Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy

This is primarily a San Diego Padres blog, and while I could write about Jered Weaver, Peter O’Malley, Jeff Suppan, Mark Kotsay, Matt Effin Bush, or Heath Bell, I’ve got other things on my mind. Mostly being thankful that my mind still generally works the way it’s supposed to.

There’s nothing bigger going on in San Diego Sports right now than the death of Junior Seau, and I feel compelled to write about what likely caused him to take his own life and how it will impact sports in this country, especially but not exclusively football, going forward.

Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) is a progressive degenerative disease of the brain found in athletes. It’s caused by repetitive brain trauma, through concussions and smaller impacts called sub-concussions. This repeated trauma progressively alters and destroys brain tissue until the athlete basically gets a version of progressive and debilitating dementia that ruins their lives, if they don’t commit suicide before it gets that far. Symptoms of CTE include memory loss, confusion, impaired judgment, aggression, and chronic depression. And that’s all before the progressive dementia.

As the speed and power of impacts in the NFL have increased significantly over the last two or so decades, the safety of the players really hasn't even tried to keep up until just recently, and even now they’re just starting to take baby steps of progress. CTE kills football players. It’s really that simple. Junior Seau ultimately pulled the trigger, but it was almost surely because of memory loss, confusion, and depression, and then the deepening of that depression once the realization hits that you're suffering from a progressively degenerative brain condition when you should still be in the prime of your life. Here's what Seau said in March to SI's Jim Trotter when asked about safety changes being made to prevent concussions:

"It has to happen," he said. "Those who are saying the game is changing for the worse, well, they don't have a father who can't remember his name because of the game. I'm pretty sure if everybody had to wake with their dad not knowing his name, not knowing his kids' name, not being able to function at a normal rate after football, they would understand that the game needs to change. If it doesn't there are going to be more players, more great players, being affected by the things that we know of and aren't changing. That's not right."

It's pretty obvious now that the dad he was talking about was himself. It's heartbreaking. I love football, but the powers that be can't continue to sweep this type of stuff under the rug. They've made changes in how they treat players who get concussions, but that's only a small part of the problem. They need to do more to prevent concussions and sub-concussions. They need to do more to make sure players self-report concussions. They need to make sure the pressure to win isn't driving their players to suicide after they retire.

The Chargers, this offseason, lost a player to retirement in pro bowl guard Kris Dielman, after he suffered a major concussion in a game and not only stayed in the game but wasn't diagnosed until after he had a seizure on the flight home. He retired rather than risking further head injuries. Hopefully he saved himself from the horrors of CTE, but it's impossible to say right now because the effects of CTE can come on at any time and, as of right now, CTE can only be diagnosed post-mortem. This is why players are shooting themselves in the chest, to preserve their brains for diagnosis and further study. You've gotta think that this is why Junior did so as well.

It’s hard to reconcile the unfortunate irony of the situation. Junior Seau loved football. He played with unmatched passion, and his goal on the field was to make plays, oftentimes by hitting the other team’s player so hard that they received a concussion. Many players play with similar passion and argue against changes to the game. However, Junior recognized late in his life that players have to be protected from themselves, for their futures. It’s time for the NFL and other sports leagues to really proactively work to prevent future CTE-related deaths. Retired athletes often suffer from drug, alcohol, marital, and financial issues after retirement. They shouldn’t be losing their minds as well.

Junior Seau’s death is a huge loss to his family, to football, to the city of San Diego, to all he affected throughout his life. I wish Junior had spoken out about his pain. He could have been an ambassador, an agent of change in life rather than in death. The Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy will likely get a chance to use Junior’s brain to further their research, but there’s so much he could have done in life.  I hope other former players who are out there suffering right now will choose to speak up and share their stories rather than just promising to donate their brain in death. The next generation of athletes still has a chance to avoid this type of tragedy.

For further reading, check out the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy and former Chargers beat writer Jim Trotter's excellent article from Sports Illustrated that inspired me to write this post.