I read more words in a dead tree edition than I have in a many years Sunday afternoon. Like almost everyone around town I was gripped and saddened by the Steve Gleason story. More so because earlier that week I was cleaning up the iTunes folder and listened to several podcasts on not only ALS and its seemingly undeniable link to brain trauma from hits but also the links to depression and suicides of former atheletes who have sustained brain injuries from concussions and injuries that were less than concussions but on the same level as having your “bell rung.”
It’s hard for me to differentiate between the increasing ALS diagnosis in former athletes and the many, many instances of mental health diseases as a result of head trauma. Though the specifics down the line may be different, the issues are a result of Tau proteins in an athlete’s brain that form after an injury. Sometimes the proteins linger in the brain for decades and cause what’s called Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (punch drunk), sometimes they also seep into the spinal column and cause a disorder almost identical to ALS.
And lately, it’s been contributing to a growing ethical issue that I have been quietly dealing with. It’s not been enough to cause me to stop watching football like the gentleman in the first story below. It has been enough however to give me pause and it has added another, more serious element to the thrill of seeing the “big hit.” I have been thinking critically about it as I try to consider what the fans’ role is in the whole thing. Is the thrill of the game worth the sorrow of seeing the great athletes disabled?
Articles and other media below:
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The first is from American Public Media and it presents in the first story a fan’s perspective on the guilt in watching football knowing the damage that is being inflicted on players.
The second story tells of former University of Florida and Tampa Bay linebacker Scott Brantley and the disabling strokes he has endured.
Giving Up The Game
Friday, February 04 2011
I looked up Brantley on YouTube and found this smasher on Detroit QB Eric Hipple which is the most powerful hit I have ever seen.
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The Real Sports segment on concussions, depression, suicide and mental health later in life. It includes former Saint safety Gene Atkins….
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Real Sports segment linking ALS (or similar diseases) to concussions…
BO Real Sports Part 1: Steve Smith, former Penn State and Raider Football Player, has ALS Part 2 Part 3
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NPR story on studies that shows ALS in athletes may be a very similar disease related to repeated brain trauma…
There are many reasons I could never have been a doctor but among those is the pronounced wooziness I feel whenever confronted with the fact of either my involuntarily beating heart or the electrical impulses firing inside my skull. I feel like either of these organs could seize at any moment if I think about them too much. So I was already in a state of heightened discomfort from reading about loose Tau proteins floating around in my spinal fluid when I stupidly clicked on that video of Hipple getting his face smashed. I may have to go lie down now.
I would love to know what it was he was muttering as he lay there after the big bang.