Scientists Dissected the Brains of 79 NFL Players. What They Found Is Disturbing
Neuropathology experts at the Boston University (BU) CTE Center in Boston analyzed the brains of 79 former NFL players who had come to autopsy after death. Strikingly, 76 of these showed the hallmarks of CTE. They have now examined 128 brains in all and 101 of these showed this evidence–from high school players to professionals. Of interest, one local Kansas City area high school player who had died on the field after a repetitive brain injury at the homecoming game of his senior year–it isn’t known exactly how many concussions he had experienced before his death at age 17–was amongst those the BU CTE Center examined and found tell-tale CTE findings. His tragic case was the subject of several reports including that of neurosurgeon Dr. Sanjay Gupta on a CNN Special (http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/27/health/big-hits-broken-dreams-brain-bank/).
