f13.net

I remember reading about Dave Duerson's suicide back in February (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/20/sports/football/20duerson.html?scp=1&sq=dave%20duerson&st=cse), I had never heard of the chap before, but his story was interesting.

Well now the follow-up has been published, and it's worth looking at. (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/03/sports/football/03duerson.html)

In short, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) is a condition which has been observed in boxers and NFL players and is a type of brain damage presumed to result from repeated blows to the head. The disease leads to mental degeneration, demenia, depression and uncontrolled aggression, but it can only conclusively be diagnosed by autopsy. Dave Duerson suspected he had it, and that it had pretty much ruined his life, so in order to enable study of his brain he comitted suicide by shooting himself in the heart. The studies of his brain confirmed that he had CTE, and should help researchers understand the disease better. The story is really sad, but equally interesting, and puts the NFL in an uncomfortable position. It's well worth a read.

He's not by any means the first one to commit suicide, too:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Long_(American_football)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andre_Waters

I expect I'm forgetting someone. There are plenty of others that died non-intentionally with complications from the brain damage or by making bad decisions that the brain damage probably didn't help with, too.

You're right, and I wasn't trying to make out that he was the only former-footballer driven to suicide by mental illness or otherwise. His deliberate decision to shoot himself in the heart rather than the head, and the instructions in his suicide not make this particularly interesting though. From what I have read his life was in tatters, and while suicide is not totally surprising under those circumstances, the conscious decision to martyr himself for science is an interesting one. Suicide is generally seen as a selfish act (rightly or wrongly so you can argue), but this was an oddly selfless suicide in a way.

Still, I imagine that even if you made it mandatory for every single budding college of NFL player to read the life stories of these guys who died from this you'd find most would still be undeterred from playing.

Yep, particularly when you consider the "suck it up and play through that injury, you pussy" attitude that largely is dominant in the sports world.

Indeed, Jay Cutler springs to mind there.

It would be interesting to see which positions get this sort of brain injury more than others.

Anyone's that's hitting or getting hit at high rates of speed.  I'd say just about anyone that's not part of the offensive or defensive line is at risk.  Of course, defensive players that aren't in the habit of leading with their helmet are less at risk.  Even then, any defensive player can absorb some nasty blocks they don't see coming.  And that's the whole issue for quarterbacks.. they're often clocked with very little time to protect themselves.

A (non-suicide) example of a famous guy from another sport (hockey, which has even higher speed collisions than football):

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/news/story?id=6177474

I want to say that Chris Benoit (that wrestler who killed his family and then killed himself a couple years back) was also at least speculated to have CTE. Probably pretty common in pro wrestlers I'd imagine.

Chris Henry was diagnosed with CTE post-mortem.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Henry_%28wide_receiver%29  He had never been diagnosed with a concussion. 

This has got a bit of press over here in Australia recently due to a number of players seeking compensation post-career from their clubs from similar effects from playing Aussie Rules Football.


http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/former-afl-player-seeks-compensation-20110330-1cgf7.html

I hadn't heard that about Chris and he was a local boy.  It certainly explains a LOT of the problems he had.

All these stories are what's made the NFL make all the changes regarding concussions and late hits recently, aren't they?  I know it's caused a lot of "fans" to bitch about the "No Fun League" because the logic is, "hey, it's just a hit. He's a big guy he can take it."

Probert was also a legendary enforcer for his entire career, that did not help his head issues one bit I imagine.