Posted on 02/03/2016 4:27:19 PM PST by afraidfortherepublic
Shortly before he died last July, the former N.F.L. quarterback Ken Stabler was rushed away by doctors, desperate to save him, in a Mississippi hospital. His longtime partner followed the scrum to the elevator, holding his hand. She told him that she loved him. Stabler said that he loved her, too.
"I turned my head to wipe the tears away," his partner, Kim Bush, said recently. "And when I looked back, he looked me dead in the eye and said, 'I'm tired.' "
They were the last words anyone in Stabler’s family heard him speak.
"I knew that was it," Bush said. "I knew that he had gone the distance. Because Kenny Stabler was never tired."
The day after Stabler died on July 8, a victim of colon cancer at age 69, his brain was removed during an autopsy and ferried to scientists in Massachusetts. It weighed 1,318 grams, or just under three pounds. Over several months, it was dissected for clues, as Stabler had wished, to help those left behind understand why his mind seemed to slip so precipitously in his final years.
On the neuropathologist's scale of 1 to 4, Stabler was diagnosed with high Stage 3 chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or C.T.E., the degenerative brain disease believed to be caused by repeated blows to the head, according to researchers at Boston University.
~snip~
Stabler, well known by his nickname, the Snake ("He'd run 200 yards to score from 20 yards out," Stabler's junior high school coach told Sports Illustrated in 1977), is one of the highest-profile football players to have had C.T.E. The list, now well over 100, includes at least seven members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, including Junior Seau, Mike Webster and Frank Gifford.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The Tyler Rose. You aren’t the only one with stories like that.
This is crap.
“Stabler died of colon cancer on July 8, 2015, at the age of 69. He had been diagnosed with the disease since February 2015.”
I would not let my 3 boys play football, they played basketball. The human body is not meant for football; I love football, but it is just to dangerous.
It is settled science, no questions or comments allowed!
Football is bad/ soccer might be OK.
Subject To Later Revision When More Complete Information ....
never trust the report of a Massachusetts wacko leftist neurologist paid to attack football
Fred Dryer was a defensive end for the LA Rams and a member of the “Fearsome Foursome”. He was also star of the “Hunter” TV show.
“I think he’s on the athletic staff at UT, but can barely walk. At least that’s the last I heard of him.”
I’ve seen some video of him. Very sad.
What part of this is crap, Captain?
There's nothing in the article that says he died due his head injuries. They were found at autopsy.
All this is, is another attempt to associate head trauma with dementia.
the colon cancer is a separate issue. You don't do brain autopsies on living people.
This Massachusetts clinic declaring all these players had CTE remind me of Jack Kevorkian deciding all his patients were worthy of assisted suicide. How about a highly-publicized story where these people declare a player’s brain to be CTE-free despite confusion and other symptoms? Then I might be inclined to believe their claims.
Oh, Ifinnegan, thank you so much for your post. There is definitely way too much hype in this - that recent anti-football movie about concussions, for example. Tell me that isn’t propaganda for some nefarious plan to: get rid of football altogether; make it a kinder-gentler sport; make the football players take estrogen. God only knows what it will be, but I haven’t noticed a player yet who was held at gunpoint. This man, RIP, died of colon cancer NOT CTE, and that is barely mentioned in an aside.imho
Is a GREAT but shorter life not a good choice over a poor but long life? There are deep philosophical issues regarding personal liberty here.
unless they check ALL men finding an abnormal reading on a football player is meaningless....
I really don't have much symapathy since we all make our choices and the football players choice is to be rich, adored, and pose for pics with naked women....
just like smokers...they get end stage COPD and complain about it?....
Continued efforts at the highest levels of skiing competetion apparently finally got to Bill Johnson last week....
There seemed to have been twelve members of the fearsome foursome.
Teaching the kids to play safely is important. Most youth football programs are coached by people who don’t know how to coach.
High school programs are taking this seriously, as are the college programs.
The other good sign is more players retiring early. The physical drain happens more in a player’s twilight playing years. They should get their contracts and retire.
I would think football would be okay through high school, though not necessarily through college, and definitely not the pros. But jocks gotta do what jocks gotta do.
I read a comment from someone on another thread who said that if they returned to the leather helmets, this would be less of an issue. Sounds logical, but who knows?
Every boxer in the country should have this disease/syndrome.
Every MMA fighter should have it too.
Yep. The original group was Rosey Grier, Lamar Lundy, Merlin Olsen and Deacon Jones. Some of the others added over time were Fred Dryer, Jack Youngblood and Larry Brooks.
“Recent studies show that soccer has surpassed football,” said neurologist Peter A. Puzio from Augusta Health Neurology. “As soccer grows in popularity, so does the incidence of concussion. There’s not a perfect a number because it all depends on the severity of each one, but there is a cumulative effect of concussions. One is bad, but it depends on the severity of the concussions.”
At the same time, he says, football has seen measures taken to reduce incidence of concussions.
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