Aaron Hernandez had severe CTE; daughter sues NFL, Pats

[SunSeeker]

Source: ABC News

Tests conducted on the brain of former football star Aaron Hernandez showed severe signs of the degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy, and his attorney said Thursday that the player's daughter is suing the NFL and the New England Patriots for leading Hernandez to believe the sport was safe.

In a news conference at his offices, Hernandez's attorney Jose Baez said the testing showed one of the most severe cases ever diagnosed.
...
Dr. Ann McKee, the director of the CTE Center at Boston University, concluded that the New England Patriots tight end had stage 3 of 4 of the disease, and also had early brain atrophy and large perforations in a central membrane.
...
CTE can be caused by repeated head trauma and leads to symptoms like violent mood swings, depression and other cognitive difficulties. Hernandez killed himself in April in the jail cell where he was serving a life-without-parole sentence for a 2013 murder. His death came just hours before the Patriots visited the White House to celebrate their latest Super Bowl victory.


Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory/aaron-hernandez-lawyer-brain-showed-severe-case-cte-50011241

---

Aaron Hernandez was only 27 when he committed suicide. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Hernandez

A neuropathologist who examined the brains of 111 N.F.L. players found 110 to have CTE. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/07/25/sports/football/nfl-cte.html

It is now more plain than ever that playing football causes CTE and helmets don't protect you from the impacts, since the damage is caused by your brain sloshing in your skull from the sudden stop caused by the impact. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/football-helmets-concussion-protection/ https://www.ted.com/talks/david_camarillo_why_helmets_don_t_prevent_concussions_and_what_might/transcript?language=en

This is why I don't let my son play tackle football.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

1. It will be interesting to see if this gains any traction.

If it does, if she wins, then that may be the death knell of American football as we know it.

[SunSeeker]

4. I don't know about that. The NFL will just have new players sign waivers of liability for CTE.

The desperate kids whose only marketable attribute is their physical ability will still accept the likelihood that they will die with CTE.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

6. I wonder if those kinds of waivers would hold up in the long run?

Plus, we already know that kids who play football before age 12, no matter how far they go with playing (high school, college, NFL) have much higher rates of CTE than those who start at a later age.

Minors wouldn't be able to sign such a waiver, and I'm not sure parents could do so either.

[Stuart G]

10. There is only one way to kill the NFL, very very simple: Everyone stops watching it on TV

If 90 percent of the viewers stopped watching it on TV, money would evaporate..without lots of money..to pay people and to finance things..,etc........................................................................................... ...................................................................................................................
..................................................................are you ready??...NO NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE

also...........................no college football TV,,,none?... therefore: less competition, less notoriety ...guess what?
............less injuries.....less people playing this sport.............far fewer injuries....

[HAB911]

23. First thing is make sure that sports are unbundled from any cable package

If you can see sports channels in your package, you're paying for them. Of course they bundle them so it is extremely difficult to rid your self of ESPN without losing many other channels of value. (value being a relative term here)

[not fooled]

12. And the football fans

won't stop watching games and supporting their teams. That's the only way this situation really will improve, and we all know that counting on the American public to do the right thing--especially if it means some sort of personal sacrifice--is not a good bet.

That's assuming most fans even know about or understand the issues invloved. After all, look at how many Americans callously disregard the need and distress of their fellow citizens, let alone highly paid athletes.

[Calista241]

33. I doubt he'll win. He'll have to prove he couldn't have gotten CTE from any other sources.

Without a live witness, or with Hernandez to testify, there are too many variables.

If he got into a fight in prison, or any other time, they can blame the injury on that incident.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

35. Given the recent study that showed 110 of 111 of the brains

of NFL players showed CTE, it would be extremely difficult to persuade a jury or a judge that he might have gotten the CTE elsewhere.

Of course, given how many people are willing to think that climate science and global warming aren't settled, I probably should retract my above statement.

[Calista241]

36. It depends.

As another poster said, he only played for 3 years in the NFL, one of which he missed significant time with a shoulder injury. He was diagnosed with one concussion during his nfl career.

He was involved in a number of fights at Florida. And those injuries may be the the underlying causes of his of his CTE.

[ghostsinthemachine]

2. This could end the NFL as we know it

Huge lawsuit. A story that won't go away, celebrity, guns, cars, football. Yep this will captivate the country.

But, he began that journey as a kid, in Pop Warner, the High School then college. He got his bell rung often, surely.

[AtheistCrusader]

7. But they're suing the wrong thing possibly, assuming a connection at all.

I mean, his violent criminal career began well before the NFL.

[SunSeeker]

19. That's what a jury is for. They will decide if there was causation.

The issue is whether his suicide, not his criminal conduct, was caused by CTE.

[Coventina]

3. Did it make him a murderer?

I'm finding it difficult to shed tears for this guy.

[BigmanPigman]

11. I wonder if OJ had it?

Of course having this doesn't make you a murderer. It may have been a very small factor but we will never know.

I remember Obama said that if he had sons he wouldn't allow them to play football. If you know the hazards (and who doesn't) then it is your choice and responsibility I guess...like many other dangerous sports.

[Coventina]

13. If the sport produces murderers, then maybe it should be banned.

[bathroommonkey76]

5. I always knew that something was off with high school football players

During my 90s high school days there was a sense of craziness coming from the minds of those players. Part of me wanted to blame steroids as one of the problems and mental issues of some of my friends. Looking back I completely believe their issues had to do with getting hit in the head- I knew guys who started playing tackle football at age five! For me there was zero desire to play competitive football- My sports were always football and basketball.

[GeorgeGist]

8. Good, I hope she takes em down.

[jalan48]

9. Hitting your head as hard as you can against another hard

Last edited Thu Sep 21, 2017, 08:21 PM - Edit history (1)

object (helmet) is just a bad idea. Whatever happened to common sense?

[ouija]

14. Let's not

Let's not hurl sterotypical insults as I played and have done well in education. I loved to play the game and most who play do as well. With that said, I had multiple concussions and am concerned moving forward.

[jalan48]

15. My apologies for the stereotype. It sounds like you take responsibility for your choices which is

admirable. I do wonder about the young boys being pushed into a game which has serious life consequences though.

[BeyondGeography]

16. This sport should be shut down in its current form

It's an obvious disaster. But just as we will milk every last penny we can from dirty fuels and irresponsible coastal development, no matter how much suffering results, so it will go with football. We are absolute prisoners of the buck.

[lastlib]

17. Maybe Jerry Ford DID play too many games without a helmet........!

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

37. So what's Trump's excuse? nt :)

[lastlib]

38. I think his problem is genetic.

He's hard-wired to be what he is. His father was nucking-futs. Klansman, all-around bad guy--but his real crime was not letting it run down his leg when he had the chance.

[TexasBushwhacker]

18. CTE is showing up in soccer and rugby players as well n/t

[SunSeeker]

22. Yep. That's why we banned heading in youth soccer for 10 & under.

https://www.theringer.com/2017/4/25/16041684/us-soccer-header-ban-concussions-4805684f63ca
We should ban heading altogether. The beauty of soccer is what you do with your feet anyway, not your head. I always thought heading was barbaric.

Not sure how to make rugby safer since I don't know much about that sport. It appears to inherently be a game of impact, like football.

[blueinredohio]

20. Wonder if he would have hanged himself if he wasn't in prison for murder

Not buying it

[HAB911]

24. The league

had already faced public relations problems after other high-profile players were found to have C.T.E., including Junior Seau, Ken Stabler and Frank Gifford. Mr. Seau — along with Dave Duerson, Andre Waters and Ray Easterling, among others — killed himself.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/21/sports/aaron-hernandez-cte-brain.html?_r=0

[janterry]

26. There are also longterm consequences from all the drugs he used

Hard to tease that out - though the brain injuries are real (not questioning that).

As for murder, I don't think the researchers would suggest that it caused that. He had a propensity for violence throughout his life (as a kid, too, if I recall).

[Exultant Democracy]

29. If he played tackle football before the age of 12 it would.

The newest data suggests that a season of tackle ball before the age of 12 will Swiss cheese a brain at a vital point in development. It could be the reason he was a terrible young man too.

[bronxiteforever]

21. We all know the answer-playing football causes brain damage.

It's a fact and just like the cigarette companies, the NFL tries to bury the science.

We will never know if football induced brain damage contributed to how Hernandez behaved but we do know it causes substantial changes in the behavior of people. I am certain that having cte doesn't make a person better.

[kwassa]

25. Boxing, and ice hockey are two other sports that can produce CTE.

I've often wondered if Muhammad Ali's Parkinsons was brought on by this.

CTE was first described in 1928, when Dr. Harrison Martland described a group of boxers as having “punch drunk syndrome.” Over the next 75 years, several researchers reported similar findings in boxers and victims of brain trauma, but fewer than 50 cases were confirmed

..........................................................

CTE has been found in individuals whose primary exposure to head impacts was through tackle football (200+ cases confirmed at the VA-BU-CLF Brain Bank), the military (25+ cases), hockey (20+ cases), boxing (15+ cases, 50+ globally), rugby (5+ cases), soccer (5+ cases, 10+ globally), pro wrestling (5+ cases), and, in fewer than three cases each, baseball, basketball, intimate partner violence, and individuals with developmental disorders who engaged in head banging behaviors.

https://concussionfoundation.org/CTE-resources/what-is-CTE

[procon]

27. Why do people like watching violent sports?

Listen to any group watching football and they will be enthusiastically hooting and cheering whenever some player gets slammed to the ground. It makes me physically sick to see such brutality.

They want to see another human being get hurt. I've seen otherwise normal people applauding the guy who flattened another player and left him laying unconscious of the field, justifying the violence because he was too slow or somehow deserved getting knocked out. There's rarely any concern that his life might by in jeopardy or those injured men might be permanently crippled or left facing a lifetime of pain.

As human beings, why haven't we evolved past the blood sports of the Roman coliseum?

[SunSeeker]

28. Dunno. I've never found it entertaining.

[Blue_Tires]

30. Suing the league? Good luck with that shit

How about you scratch out a check for the families of the dudes he killed?

[Cosmocat]

32. yep

this ...

Go Pens!

[Cosmocat]

31. The out take here is his daughter is looking for pub and $$$

Before anyone gets all hyper reactive, CTE is absolutely real, and there are many athletes, in many sports who suffer greatly from it.

But, he only played three years in the NFL (whatever damage occurred from football was more so done during youth/high school and college ball), and was a very real menace to society his whole life, well before he stepped on to an NFL field.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Hernandez#2007_Gainesville_double_shooting

[brooklynite]

34. What basis does his sister have for a lawsuit?

[Abu Pepe]

39. The athleticism and power of the players has surpassed

the ability of the equipment to protect them.