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Is it safe to say most players that get CTE had played 10+ years?

posted 8 years ago by joestl
12 replies | jump to latest

Not that it's impossible to get in less years but CTE is based on the thousands and thousands of hits to the head. So if a player who makes a bunch of money early on in his career and retires at 29 or 30 won't be as likely to get it as someone who plays until he is 35. So while the players might not make as much money if they only play half as long as they would've played otherwise. It might make sense to living a long healthier life making 30-40 million which is more then enough to live comfortably on the rest of your life then making 100 million and dying at 50.

[–] MuchToBeGratefulFor 8 years ago

I read on this board somewhere that CTE was found in a college player. Not sure what he died of, but the autopsy showed CTE.

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[–] joestl 8 years ago

After making the post above I watched the Frontline documentary about this subject matter, they found it in a high school player which is crazy.

[–] 8 years ago

[deleted]

[–] joestl 8 years ago

It's crazy that you can get CTE playing high school football, especially since that's only a few years you'd have been playing high school football at that point and even then the players in high school football are far smaller then college players who're even smaller then pro players.

[–] baidoasomalia 8 years ago

I don't think it's safe to say that most players that get CTE played 10+ years. The gist I got from the Frontline piece is that the body of research in this field of study is still in its nascent stage and that more brains need to be studied. Hearing about the 18-year-old was very disturbing. It points out that it doesn't take a lot of time or experience to get so damaged. He might be an outlier (or maybe not), but that makes his case no less tragic. It will be interesting to see what further research yields.

[–] peggygeordie 8 years ago

My nephew was sidelined with one concussion his junior year in high school. He's always been athletic and never injured so it was something of a shock for him to realize how much that ONE concussion was affecting him with headaches, blurred vision and other effects that took several weeks to go away. We are quite relieved he's lost interest in the sport and is going out for track.

[–] omoxus 8 years ago

The body isn't designed for professional sports.

I am the Alpha and the Omoxus. The Omoxus and the Omega

[–] bsanders-4 8 years ago

I'm 47 now, and played tackle from age 5 to 22. I'm positive there is something from multiple hits over time. Getting your "bell run" was as common as a sprain. Rub some dirt on it and get back out there. It was a badge of honor to go baby on the field, it meant you were tough.
I'll probably donate my brain when the time comes, just for the sake of science. 18 straight years playing and there are moments that make me nervous about my cognitive state. Forget the word for something simple like "safety pin". It's a bit frightening but I do as much mind exercises as possible and hope for the best. My 9 year old son loves football, but I only let him do 7-7 flag. By his age, I had 5 years of tackle behind me. Ridiculous.

[–] johncg25 8 years ago

I think most, but not all. The ending of the movie said 28% of NFL players would develop serious cognitive issues, or CTE, so if you look at the average NFL playing career being about 3 seasons (or less) than yes, I am thinking the guys that played forever are going to be much more likely to be having that problem. It probably goes from 28% to like 50%+ for players who play 10 or more years in the NFL. (Seau, Webster etc.) But, its always possible for a guy to have a number of serious concussions in only a few seasons too, for the same effect. (Tyler Sash)

[–] communityreality 8 years ago

I'd say it's still an injury that is in it's learning infancy.

I'm not american so i'm not as up to date on all the info, but i remember seeing (maybe it was the same show) that collage players were suffering similar affects to cte and concussions without every having being diagnosed with one.

now there's many factors in that, but that's alarming.

we had an aussie rules player out here, who used to cop a few concussions, and i reckon he's gonna end up the same way. had a bad concussion and 3 weeks later passed out during an interview when he wasn't even playing.

it's scary stuff.
but as the film makes mention of, players should be aware of all the possibilites and dangers of playing these types of sports.

[–] Thomasina 7 years ago

But by the time you GET to the NFL you have likely played longer than 10 years already, when you add up 4 years of college, 4 years of high school, and a childhood filled with peewee league ball.

[–] liverpool26 7 years ago

Few news cases in UK about people being punched once on night out and dying. You could get punched once or play American football once and die or suffer permanent injury, you could get punched every day for a year and suffer no permanent damage. What I'm saying is it's just luck, it could hapoen to you on day 1 or you could get away with it forever.