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Hernandez found to have "worst case of CTE" in former NFL player


BlueInCanada

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https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/aaron-hernandez-had-severe-cte-nfl-and-patriots-to-be-sued-on-behalf-of-daughter/

 

 

Former Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez, who committed suicide in April while serving a life sentence for murder, had chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disease linked to head trauma, the New York Times reported.

Jose Baez, a lawyer for Hernandez, is announcing the development at a Thursday news conference, and Baez plans to sue the Patriots and the NFL on behalf of Hernandez's 4-year-old daughter.

Baez said researchers determined that Hernandez's case was "the most severe case they had ever seen in someone of Aaron's age." Hernandez was 27 when he was found dead in his cell on April 19.

Hernandez's brain was examined by Dr. Ann McKee, a neuropathologist who had previously conducted a study of 202 brains, 111 of them from former NFL players, and found that all but one of them was diagnosed with CTE. Of the 202 brains in the study among players from all levels of football, 87 percent had CTE.

CTE has been shown to have side effects. Several former NFL players experienced symptoms of depression and some committed suicide. It wasn't known whether Hernandez had CTE, because while a person can experience symptoms, CTE cannot be confirmed until after death.

Dave Duerson, Junior Seau, Andre Waters, Ray Easterling and Jovan Belcher preceded Hernandez as NFL players who took their own lives and were later found to have CTE.

Hernandez is among the youngest NFL players to be found with CTE, though former Giants safety Tyler Sash was also 27 when he was was found dead in September 2015. Sash also had advanced stages of the disease.

McKee, who also conducted Sash's examination, said at the time that the severity of CTE in Sash's brain was on par with the level found in the brain of Seau, who was 43 when he committed suicide.

On a severity scale of 0 to 4, Sash was a Stage 2. McKee said in a statement that Hernandez was a Stage 3.

Hernandez's suicide came five days after he was acquitted of a double slaying that took place in 2012.

 

 

Even though the guy deserved every second of jail time, it's pretty bad that this whole CTE things is becoming more of an issue in former players.

 

Wonder what the NFL is going to do about it, if anything.

 

I also forgot that Tyler Sash had the same thing.

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One could file a lawsuit and argue football injuries Hernandez suffered ultimately led to his prison incarceration and suicide. I'm sure one has.

 

The NFL will continue to follow tradition: Ignore, deny, attack, accept partial responsibility, create tiny fund to research it, and keep making that money.

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the new helmets are encouraging. I hope something can be done to save the sport.

 

Bullshit lawsuit though. Hernandez was a shithead his entire life, you can't blame the NFL or Patriots for a pattern of behavior that existed long before he was in the NFL.

 

There's a chicken and egg problem to this too. I love the sport, but the men that play this game are generally a rough crowd. CTE has never been found in any population in which it wouldn't be expected to see these behaviors at a higher rate than within the general population, so I'm somewhat dubious that it is the absolute mind killer that some say.

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This sport has ALWAYS been rough...players have ALWAYS dealt with lifelong consequences.

 

There is a tradeoff. Live like a king with fortune and fame for a short period of time and pay the piper later in terms of physical ailments. Or, let go of the fortune and fame to some degree and hold onto as much of the healthy life down the road.

 

Again, it's always been this way and it's what has historically justified paying these guys what they're paid to play 16 games a year...

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yup.

 

And for those of us who played, would you give up that experience given what we know today? I wouldn't. Not one play. Not one snap the few times I got to suit up for school teams, not in the sandlot, nothing, I would have played more and longer had I the talent, CTE be damned.

 

I love skiing too. That's also risky as fuck. These are extreme sports with extreme risks and equally extreme thrills.

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One could file a lawsuit and argue football injuries Hernandez suffered ultimately led to his prison incarceration and suicide. I'm sure one has.

 

The NFL will continue to follow tradition: Ignore, deny, attack, accept partial responsibility, create tiny fund to research it, and keep making that money.

Yup the NFL is the Phillip Morris of this generation.

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yup.

 

And for those of us who played, would you give up that experience given what we know today? I wouldn't. Not one play. Not one snap the few times I got to suit up for school teams, not in the sandlot, nothing, I would have played more and longer had I the talent, CTE be damned.

 

I love skiing too. That's also risky as fuck. These are extreme sports with extreme risks and equally extreme thrills.

I'm 37 fucking years old and while I never played for my schools, I can still remember specific catches, hits, runs, etc. my friends and I made in pickup games in the neighborhood. That's probably 25 years ago at this point...so yeah, had I the size/ability to play for the school or whatnot...hell yeah I would've.

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https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/aaron-hernandez-had-severe-cte-nfl-and-patriots-to-be-sued-on-behalf-of-daughter/

 

 

 

Even though the guy deserved every second of jail time, it's pretty bad that this whole CTE things is becoming more of an issue in former players.

 

Wonder what the NFL is going to do about it, if anything.

 

I also forgot that Tyler Sash had the same thing.

The thing is, Hernandez was a thug long before his NFL career. So unless youth sports damaged his brain, which is possible, Hernandez was a born criminal and social deviant.

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Could be, but he was a shithead before college too, so was it high school or youth football that did it? Or is it just that he was, in and of himself, a total shithead?

 

The best defense against the lawsuit is that 87% of ex-players have CTE but only a couple of guys have murder convictions. In fact there's a lower rate of murderous behavior from ex-NFL players than the general public.They're just fishing for some hush money, I doubt it'll make it to court.

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The best defense against the lawsuit is that 87% of ex-players have CTE but only a couple of guys have murder convictions. In fact there's a lower rate of murderous behavior from ex-NFL players than the general public.They're just fishing for some hush money, I doubt it'll make it to court.

 

I thought the whole CTE wasnt that players who have/had it turn out to be murderers or whatever, but that they usually end up killing themselves.

 

Isnt that what the article was making it out as?

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It probably just affects different brains differently. Chris Benoit was super intense and really depressed about Eddie Guerrero dying. Michael strahan probably has it and he hams it up for housewives on tv. I bet you already need to have some sort of psychological or emotional issues and cte just exasperates it

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  • 2 months later...

They will need radically better equipment, and rules changes, and I think positional weight limits to save this sport.

Or a waiver to participate/play stating that playing football could lead to a, b, and c that players are required to sign. Protects the league from lawsuit, makes players aware of the risk, allows the rules to be left alone so as not to water down the game anymore than it already is...problem solved.

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I was reading, guess they are finding more cases in highschool students and college players.

 

Fucking thing might get blown open the next few years.

 

 

Or a waiver to participate/play stating that playing football could lead to a, b, and c that players are required to sign. Protects the league from lawsuit, makes players aware of the risk, allows the rules to be left alone so as not to water down the game anymore than it already is...problem solved.

 

Could work, don't most boxers sign a wavier saying if they die in the ring their families cant go after the league/commission whatever you call it.

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