1. Sports – Too Intense??
CTE

2. II. Football : Too Intense??
Football has surpassed Baseball as America’s favorite sport.
Our culture has filled autumn weekends with an emphasis on this game
Friday nights are set aside for local high school football (GOBUCKS!!)
Saturdays are reserved for College football
Sundays are the domain of pro football
popularity grew so much that Pro Football added a special Monday night game and colleges added a Thursday night game!

3. Football: Too Intense
Some believe that the desire for player’s to excel and coach’s to win has pushed preparation to ridiculous limits at the pro level
In a recent football season eighteen players lost their lives while playing or training for football
Does the government need to be more restrictive in this area?

4. Football: Too intense?
Most common injury to football players is to the ankle
But many ex NFL players are suing the organization because of something called CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy) - which has led to player suicides and other debilitating symptoms after retirement, including memory loss, depression and dementia

5. Football: Too Intense? What is CTE?
cte/index.html
is a neurodegenerative disease found in people who have had multiple head injuries. It is most commonly found in those who have participated in contact sports on a regular basis. Its presence in domestic violence is also being investigated. It can affect high school athletes after only a few years of participation. 
Symptoms
Symptoms of CTE, which occur in four stages, generally appear 8 to 10 years after an athlete experiences repetitive mild traumatic brain injury
First-stage symptoms include attention deficit hyperactivity disorder as well as confusion, disorientation, dizziness, and headaches.
Second-stage symptoms include memory loss, social instability, impulsive behavior, and poor judgment.
Third and fourth stages include progressive dementia, movement disorders, hypomania, speech impediments, sensory processing disorder, tremors, vertigo, deafness, depression and suicidality.

6. Football: Too Intense? CTE Diagnosis
Currently, CTE can only be definitively diagnosed by direct tissue examination after death.
CTE cannot currently be diagnosed while a person is alive – As of November 16th 2017 Scientist feel they are making a breakthrough to diagnose while living
Differentiating between prolonged post-concussion syndrome (PCS, where symptoms begin shortly after a concussion and last for weeks, months, and sometimes even years) and CTE symptoms can be difficult
Recently
Recently, more progress in diagnostic techniques for CTE has been made, using DTI, fMRI, MRI, and MRS imaging; however, more research needs to be done before any such techniques can be validated
A putative biomarker for CTE is the presence in serum of autoantibodies against the brain. The autoantibodies were detected in football players who experienced a large number of head hits but no concussions, suggesting that even sub-concussive episodes may be damaging to the brain

7. Football Too intense? Prevention of CTE:
Investigators have demonstrated that immobilizing the head during a blast exposure prevented the learning and memory deficits associated with CTE that occurred when the head was not immobilized.
This research represents the first case series of postmortem brains from U.S. military personnel who were exposed to a blast and/or a concussive injury.
Those effected:
Professional level athletes are the largest demographic with CTE, due to frequent concussions from play in contact sport
These contact-sports include American football, ice hockey, rugby, boxing, soccer and wrestling
 Other individuals that have been diagnosed with CTE were involved in military service, had a previous history of chronic seizures, victims of domestic abuse, and or were involved in activities resulting in repetitive head collisions

8. Football too intense? CTE History
CTE was originally studied in boxers in the 1920s as dementia pugilistic.
The important work on the disease came from British neurologist Macdonald Critchley, who in wrote a paper titled "Punch-drunk syndromes: the chronic traumatic encephalopathy of boxers.“
CTE was first recognized as affecting individuals who took considerable blows to the head, but was believed to be confined to boxers and not other athletes
As evidence pertaining to the clinical and neuropathological consequences of repeated mild head trauma grew, it became clear that this pattern of neurodegeneration was not restricted to boxers, and the term chronic traumatic encephalopathy became most widely used
In the early 2000s- Nigerian neuropathologist Dr. Bennet Omalu worked on the case of American football player Mike Webster, who died following unusual and unexplained behavior.
(movie concussion was made about this!!)
In Omalu, along with colleagues in the Department of Pathology at the University of Pittsburgh, published his findings in the journal Neurosurgery in a paper which he titled "Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy in a National Football League Player." This was followed by a paper on a second case in 2006 describing similar pathology.
2008- the Sports Legacy Institute joined with the Boston University School of Medicine to form the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy (CSTE). Brain Injury Research Institute -also studies the impact of concussion

9. Football: Too intense? American Football and CTE:
 2005- Dr. Omalu, found CTE in the brains of Mike Webster, Terry Long, Andre Waters, Justin Strzelczyk, and Tom McHale
reportedly in Omalu participated in the autopsy of Junior Seau. But, Omalu's participation was halted during the autopsy after Seau’s son revoked previously provided oral permission after he received telephone calls from NFL management denouncing Omalu's professional ethics, qualifications, and motivation.
Seau's family donated his brain tissue to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
 On January 10, 2013, the brain pathology report was revealed and Seau did have evidence of CTE
Between 2008 and 2010, the bodies of twelve former professional American football players were diagnosed with CTE postmortem by Dr. Ann McKee
2013 – Frontline Exclusive (uploaded in files) 2hrs

10. Frontline Journal Entry : 1 PAGE
What is your response to the documentary?
As of 2013 who do you feel is correct in their fight with CTE??

11. Football: Too intense? American Football
On December 1, 2012, Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher killed his girlfriend and drove to Arrowhead Stadium and killed himself in front of then GM and then head coach Romeo Crennel.
A year later, on behalf of Belcher's minor daughter, a family lawyer filed a wrongful- death lawsuit, against the Chiefs, alleging that the team deliberately ignored warning signs of CTE, possibly leading to Belcher's suicide.
The lawyer also hired a medical examiner to examine Belcher's brain for signs of CTE.
On September 29, 2014, it was confirmed that he had CTE.
As of November 2016, 90 of 94 former NFL players were diagnosed post- mortem with CTE by Dr. McKee.
Former Detroit Lions lineman and eight-time Pro Bowler Lou Creekmur, former Houston Oilers and Miami Dolphins linebacker John Grimsley, former Tampa Bay Buccaneers guard Tom McHale, former Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chris Henry, former Chicago Bears safety Dave Duerson, and former New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles running back Kevin Turner have all been diagnosed post-mortem with CTE. Other football players diagnosed with CTE include former Buffalo Bills star running back Cookie Gilchrist and Wally Hilgenberg.

12. Football: Too intense?
American Football
An autopsy conducted by Dr. McKee in 2010 on the brain of Owen Thomas, a 21-year-old junior lineman at the University of Pennsylvania who died of suicide, showed early stages of CTE, making him the second youngest person to be diagnosed with the condition
October 2010, 17-year-old Nathan Stiles died hours after his high-school homecoming football game, where he took a hit that would be the final straw in a series of sub concussive and concussive blows to the head for the high schooler. The CSTE diagnosed him with CTE, making him the youngest reported CTE case to date.
July, 2011, Colt tight-end John Mackey died after several years of deepening symptoms of frontotemporal dementia. BUSM was reported to be planning to examine his brain for signs of CTE. The CSTE found CTE in his brain post- mortem
July 27, 2012, an autopsy report concluded that the former Atlanta Falcons safety Ray Easterling, who died from suicide in April 2012, had CTE

13. Football: Too Intense?
In October 2009, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and the NFL Concussion Committee were called before Congress to defend their policies against allegations of neglect.
Goodell provided testimony, but was unable to answer many questions, as none of the primary authors of the league's research were present.
As a result of this incident and pressure from the NFL Players Association, the NFL released a comprehensive overhaul of the league concussion policy in November and December
The policy expanded the list of symptoms that would prevent a player from returning to a game or practice on the same day their injury occurred

14. Football: Too Intense?
In April 2011, attorneys Sol H. Weiss and Larry E. Coben from the Philadelphia law firm filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of Ray Easterling (Falcons), Jim McMahon (Bears) and five other players.
Thousands of former NFL players have since filed lawsuits against the League after suffering repeated concussions throughout their careers.

15. Football: Too Intense
July former professional football players are suing the National Football League, saying the league knew as early as the s of the harmful effects of concussions on players' brains but concealed the information from players, coaches, trainers and others until June 2010.
The players "did not know the long-term effects of concussions" and relied on the NFL to protect them, the suit says.
Uploaded in files

16. Football: Too intense?
The NFL has taken measures to help prevent CTE. As of July 2011, the NFL has changed its return-to-play rules.
 The number of contact practices has been reduced, based on the recent collective bargaining agreement.
In 2012, some four thousand former NFL players "joined civil lawsuits against the League, seeking damages over the League's failure to protect players from concussions

17. Football: Too Intense? American Football
August 30, 2013, the NFL reached a $765 million settlement with the former NFL players over the head injuries
The settlement created a $675 million compensation fund from which former NFL players can collect depending on the extent of their conditions. Severe conditions such as Lou Gehrig's disease and postmortem diagnosed chronic traumatic encephalopathy would be entitled to payouts as high as $5 million
From the remainder of the settlement, $75 million will be used for medical exams, and $10 million will be used for research and education.
HOWEVER,  in January, 2014, U.S. District Judge refused to accept the agreed settlement because "the money wouldn't adequately compensate the nearly 20,000 men not named in the suit".
argued that people "cannot be compensated for C.T.E. in life because no diagnostic or clinical profile of C.T.E. exists, and the symptoms of the disease, if any, are unknown"

18. Football: Too Intense? American Football
April 22, 2015, a final settlement was reached between players and the NFL in the case adjudicated by Judge
 Terms
payments to be made by the NFL for $75 million for "baseline medical exams" for retired players
$10 million for research and education, as well an uncapped amount for retirees "who can demonstrate that they suffer from one of several brain conditions covered by the agreement"
total payments expected to exceed $1 billion over 65 years

19. Football: Too Intense? American Football
September researchers with the Department of Veterans Affairs and Boston University announced that they had identified CTE in 96 percent of NFL players that they had examined and in 79 percent of all football players

20. March 2016 – NFL Confirms Link between Football and CTE
Also in files
Heisman Trophy winner and former NFL All-Pro Bo Jackson said in a 2017 interview with USA Today that if he knew about the risks associated with CTE's, he would never have played football and discourages his children from doing so head-injury-risks-bo-jackson-would-have-probably-just-played-baseball/
July 25, 2017, the Journal of the American Medical Association released an updated study reporting that out of 111 brains of deceased former NFL players studied, 110 (99%) had CTE. This also led to players retiring very early in their career
September 21, 2017, an autopsy report from Boston University announced that former New England Patriot tight end Aaron Hernandez was found to have had Stage 3 CTE at the time of his death at age 27 in April of 2017.

21. August 2017 Football’s Concussion Crisis is killing former High school players too
Read Article on Michael King and complete article review sheet!!

22. Hall of famer diagnosed
Tony Dorsett
traumatic-encephalopathy

23. October 2017 Chris Borland Releases PSA
Why the NFL should be afraid of Borland

24. Requiem for a running Back –Movie 2017
Director Rebecca Carpenter’s father, Lewis Carpenter, was a running back for Vince Lombardi's NFL Champion Green Bay Packers. When he dies, her family receives a surprise call from Boston University’s brain bank requesting his brain – with shocking results. Lew becomes the 18th NFL player diagnosed postmortem with Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative neurocognitive disorder that can cause episodes of rage, social withdrawal, and other unusual behaviors. Carpenter finds herself at ground zero of an unfolding public health controversy and embarks on a three-year odyssey across America to explore the far- reaching implications of this “new” disease in football players Carpenter approaches her subjects with refreshing humor, manic curiosity, and a huge heart as her father’s former teammates and adversaries, scientists, historians, and other families affected by CTE offer their insights and support. Through quirky and poignant visits with family friends, former NFL players, and headline-stealing scientists such as Dr. Bennet Omalu, Rebecca pursues a mystery decades in the making. From NFL Hall of Famers like Mike Ditka and James Lofton, to neuropathologist Dr. Ann McKee, she begins to understand the depression, obsessiveness, forgetfulness, and unpredictable temper that often complicated her relationship with her dad are common side effects of repeat blunt force trauma to the brain.

25. CTE in first NFL Player while living November 16, 2017 – Fred McNeill
diagnosis-cte-living-patient/story?id= (uploaded in files)
first-living-person-bn/index.html (uploaded in files)
What is the reaction to this: CNN Dr. Gupa
facts/index.html (uploaded in files)

26. 1st Hockey Player pledges brain for CTE research – Dec. 7, 2017
New Jersey Devils’ defenseman Ben Lovejoy becomes 1st NHL player to pledge brain to CTE research