«

»

CTE diagnosis for Junior Seau

Junior Seau

Junior Seau suffered from brain disease at time of death

Degenerative Brain Disease was discovered in the brain of deceased NFL linebacker, Junior Seau.

With his family’s consent, a study of Seau’s brain was conducted at the National Institutes of Health that revealed chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

Of the findings, Seau’s son, Tyler Seau, told Fox Sports

I was not surprised after learning a little about CTE that he had it,” Seau’s 23-year-old son Tyler said. ”He did play so many years at that level. I was more just kind of angry I didn’t do something more and have the awareness to help him more, and now it is too late.

”I don’t think any of us were aware of the side effects that could be going on with head trauma until he passed away. We didn’t know his behavior was from head trauma.

Junior Seau’s life ended after a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest in May 2012 at his Oceanside, CA home.

CTE has been brought to the forefront in football due to the discovery of brain trauma in numerous players, including Dave Duerson, former Chicago Bears defensive back, who in 2011, also committed suicide and was found to have CTE.

The brains of over 30 NFL players have been studied and found to show signs of brain trauma.

The National Football League recognizes it has a problem on its hands, not only from the results of these studies, but also due to the class action-level law suits that are being filed by former players who are claiming to suffer ill-health due to concussions suffered while playing pro football.

There is also speculation that Jovan Belcher, the Kansas City Chiefs player who murdered his girlfriend and mother of his baby girl before turning a gun on himself, could have been suffering the effects of brain trauma suffered while playing fooball.

This will be a long battle that will ultimately lead to a safer game. The level of violence in the game, violence that many fans enjoy, will likely be lessened over the years, but the safety of the players is paramount. Steps are already being taken by USA Football and the NFL to change the culture of football at the grassroots level with the Heads Up campaign which aims to teach a new, safer way of tackling.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>