At least one out of four football players suffer from CTE, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy dementia. Make no mistake this is a terrible disease. I loved Gayle Sayers, the second greatest running back I ever saw. He had a terrible debilitating CTE disease. It was a bad death, as is the case with CTE. Teammate Mike Ditka supported Gayle in his disease and said he would discourage any son or grandson of his not to play football
“Mike Ditka, the head coach of the Super Bowl–winning 1985 Chicago Bears team, says that if he had a young son or grandson he would discourage him from playing football”
So, for me, I get no enjoyment watching people inflict life crushing brain damage on each other. What parent would do otherwise? Are macho manly manly manly fathers going to let their children risk torturous deaths? Mothers?
Here is the data from this extensive study:
“ Researchers considered every former N.F.L. player who died from 2016 to 2021. There were 878. Some died in their 20s, some in their 80s, most in between.
The study’s main finding was simple math: At least 215 of those 878 former players — 24.5 percent — had C.T.E.
The actual prevalence could be far higher. The roughly 25 percent rate does not consider the 643 brains that were not examined. Some of those, maybe many of them, likely had C.T.E. too.”
Baseball used to be the “National Pastime” when I was young. Then America fell in love with violence and turned to football. Maybe it’s time to let go.
