[Haden]

CTE scares the hell out of me, I played over 10 years of tackle football (from Pop Warner through College)The older I am getting, the more I tend to have trouble recalling things. My wife tells me that I get a little moody at times as well. I played in a time when getting your bell rung was just part of the game, you would sit out a play or two and then coach would sent you back in. I knocked myself out in High School once and was back on the field in the 2nd half with a massive headache. Smelling salts got me through that game.

My son played football but we made the decision to only let him play Flag until he reached High School and then we would have a discussion, He chose going to a STEM High School for Engineering over a school with a football team so the discussion never had to take place.

I got knocked loopy in a high school game too. I heard birdies chirping and saw stars shooting. I was our starting Right Outside Linebacker and Defensive Captain and lowered my head to make a tackle and ended up colliding helmet to helmet with a 200 lb RB coming through the hole. We both dropped.

I got up and was trying to walk back to the huddle. In reality, I was walking off to the other sideline. The coaches came and got me and walked me back to our own sideline. They gave me smelling salts too in order to jolt me back to reality. It was late in the 2nd, so I had the halftime to clear my head. Because I was the Captain, there was no question I was going back in. I played the entire 2nd half with a bad headache. By that night, I couldn't take any lights and stayed in my dark bedroom. The next day I felt better albeit like I had a a hangover. The day after that I felt fine and played that Friday night.

The following year, I suffered a bad stinger on another inadvertent helmet to helmet hit. I went to the hospital for xrays of my neck. I am sure I was concussed. The doctors expressed concerns about me playing again that season and thus I chose to sit out after talking it over with my parents. I wasn't good enough to play major college ball, so after I went to the university the next year, things were over.

Those were my only two concussions since playing starting in 4th grade. Boy, I am sure glad now I stopped playing and that I wasn't good enough to play college ball. I really feel for all of these guys who didn't know what was coming. What a nightmare for them.

[St. Loser Fan]

Not saying it’s CTE, but.....

[HopHead Ram]

Thought the same thing when I heard the news.

[Hacksaw]

110 out of 111. The NFL might need to rethink things, , before they can't.

[Lancer]

I wonder what % of the population has cte while never playing in the NFL.
I've had 2 concussions.
I saw a report that teen age girls are susceptible to concussion playing soccer.
Wonder what their scans would look like

Like Hacksaw also mentions further below w/ boxers, it would benefit greatly in the long term if a cross-sport study of some kind was conducted. Complicated, but possible if enough foundational outreach was done with families.

Ppl had always been aware of PTSD occurring in war; survivors who suffered from it were derided for having personal moral failures and subsequently ostracized for their inability to contribute meaningfully to society after returning.

Certain qualities encouraged in sport i.e. being tough, not quitting, doing it for the team, etc. are taught better than they used to be. Much work still to be done to balance the positive aspects in light of these concerning health conditions.

[St. Loser Fan]

[safer]

I worry about this too. I've had two concussions from football and a much worse one from getting jumped years ago.
Have they come up with any ways of testing until after a guy dies?

[Joe Pendleton]

.. I've got them fm FB too, imho a visit to the MD is the savvy move (jus sayin:)

[safer]

Joe, I do annual check physicals and take very good care of myself. I took some brain tests about 2 yrs ago and checked out fine for my age group-----I also find myself getting more upset over things that didn't get to me as much, years ago.

[Hacksaw]

Glad you're getting that checked safer! On a positive note, grumpy old men have been around for a long time and most of them probably didn't hit their heads.