American society loves football so much it avoids hard discussions about the sport’s safety
We found out recently that a bright young man with a big heart and promising future died because of football. Twelve-year National Football League veteran and three-time pro bowler Vincent Jackson, who died at age 38 in February, had stage 2 CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) his family announced on Thursday. CTE is a degenerative brain…
Head-first tackles, helmet swinging and devastating hip injuries all add to a game’s growing reputation for chaos
A couple incidents from last week’s football action have garnered a lot of media and fan attention: Myles Garrett’s bonehead use of Mason Rudolph’s helmet as a weapon and the terrible hip injury to Alabama’s star quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. First, the Garrett situation. Twitter-verse is afire with emotional chatter about banning Garrett from the National…
The terrible degenerative disease is claiming more and more victims who played football at all levels
As a sports policy analyst, I’ve learned a lot more about chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in athletes than I ever expected to. Actually, at this point, I’ve learned more than I really want to know. CTE is a terrible degenerative disease, and it takes an immense toll on those who are stricken, as well as…
Despite North Carolina football coach Larry Fedora’s rosy perspective, the dangers of head trauma are extraordinary
Larry Fedora, the head football coach at the University of North Carolina, had a few interesting things to say last week. Fedora believes that if football declines in the United States – due to links between playing the game and CTE, a chronic and debilitating brain disease – the country will decline as well. “There…