidence we have about how harmful it is to the brain.

 

[Beefy]

There is a big study of the damage heading the ball does to footballers (soccer) here as well. So many sports need to look into this seriously.

 

[Kill3r7]

Football is going to be over in 20-30 years.

Or changed drastically. Don't underestimate the power of parents.

It's already happening. There are high schools that cannot field full teams and are having to merge with neighboring schools. Wait another 10years and this will become the norm.

 

[Kayhan]

There is a big study of the damage heading the ball does to footballers (soccer) here as well. So many sports need ti look into this seriously.

Yeah, soccer has a potential problem too.

Boxing and other fighting sports as well.

 

[17 Seconds]

Lebatard show going to be great tomorrow. Years from now our children are going to look back at football and wonder what the hell we were doing.

i don't listen to lebatard, what is his stance?

 

[Randolph Freelander]

In context of this, recall that a recent study showed 110 out of 111 donated brains of former football players showed evidence of CTE. (It should be noted that this was a self-selected study, not meant to indicate that nearly all football players have it.)

Hernandez is nowhere near an isolated incident.

http://www.npr.org/2017/07/25/539198429/study-cte-found-in-nearly-all-donated-nfl-player-brains

 

[siddx]

They're already seeing reduced enrollment rates in HS football and below.

Great news.

 

[TS-08]

I wouldn’t be surprised if all football players have it.

Hell I bet most athletes have it

The next step in all of this will be discovering it's worse than we think in some other sports as well. But that's not necessarily to say that the issue will be close to the same in other team sports than it is in American football.

 

[entremet]

There is a big study of the damage heading the ball does to footballers (soccer) here as well. So many sports need to look into this seriously.

American Football has more subconcussive hits, which make up the bulk of what may cause CTE.

I'm curious what happens with Soccer, though. I haven't seen many retired soccer players have issues like our guys. Have you?