OAKLAND, Calif. — A trio of Oakland Raiders who did battle during football’s wild days of brutal hits and colorful characters came forward Friday to sound the alarm on the game that brought them fame.
George Atkinson, George Buehler and Art Thoms — members of the renegade group led by the likes of Ken Stabler, Jack Tatum and John Matuszak — announced they have pledged their brains to the Boston-based Concussion Legacy Foundation. That group’s mission it to elevate the understanding of the causes of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, the disease being linked to repeated blows to the head.
The Raiders greats made the unusual decision to speak out together as a show of solidarity for their fallen friend Stabler, whose brain showed signs of CTE.
“When you see your teammate deteriorate a lot through the end of his life, to see him go out like that, it brings us together,” said Thoms, a defensive tackle who played for the Raiders from 1969-76.
Stabler, who led the Raiders to their first championship in Super Bowl XI, died July 8 at age 69 from colon cancer. His brain was sent to Boston researchers soon after where Ann McKee, a professor of neurology and pathology who is at the center of CTE research, found Stabler had suffered from a moderate to severe case of the disease.
The New York Times reported the findings in the week before Super Bowl 50 at Levi’s Stadium.
McKee has found the disease in 90 of 94 brains of former NFL players that she has examined. Those include Hall of Fame players Frank Gifford, Junior Seau and Mike Webster.
“You want to do something,” said Thoms, 68, who was urged to pledge his brain by Stabler’s partner. “You can donate money, but even more is to donate the brain to help others in the future. I won’t need it anymore once I’m gone.”
Thoms, Atkinson and Buehler met Friday at Francesco’s, the favorite Oakland haunt of former Raiders owner Al Davis. While they couldn’t help but recount colorful anecdotes about some of their exploits, they also expressed concerns about the growing evidence that playing football can lead to debilitating brain disease.
“I can’t remember from yesterday to today half the time,” said Atkinson, an All-Pro safety for the Raiders from 1968-77.
Atkinson, 69, has twin sons playing — George Atkinson III is a running back on the Raiders’ practice squad while brother Josh, a defensive back from Notre Dame, is hoping to get picked in the upcoming NFL draft. Atkinson, who has been seeing a neurologist regularly for six years, said it’s his kids’ choice whether to play.
But he said he had to stop work as a Raiders’ broadcaster because of memory loss, one of the potential symptoms of CTE.
“I’d get in the middle of a piece and forget where I was going,” said Atkinson, who used to take pride in knocking out receivers with crushing hits.
Buehler, an Oakland offensive lineman from 1969-78, got tested by Boston physicians two days before Stabler died. His wife Sandra Buehler arranged the testing because of symptoms she worried showed signs of degenerative brain disease.
But Buehler, 68, said the testing did not find the tau protein that is a strong indicator of CTE.
Public awareness of potential risks of football has increased recently with reports of more players struggling with degenerative brain disease as well as the Will Smith movie “Concussion,” in which he plays the pathologist credited with first identifying CTE. The movie is loosely based on the 2013 book “League of Denial,” that detailed the ways the NFL attempted to minimize the risks.
A New York Times’ investigation published Friday reported that the NFL omitted more than 100 concussion cases when it downplayed the effects of players’ head injuries based on studies conducted from 1996 through 2001. The Times report said 49ers quarterbacks Steve Young and Dallas Cowboys’ Troy Aikman were among the players who suffered concussions that were not accounted for.
The conversation has shifted dramatically since the league’s physicians serving on the head, neck and spine committee downplayed a link between football and CTE when speaking to reporters last month during the lead-up to Super Bowl 50.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell repeated this week at the owners meetings in Florida what the league’s top medical and safety official, Jeff Miller, recently told a congressional roundtable: A link does exist between head trauma suffered from playing football and CTE.
The announcements Friday come a week after former Raiders safety Jarrod Cooper, 37, shared his harrowing story. The East Bay resident is suffering severe symptoms since retiring in 2008 because migraine headaches rendered him unable to practice.
While the latest players to come forward with concerns are nearing 70 years old, Cooper said more than a dozen players in their 30s that he knows are having problems.
Chris Nowinski, co-founder of the Concussion Legacy Foundation and a doctoral candidate in behavioral neuroscience at Boston University, said Friday every pledge helps as his group works to prevent and treat brain diseases contracted from sports.
“We’re trying to create a culture of brain donation among athletes and their families,” he said. “Every time a prominent athlete chooses to pledge their brain and take that public we take another step forward in accelerating research on CTE and post-concussion syndrome and we have a better shot at treatment.”
Neurologists are working to determine definitively if CTE is related to the thousands of blows football players absorb throughout their careers. The link is not clearly understood as some experts say other factors could play a role in the symptoms the players recount.
They say more research is needed to determine how age-related changes, alcohol and drug use, and unrelated dementia can contribute to the symptoms of players who are shown to suffer from CTE in autopsies.
Thoms and his fraternity ask similar questions.
“You wonder whether it is a senior moment,” said Thoms, who coaches girls basketball at Campolindo High in Moraga.
But reading about so many former players suffering with CTE, Thoms added, “I got to think it is partly from football.”
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