Aaron Hernandez Found to Have Severe C.T.E.

Our public high schools really need to look at the risks and determine if tackle football should continue to be offered. I don't think there's a definitive answer yet as to what stage/age CTE can occur.

Not directed just at you, just the comment as it is oft-repeated.

If they were to do so, they would also have to get rid of soccer, wrestling, basketball, hockey, lacrosse, and competitive cheer, as those sporta also carry a high risk of concussion.

Those who are familiar with the football world, know and understand the new rules, techniques, and actions put in place by organizations like USA Football to make the game safer in order to reduce the risk of injury and concussion.

For those of you who genuinely care about the changes, USA FOOTBALL is a terrific resource to start with. For those of you who only want to listen to the sensational headlines, I won't even bother trying to change your mind, so feel free to stop reading my post.

My 17 year old started football in the midst of the changes, 10 years ago. Even though it's only been a decade, the game and the rules have changed dramatically. He was taught the old way of blocking and tackling, and had to change his technique at about 12 years old. My youngest started to play around thst time, and was taught Heads Up techniques. Pop Warner and other youth organizations have begun to institute no kickoffs/returns in their games and are in process of eliminating them level by level. It is being highly encouraged that high school and college do so as well.

Helmet/equipment technology has improved dramatically. Coaches are better educated at every level. Most youth leagues have a dedicated safety coordinator that makes sure all coaches and players are learning the correct, safe, methods. Refs are instructed to have a "quick whistle" so kids aren't wrestling and driving opponents to the ground. Targeting and unnecessary roughness calls are handed out immediately, and kids are ejected the first time. No second chances. Weight and age limits are strictly enforced at the youth level. Practices consist of more walk-through, two-hand touch, and non contact drills to teach technique to lessen the number of "hits" the players take.

Those are just some of the changes off the top of my head. My son is a senior, so next years' NCAA freshman class will be one of the first that have spent at least half of their youth/high school career living and learning to play under the "new, safer" game of football.

Signed,
A founding executive board member member of a youth football league, mom of a longtime football player, and wife of the VP of Player Safety of our towns youth league, who is also on an advisory committee with other high school and BIG10 coaches for USA Heads Up Football.
 
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Who's being forced to play?
I was replying to the PP who said people are still being encouraged to play. It's possible kids could be forced to play, but I don't think anyone in college or pro football is being forced. That's my argument. I think anyone who is playing pro football now made a conscience decision to play knowing the risk.
 
I understand what you are saying. I think the big thing with Hernandez is that he had a long history of violence and criminal type behavior. Baez is the biggest bottom feeder, he's the guy that got Casey Anthony off. He's really good at spin. I hate the idea that this will get them money. That finance was willfully ignorant, at best. She and his family are looking to cash in any way that can and Baez is more than happy to help.

She disposed of the gun more than likely. Than pulled "Hey I didn't know what was in the box & why he wanted in a dumpster the same night he killed Odin Lloyd o_Oo_Oo_O
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2...urder-trial/RByAhQgkEPed79a5uCdQ6K/story.html

And how many years did OJ Simpson get his head bashed in up in Buffalo. The NFL has a problem

So you wanna pick the 2 biggest scumbags from the NFL & say "CTE made me do it" Not everyone with CTE murders people I think that is their character flaw. A greater majority with CTE kill themselves not others or live with the symptoms til the pass.

OOH maybe Ray Rice has CTE or Adrian Peterson or Ezekial Elliott - yeah that's what it is.
 


She disposed of the gun more than likely. Than pulled "Hey I didn't know what was in the box & why he wanted in a dumpster the same night he killed Odin Lloyd o_Oo_Oo_O
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2...urder-trial/RByAhQgkEPed79a5uCdQ6K/story.html



So you wanna pick the 2 biggest scumbags from the NFL & say "CTE made me do it" Not everyone with CTE murders people I think that is their character flaw. A greater majority with CTE kill themselves not others or live with the symptoms til the pass.

OOH maybe Ray Rice has CTE or Adrian Peterson or Ezekial Elliott - yeah that's what it is.

Right. You must be from MA too. It was all such a big deal here and it was hard to not follow the cases and what happened, his history. She definitely seemed like the "ride or die" type.
 
Right. You must be from MA too. It was all such a big deal here and it was hard to not follow the cases and what happened, his history. She definitely seemed like the "ride or die" type.

Yup, MA:wave2: Also a big Pats fan, heck I confess sports nut - whole family is. We had dozens of discussions about AH. I think she was more a she me the money chick:rotfl:
 


Not directed just at you, just the comment as it is oft-repeated.

If they were to do so, they would also have to get rid of soccer, wrestling, basketball, hockey, lacrosse, and competitive cheer, as those sporta also carry a high risk of concussion.

Those who are familiar with the football world, know and understand the new rules, techniques, and actions put in place by organizations like USA Football to make the game safer in order to reduce the risk of injury and concussion.

For those of you who genuinely care about the changes, USA FOOTBALL is a terrific resource to start with. For those of you who only want to listen to the sensational headlines, I won't even bother trying to change your mind, so feel free to stop reading my post.

My 17 year old started football in the midst of the changes, 10 years ago. Even though it's only been a decade, the game and the rules have changed dramatically. He was taught the old way of blocking and tackling, and had to change his technique at about 12 years old. My youngest started to play around thst time, and was taught Heads Up techniques. Pop Warner and other youth organizations have begun to institute no kickoffs/returns in their games and are in process of eliminating them level by level. It is being highly encouraged that high school and college do so as well.

Helmet/equipment technology has improved dramatically. Coaches are better educated at every level. Most youth leagues have a dedicated safety coordinator that makes sure all coaches and players are learning the correct, safe, methods. Refs are instructed to have a "quick whistle" so kids aren't wrestling and driving opponents to the ground. Targeting and unnecessary roughness calls are handed out immediately, and kids are ejected the first time. No second chances. Weight and age limits are strictly enforced at the youth level. Practices consist of more walk-through, two-hand touch, and non contact drills to teach technique to lessen the number of "hits" the players take.

Those are just some of the changes off the top of my head. My son is a senior, so next years' NCAA freshman class will be one of the first that have spent at least half of their youth/high school career living and learning to play under the "new, safer" game of football.

Signed,
A founding executive board member member of a youth football league, mom of a longtime football player, and wife of the VP of Player Safety of our towns youth league, who is also on an advisory committee with other high school and BIG10 coaches for USA Heads Up Football.

I agree that the regulations of high school football are trying to make it "safer." Not safe, but safer.

There is a definite element of risk in tackle football. That's great that you feel comfortable with your child in high school football. I pulled my son out after his first concussion (punt return) and in speaking with his neuro rehab team about future risks. As a sophomore, he was nationally ranked as a top 10 football athlete so it's not like he didn't have a future in the sport. I was a parent who bought him the best helmet on the market and had it painted to match his team. Believe me, you can't prevent concussions even with good instruction, quick whistles, and top of the line gear. Whether CTE is caused by the repetitive nature of the hits or bigger hits that cause concussions is unknown. It's also unknown if these newer safety measures will have any impact whatsoever on neuro safety.

Having said that, there's a risk of concussion with other sports. CTE has been found in soccer players too. My other son actually had a worse concussion in college baseball when he collided with another player. All sports carry risk, and maybe the research will eventually show that other sports also have an increased risk of CTE. For right now, it's known that CTE has been found in tackle football players at the levels of high school through professional. Imho, educators have a responsibility to consider the evidence available to them and decide whether or not offering tackle football is worth the risk. YMMV.
 
I agree that the regulations of high school football are trying to make it "safer." Not safe, but safer.

There is a definite element of risk in tackle football. That's great that you feel comfortable with your child in high school football. I pulled my son out after his first concussion (punt return) and in speaking with his neuro rehab team about future risks. As a sophomore, he was nationally ranked as a top 10 football athlete so it's not like he didn't have a future in the sport. I was a parent who bought him the best helmet on the market and had it painted to match his team. Believe me, you can't prevent concussions even with good instruction, quick whistles, and top of the line gear. Whether CTE is caused by the repetitive nature of the hits or bigger hits that cause concussions is unknown. It's also unknown if these newer safety measures will have any impact whatsoever on neuro safety.

Having said that, there's a risk of concussion with other sports. CTE has been found in soccer players too. My other son actually had a worse concussion in college baseball when he collided with another player. All sports carry risk, and maybe the research will eventually show that other sports also have an increased risk of CTE. For right now, it's known that CTE has been found in tackle football players at the levels of high school through professional. Imho, educators have a responsibility to consider the evidence available to them and decide whether or not offering tackle football is worth the risk. YMMV.
...and hockey....and competitive cheer....and lacrosse....and....and....

Maybe??!! Someday?! I'm pretty sure the entire medical field agrees that CTE comes from multiple concussions that a person sustains no matter the activity being performed when it happens, not from playing football in and of itself. In other words, FOOTBALL does not cause CTE. CONCUSSIONS cause CTE. As you stated, concussions can happen anywhere, anytime, to anybody. My boys have had three concussions in their life between the two of them....possibly a 4th minor one, and not one of these happened because of or during the course of a football play/hit. Only one out of the 3 even happened on a football FIELD, for that matter! And the one that did, was the result of horseplay when practice was on a break, not from the sport itself). The 4th possible one came from my goalie lacrosse DS11 getting hit by the lacrosse ball in the same spot of his helmet twice in 30 seconds on a ricochet.

Yet, because they DO PLAY football, it would be so easy to say all potential future neuro issues would be the result of them playing football - I mean, nobody would question it since football is so dangerous and all.

Sensational headlines sell, though, so that's all we care to talk about, isn't it.
 
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We are to believe the CTE is the root cause of his suicide and not his illegal and felony behavior correct?
I don't think anyone knows that for sure right now, but (being from MA also :teeth: ) I would say it was more what a pp said - he knew he was in jail for life, his career was over, and his murder conviction would be voided (per MA law) if he died before the appeals process was completed. I think the question is, what part did CTE play in all of this. There is evidence that he had a lot of bad behaviors from long before he was an NFL player, including during his time in college in FL where he was accused of shooting five shots into a car and was found guilty of hitting a bouncer so hard in the head he had permanent ear damage - among other things.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/spor...sp-aaron-hernandez-gators-20170419-story.html
 
More to the subject of CTE in general...just some thoughts....

Last winter while I was home nursing a concussion, I was flipping channels one night and came across the movie Concussion. I only caught half of it so I rewatched the whole thing later. It was really good, I thought (and Will Smith was fantastic, people should watch it if they want to know more about CTE). At the time, I was also studying a lot about concussion due to my own situation (my vision became very impaired from just a relatively simple hit on the head, which was scary) and my son had had at least one concussion from sports before, so it wasn't the first time I'd dealt with concussion.

I don't know football really at all, other than as a casual observer, but any sport that bangs the head (and brain) around repeatedly (and maybe that's changing in football, idk), knowing what we now know about this, has to change. Last night I was flipping channels again and came across an older movie (1990 I think it was) that showed a game of football in slow motion, and I was sort of squirming watching all the hits and jarring the players' heads were taking - again, knowing what we now know.

Thinking back on other times in life I remember falling backwards off my friend's front porch and taking a pretty bad hit to the back of the head. Another time when I dove into a pool and my head hit the front of my head on the cement bottom. Once even after riding an old rickety roller coaster I had the worst headache of my life. My mother stlll talks about the time when she was a young girl and took a bad hit to her head on a dodgems car. (I'm sure we all have these stories.) But these probably all, by today's standards, yielded even small concussions. I guess the difference with football, reportedly, is the continuous nature of the hits. The brain is cradled in fluid and can easily withstand normal movement, but when it takes a sudden hit, the brain actually slams up against the skull and tissue is injured. It can take a while for that tissue to heal. (When there is nerve damage, the healing process is very slow, i.e. 1mm per week is what my neurologist told me. For a big hit, that could take a very long time.) One could see why this could be problematic day after day.

One of the most important things I was told with my concussion was NOT TO GET ANOTHER ONE ON TOP OF THE ONE I ALREADY HAD, so I was instructed to be extra careful walking or slipping or doing anything, really, so as not to hit my head again. Apparently one concussion on top of another is quite dangerous. Not trying to be anti-football, because I think sports are great, but I'm trying to figure out how they're going to reconcile this with the sport now that they have this information. (And in fairness, other sports are affected as well. And btw, most helmets do not prevent concussion, since this is a process that happens inside the head.) When my own son had his concussion I'd discussed with the doctor taking him out of sports and the doctor said no, that sports were "great for kids". But this was before the information about CTE came out in relation to football players (which he is not).

I am intrigued about the extent of Aaron's CTE damage since he was so young. I think they have lots more to learn about this, they're only still at the beginning of understanding it.
 
First, Aaron Hernandez was a slimeball long before the NFL. Sorry, you won't get me to believe that football caused him to murder people. Nope. The lawsuit filed is nothing but a sorry money grab by his family and the slimeball lawyer. Aaron Hernandez played 3 years in the NFL...he played just as many or more in college and high school. Notice they aren't being pursued, just the Patriots and the NFL. There's a reason for that.

Head trauma/concussions/CTE is not an "NFL" problem, as others have pointed out, it's a sports issue in general. Drives me nuts that the NFL is the one getting all the focus. What about boxing and UFC? The object in those two is to punch someone in the head (yes, they can do other things, but head shots are "king") until they cannot stand. IMO, the UFC is nothing but legalized assault, I'd support outlawing it completely. But where is the focus on them? Lacrosse... Anyone familiar with that sport and felt a lacrosse ball will understand. For crying out loud. girls don't even wear helmets, which I think is utterly ridiculous. Soccer. Wrestling (not WWE, but actual wrestling). Hockey.

Yes, I clearly think there is some type of relationship between repeated head trauma and things like CTE. I don't think there's much debate about that. But it's a much more complicated subject than simply saying "If your kid plays football, they're going to get CTE and it'll be his fault/parents fault". They are doing a lot to keep the head out of the game of football at the youth level and up. DS13 is now in his 5th year of football, and DS10 is in his 4th. I watch every practice and every game. The lengths the coaches go to in order to teach the kids not to use their head is amazing. Any football player knows that one of the fastest ways to get in trouble with the coach is to use their head for a block or tackle. It is not tolerated. Does incidental contact happen? Sure, it's unavoidable. But the game, like other sports, is rough by its' nature and there is some inherent risk like any contact sport. DS10 is a star on his team. He gets a ton of plays and makes a ton of hits (he's middle linebacker on defense). I have no intention of taking him, or DS13, out of football. If they like it, and they're taught to be as safe as they can, I'm all for them playing. Both of the boys also play lacrosse in the spring...and DD10 plays lacrosse year round. We have concerns about their safety, like any parent would, but they really want to play and we support them. Their coaches...and us as their parents...teach them safety and then from there we cheer them on.
 
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I am a bit confused. Some are saying he was a bad guy before CTE and some are saying he wasn't in the NFL long enough for his CTE to be caused in the NFL. How do you know when he started having the symptoms and what was or wasn't caused by CTE?

Because we are so involved in pro wrestling, concussions are a huge concern. When DS first started there wasn't much said and then when Chris Benoit killed his family and himself, more started being said about it. The WWE doesn't seem to admit that was the cause of what happened to Benoit, but since that time it's something that they stay on top of with their people. Some are pulled from the ring due to having more than a certain number (one guy is a commentator now due to this) and they donate a huge amount of money to concussion research. If one gets a concussion they are pulled from the ring for what seems like an almost excesssive amount of time to heal.

Of course Dd and DS aren't at that level but even in the indies, they train to prevent getting or causing concussions.

I haven't had one in football in a very long time but I do know when Dd was visiting colleges, one of the schools was showing us the many things their students were studying and developing and one of those things was a helmet that would prevent concussions. Well I don't think it could 100% prevent but it's was to prevent a huge number.
 
I am a bit confused. Some are saying he was a bad guy before CTE and some are saying he wasn't in the NFL long enough for his CTE to be caused in the NFL. How do you know when he started having the symptoms and what was or wasn't caused by CTE?

Because we are so involved in pro wrestling, concussions are a huge concern. When DS first started there wasn't much said and then when Chris Benoit killed his family and himself, more started being said about it. The WWE doesn't seem to admit that was the cause of what happened to Benoit, but since that time it's something that they stay on top of with their people. Some are pulled from the ring due to having more than a certain number (one guy is a commentator now due to this) and they donate a huge amount of money to concussion research. If one gets a concussion they are pulled from the ring for what seems like an almost excesssive amount of time to heal.

Of course Dd and DS aren't at that level but even in the indies, they train to prevent getting or causing concussions.

I haven't had one in football in a very long time but I do know when Dd was visiting colleges, one of the schools was showing us the many things their students were studying and developing and one of those things was a helmet that would prevent concussions. Well I don't think it could 100% prevent but it's was to prevent a huge number.

None of us knew him personally, we can only go from reports. So sure, you are correct that there's no way to know if/when his behavior changed and IF it had anything to do with CTE. Point well taken. There are plenty of people with bad character who don't play sports, they make plenty of bad choices. There's no way to know for certain if Hernandez was just a punk because he was a punk or if head trauma played any role whatsoever. From information out there, I tend to believe the former much more than the latter, but nobody knows for sure. I very much take issue with the finger pointing at the NFL and Patriots. To me, that's ridiculous.

I didn't know you were involved in pro wrestling? WWE? Was a superfan back in the '80s. My boys got into it for a year or two back in the early 2010s, but haven't seen it since.
 

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