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[ItWasMeantToBe19]

Is there a way to test for CTE on a living person? Or any method in development? Would eliminate selection bias.

 

[DominoKid]

wow. Are you sure you didn't play football? Maybe you got hit in the head so much you have a Total Recall thing going on.

Heh. It's still hard for me to separate my personal feelings from the obvious reality of the game. I know that doesn't make sense though. I'll always love the game.

 

[Red Devil]

Soccer isn't immune from CTE issues

You people keep saying that I have yet to hear of a player having issues with that anywhere in over 25 years following the sport. Maybe it's an american thing.

 

[TSM]

You people keep saying that I have yet to hear of a player having issues with that anywhere in over 25 years following the sport. Maybe it's an american thing.

From the wikipedia article on CTE:

Association football
In 2012, Patrick Grange a semi-professional footballer, was diagnosed in an autopsy with Stage 2 CTE with motor neuron disease. "The fact that Patrick Grange was a prolific header is important", Christopher Nowinski, co-founder of the Sports Legacy Institute, said in an e-mail. "We need a larger discussion around at what age we introduce headers, and how we set limits to exposure once it is introduced."[85] Grange played football at high school; college at Illinois-Chicago and New Mexico; in the Premier Development League; for Albuquerque Asylum and Chicago Fire Premier. He died of ALS at age 29 in 2012 with a posthumous diagnosis of CTE.[86]

In 2014, Brazilian footballer Bellini was posthumously diagnosed with CTE. Bellini, along with Pelé, led Brazil to FIFA World Cup victories in 1958 and 1962.[87]

West Bromwich Albion forward Jeff Astle died in January 2002 following five years of deteriorating mental health. Originally diagnosed as Alzheimer's, Astle's condition was later rediagnosed as CTE. In 2014 following 12 years of campaigning from his family and fans at his former club West Bromwich Albion, Jeff Astle officially became the first British footballer listed to have died as a result of heading a football. The campaign was known as the 'Justice for Jeff' campaign, its awareness raised by West Bromwich Albion supporters minutes of applause on the 9th minute of every match (his squad number). Astle was particularly noted for his powerful heading off the ball, it is believed that this, combined with the weight of the old fashioned leather footballs contributed to his CTE.

Given that we don't currently have a CTE test for living individuals, I'd just assume any sport involving frequent blows to the head like Soccer (headers) is going to be rife with CTE.

 

[DBT85]

Soccer isn't immune from CTE issues

Any sport that can involve blows to the head isn't immune.

Soccer however surely has to be safer than football?

Soccer balls way back when were also heavier and the sport was far more content with ridiculous challenges, elbows, etc.

 

[shira]

Retires at 26 to pursue phd

https://twitter.com/JohnCUrschel/status/890656287645605889

A source told ESPN's Jamison Hensley that the results of a recent chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) study played a role in Urschel's retirement.

 

[The Hamburglar]

Dump nfl and promote soccer. Much better.

 

[epmode]

Is there a way to test for CTE on a living person? Or any method in development? Would eliminate selection bias.

I’m not sure about any in-development methods but there’s currently no way to be sure without an autopsy. It’s like Alzheimer’s.

 

[ThisOne]

Not necessarily a CTE issue, but how long will it be until an NFL player gets killed in a game on live TV? I wonder if that would spur any meaningful action for the safety of the players.

Edit: Looking at the link below, I guess it's already happened several times, albeit not very recently.

 

[MrS]

Soccer however surely has to be safer than football?

You'd be surprised.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_football_players_who_died_during_their_careers

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_association_footballers_who_died_while_playing

 

[Baraka in the White House]

Slightly off topic, but I have friends from AUS and NZ who always talk shit about pads in football, How does this compare to rugby? I don't understand how rugby players don't all have brain damage.

Rugby players aren't armored like medieval knights so they're instinctually less likely to use their bodies like battering rams.

 

[Tawpgun]

Rugby players aren't armored like medieval knights so they're instinctually less likely to use their bodies like battering rams.

Yep it's one of those weird things that doesn't make logical sense at first until you think about it.

Also keep in mind this study should be taken with a grain of salt. The brains were donated because they suspected CTE. It'd be like if you donated the lungs of heavy smokers who died of other causes and found out that a lot of them had lung cancer or were at risk for it.

 

[Ninja Scooter]

Slightly off topic, but I have friends from AUS and NZ who always talk shit about pads in football, How does this compare to rugby? I don't understand how rugby players don't all have brain damage.

Many probably do. CTE is a fairly new thing. Any sport/activity that involves a lot of body collisions is at risk.

 

[BannedEpisode]

Heh. It's still hard for me to separate my personal feelings from the obvious reality of the game. I know that doesn't make sense though. I'll always love the game.

I loved my time playing in high school.

I don't think I ever got a concussion but I did get injuries that still stick with me. Broken fingers, knees are "clicky", tore my rotator cuff.

Glad I didn't end up playing college football even though I had a chance to, and I don't know if I'd let my kids.

 

[Hari Seldon]

Dump nfl and promote soccer. Much better.

I imagine america will go back to baseball being number 1. When the next gen of NFL style monster athletes play baseball instead of football, the dingers will be dinging.

 

[Ninja Scooter]

I imagine america will go back to baseball being number 1. When the next gen of NFL style monster athletes play baseball instead of football, the dingers will be dinging.

Basketball has already surpassed baseball both domestically and worldwide by a long shot and only continues to grow.

 

[Lucky Forward]

NFL-NIH research partnership set to end with $16M unspent

The National Institutes of Health will reportedly let its partnership with the NFL expire in August after the NFL previously pledged $30 million to help research the connection between brain disease and football.

According to ESPN's Mark Fainaru-Wada and Steve Fainaru, the NIH decided not to renew its agreement with the NFL "following a bitter dispute in 2015 in which the NFL backed out of a major study that had been awarded to a researcher who had been critical of the league."

"The NFL's agreement with [the funding arm of the NIH] ends August 31, 2017, and there are no current research plans for the funds remaining from the original $30 million NFL commitment," the NIH said in a statement, per ESPN.

Confirmation of the severed relationship between the NFL and NIH comes two days after the Washington Post's Mark Maske reported Democratic members of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce submitted a letter to the NFL asking if it planned to fulfill the terms of its donation.

According to Maske, the NFL has still not contributed $18 million of the initial amount pledged in 2012.

 

[Angry Grimace]

So what's the next step here?

Football ends and gets replaced by something less shitty.

 

[shira]

New York Jets rookie defensive back Jamal Adams called the football field a "perfect place to die" after being asked about chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) during a fan event Monday.

Jesus