Former Chicago Bears star Dave Duerson’s suicide has shocked the NFL into action. The league is ready to admit that football players who suffer multiple head injuries are at risk of developing brain diseases.
(As recently as 2009, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell would not acknowledge any
such a connection when questioned by lawmakers, the Associated Press reported.)
Details about Duerson’s death emerged over the weekend that the NFL could not ignore. The 50-year-old former safety for the Bears shot himself in the chest. Before taking his life, Duerson texted his former wife with a request. He also scrawled it on paper in case the text was not received, the New York Times reported. The message: “Please, see that my brain is given to the N.F.L.’s brain bank.”
The Boston University Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy, which recently began receiving financial support from the NFL, will determine if Duerson had the degenerative brain disease recently found posthumously in about 20 retired players, a disease linked to depression, cognitive impairment and occasionally suicide, the New York Times reported.
On Wednesday, the NFL announced it is urging states to pass youth concussion laws. It also announced the league will administer a new sideline test to determine concussions next season.
The NFL favors legislation modeled on our state’s “Zackery Lystedt Law,” named for a middle school football player who suffered brain damage in 2006 after returning to a game with a concussion. The law mandates that any student-athlete suspected of suffering a concussion has to get the approval of a medical professional before being allowed to play again. So far, eight other states have joined Washington in passing such laws, which are necessary, never mind the NFL’s self-interest.
The NFL said it will detail its new sideline test on Friday, the AP reported.
Meanwhile, earlier this month, the journal Neurology published a study about a quick, one-to-two minute test — simply using index cards — that can reveal the effects of brain trauma as reliably as longer and more unwieldy concussion tests, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The speed of the test makes it perfect for the sidelines. It could be particularly helpful in identifying athletes who should be removed from play in all contact sports, the researchers concluded.
Important news for youth and professional athletes alike. Brains are fragile, no matter how much brawn on the body or how high-tech the helmet on the head. Keeping them from further trauma is the only way to prevent further trauma.
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