Pro Football Hall of Famers Tony Dorsett and Joe DeLamielleure, and former NFL All-Pro Leonard Marshall have been diagnosed as having signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative condition many scientists say is caused by head trauma and linked to depression and dementia, doctors have told "Outside the Lines." The three former stars underwent brain scans and clinical evaluations during the past three months at UCLA, as did an unidentified ex-player whose test results are not yet available. Source: ESPN markaz's Take: Heard a soundbite this morning with Tony D describing his quality of life and how difficult it is to have his daughters watch all these changes occur and not fully comprehend it. Unbelievably sad to hear a player of his stature and that I've always admired get choked up while trying to express his feelings. Article is a good read.
There is not telling how many people in sports and in life in general CTE has effected. historical people from khan to hitler to stalin all had severe head trauma as kids,as did general george patton,and they all showed symptoms of what recent former nfl greats showed before killing themselves or getting a disease like ALS and dying quickly.I saw a story a few months back that many doctors think that lou gehrig's history of head trauma is what caused him to develop the disease that now carries his name.
Very sad. I wish the best for Tony. (and any other player who has this) I hate to sound cold, but this is just part of football. These players are getting bigger and faster and stronger. Things are only gonna get worse.
At least players know that risk now, though. They don't play in a league trying to minimize the impact of it like a lot of others did.
I bet within 10 years,players that play only 3 or 4 years in the league are gonna the norm because of the chance they will get this is gonna become higher and higher.I Would love to see somebody create a study and find out exactly when this started happening to former atheletes. A lot of the players from the 1930s,1940s,and 1950s lived really long lives in which they died of natural causes it seems.
Very true. Another positive is that the medical community can now test on living subjects vs. having to do all the investigatory work only after the player was deceased. These types of advancements will eventually lead to treatments...just like every other disease state.
