Long Term Football IMO has a major problem...From the article:

Cut by the Giants in 2013 after what was at least his fifth concussion, Sash had returned to Iowa and increasingly displayed surprising and irregular behavior, family members said this week. He was arrested in his hometown, Oskaloosa, for public intoxication after leading the police on a four-block chase with a motorized scooter, a pursuit that ended with Sash fleeing toward a wooded area.

Sash had bouts of confusion, memory loss and minor fits of temper. Although an Iowa sports celebrity, both as a Super Bowl-winning member of the Giants and a popular star athlete at the University of Iowa, Sash was unable to seek meaningful employment because he had difficulty focusing long enough to finish a job.

Barnetta Sash, Tyler’s mother, blamed much of her son’s changeable behavior, which she had not observed in the past, on the powerful prescription drugs he was taking for a football-related shoulder injury that needed surgery. Nonetheless, after his death she donated his brain to be tested for chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or C.T.E., a degenerative brain disease caused by repeated trauma that has been found in dozens of former N.F.L. players.

Sash, who was cut by the Giants in 2013 after what was at least his fifth concussion, was found to have the degenerative brain disease C.T.E. Credit Demetrius Freeman/The New York Times

Last week, representatives from Boston University and the Concussion Legacy Foundation notified the Sash family that C.T.E. had been diagnosed in Tyler’s brain and that the disease, which can be confirmed only posthumously, had advanced to a stage rarely seen in someone his age.


http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/27/sports...d=fb-share

Very Sad. You still see today in the NFL Guys targeting with Their helmets and Undercutting receivers while up in the air, landing on their head or neck. Potential crippling or deadly injuries for just doing their job . Makes You wonder for the NASCAR drivers with the hard hits They take.

I know Iowa fans were shocked when Tyler Sash died at 27 years old.

Sash was a very popular player at Iowa and played a key role in Iowa's 2009 season that resulted in an Orange Bowl win. He also had the key interception in Iowa's upset of then undefeated #3 PSU late in the 2008 season, costing PSU a shot at the National championsip.

He was considered a leader and a model citizen Which is why his behavior seemed so strange in his last days. Out of work and unable to focus enough to hold a job. Then getting arrested and running from the cops. It was all very uncharacteristic.

His autopsy showed he had the same level of CTE as Junior Seau. Very sad.

I hope to be moving out of the country soon to marry a woman overseas. Hopefully it goes well, but yeah, the point is hopefully my interest in football begins to wean. At some point, you have to change the game and counteract this stuff. CTE at 27? C'mon... horrible news.

(01-27-2016 09:23 AM)RUScarlets Wrote:  I hope to be moving out of the country soon to marry a woman overseas. Hopefully it goes well, but yeah, the point is hopefully my interest in football begins to wean. At some point, you have to change the game and counteract this stuff. CTE at 27? C'mon... horrible news.

You'll switch to a futbol fan and start kniving other fans.

Has anyone ever investigated whether it has a connection to growth hormones? I know many have made up their minds but his early age also suggests at the least mitigating circumstance. It is common practice to begin kids on growth hormones earlier and earlier. Which would also suggest a growing problem and earlier onset.

(01-27-2016 10:30 AM)cleburneslim Wrote:  Has anyone ever investigated whether it has a connection to growth hormones? I know many have made up their minds but his early age also suggests at the least mitigating circumstance. It is common practice to begin kids on growth hormones earlier and earlier. Which would also suggest a growing problem and earlier onset.

One thing I am not clear on is that football has been played for 100 years at the college and pro level. All of a sudden we are seeing issues with 25 to 45 year olds that did not exist previously. Concussions have existed forever. The game is safer now than in say 1925. Now we are seeing overdoses and suicides. When they die prematurely they find CTE and are saying that is the cause. But what about the advent of steroids, HGH and designer drugs. Sash was suspended for Adderall in 2012 and we are just finding out now what that drugs effects are on the brain and body (including impulse control). Maybe just maybe its a easy and sexy story to blame CTE and not delve deeper into what may be a subset of the growing drug epidemic in this country.

Really?

Mike Webster would say hi, but he is dead.

http://www.behindthesteelcurtain.com/201...ster-thing


Ask Merril Hoge if CTE is a phantom diagnosis.

http://www.arrowheadpride.com/2009/11/29...ry-on-post


Jim Otto is an oldtimer who played center for the Oakland Raiders back in the Sixties/Seventies. He has cognitive issues as well from playing football.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/...-jim-otto/


This is nothing new. The concussion and CTE issues have always been with us. There is just more recognition of the problem now.


http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/...of-denial/

Reminds me of Michael Keck, the former Missouri/Missouri State linebacker.

Peds including steriods and hgh's have been around for a while. It seems that while players of yesteryear have had the same types of brain disease as those of current day athletes. It seems however the age at which symptoms set in comes much earlier. The suggestion made here is simple, a reasonable explaination has been offered and everyone simply quit looking into whether it is actually the true or only cause. Simply because it passes the eye test with flying colors. Furthermore it is a known truth that hgh is given to hs athletes or earlier to promote growth. Is there really anyone who believes that the size of athletes has increase so much in the relatively recent past, because of the eating habits of children.

There is little known about the effects of hgh in the long term and nothing known about the use of mega doses in the long term. It is known that the ethical use of hgh has a definate effect on the brain, mostly beneficial. It stands to reason to me that if hgh can help heal brain disease that the overuse and abuse for a decade or more could or would cause brain disease.

I think that for football to survive the next few decades of scrutiny, player-to-player contact needs to become more about the sure tackle instead of the big hit. Wrap up and take them to the ground. Enough of this "knock them out of their cleats for having the nerve to be on the same field as you" nonsense. Its going to be a bit of a violent sport no matter what, but the big hit mentality is just going to keep cranking out sad cases.

(01-27-2016 03:57 PM)cleburneslim Wrote:  Peds including steriods and hgh's have been around for a while. It seems that while players of yesteryear have had the same types of brain disease as those of current day athletes. It seems however the age at which symptoms set in comes much earlier. The suggestion made here is simple, a reasonable explaination has been offered and everyone simply quit looking into whether it is actually the true or only cause. Simply because it passes the eye test with flying colors. Furthermore it is a known truth that hgh is given to hs athletes or earlier to promote growth. Is there really anyone who believes that the size of athletes has increase so much in the relatively recent past, because of the eating habits of children.

There is little known about the effects of hgh in the long term and nothing known about the use of mega doses in the long term. It is known that the ethical use of hgh has a definate effect on the brain, mostly beneficial. It stands to reason to me that if hgh can help heal brain disease that the overuse and abuse for a decade or more could or would cause brain disease.

And that is the point I was trying to make. You can't detect CTE until an autopsy is done. Autopsies are only being done of football players where CTE is suspected because of the circumstances of their death. How do we know that players not exhibiting strange behavior or cognitive problems don't have CTE? An analogy I would make is back in the early 1980's we had here in Atlanta a serial killer of children. For whatever reason after a couple of years almost any murder of an African-American child in Atlanta was filed under Atlanta Child Murders. By their logic any murder of a black child = committed by Atlanta Child Murder serial killer. Many years later through more careful investigation it was discovered that the vast majority of the murders were unrelated to each other and likely committed by other killers. The point is unless they come up with a way to detect CTE in the living and/or start autopsies on ex players who die of natural circumstances with no cognitive issues we really don't know. And we really do not know the effect of drugs being abused either recreationally, prescribed for pain or used as peds for the last 50 years. The sad part is that the NFL has known something was up for many years and swept it under the rug or ignored and has set research back a couple of decades.

Sent from my BlackBerry Z30 using Tapatalk.

(01-27-2016 09:55 AM)bullet Wrote:  

(01-27-2016 09:23 AM)RUScarlets Wrote:  I hope to be moving out of the country soon to marry a woman overseas. Hopefully it goes well, but yeah, the point is hopefully my interest in football begins to wean. At some point, you have to change the game and counteract this stuff. CTE at 27? C'mon... horrible news.

You'll switch to a futbol fan and start kniving other fans.

Those headers in soccer can cause CTE/concussion to bro...

**********

The beef I have with blaming the NFL on concussions is it seems to me to be bandwagoning. You play youth football, then high school football, then college football, and if you are good enough you get into the NFL. To say the NFL is solely responsible for the concussions that affected these people is ludicrous.

Also, why aren't all these studies happening with hockey players who get rammed into the boards on a nightly basis when they play....their helmets are nothing compared to football ones sans maybe the goalie. All those headers in soccer can cause the same impact and they have no helmets on.

Rugby players I met from Europe during the older Kentucky Derby Festival events always greeted each other with hard Headbutts . I got on the recieving end of a couple of them after being introduced to some players by a friend whom was a former Rugby player. Totally insane greeting. I imagine many players suffered concussions in Rugby too.

Football is our gladiator sports.

Player, if they wish to continue, need to be aware of the risks. But no, they chose to continue to play despite injured and demand compensation for their mistakes.

What about baseball players? It doesn't appear the same issues are developing in them. Go Coogs!!!

(01-27-2016 12:40 PM)panama Wrote:  

(01-27-2016 10:30 AM)cleburneslim Wrote:  Has anyone ever investigated whether it has a connection to growth hormones? I know many have made up their minds but his early age also suggests at the least mitigating circumstance. It is common practice to begin kids on growth hormones earlier and earlier. Which would also suggest a growing problem and earlier onset.

One thing I am not clear on is that football has been played for 100 years at the college and pro level. All of a sudden we are seeing issues with 25 to 45 year olds that did not exist previously. Concussions have existed forever. The game is safer now than in say 1925. Now we are seeing overdoses and suicides. When they die prematurely they find CTE and are saying that is the cause. But what about the advent of steroids, HGH and designer drugs. Sash was suspended for Adderall in 2012 and we are just finding out now what that drugs effects are on the brain and body (including impulse control). Maybe just maybe its a easy and sexy story to blame CTE and not delve deeper into what may be a subset of the growing drug epidemic in this country.

http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/2013/...worry-too/
perhaps since concussions is the unrefuted culprit no one has been looking?

(01-29-2016 09:30 AM)cleburneslim Wrote:  http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/2013/...worry-too/
perhaps since concussions is the unrefuted culprit no one has been looking?

http://mlb.nbcsports.com/2013/12/18/ryan...inal-days/

Quote:But Freel suffered from so much more. He was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, ADD and depression. He was an alcoholic with impulse control problems and anger issues. He was addicted to baseball and the thrill it gave him and was unable to find happiness in his life when his career ended. He seriously abused steroids in a vain effort to make a baseball comeback and ballooned in size. He became estranged from his family and surrounded himself with guns. Just as he hit bottom, his mother took all of his guns away from him. Or so she thought. His final words to anyone before taking his own life came in a text message to his mom: “you forgot one.”