The Impact of CTE

CTE, which stands for Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, is a SERIOUS disease that can cause many bad things such as memory loss, confusion, aggression (very important), depression, suicidal thoughts (will be also noted later in the article) and many more violent things. 

How does one get CTE? Head Trauma. In Football, the whole point is to tackle and make the opponent fall, so many football players have gotten it. Here are prime examples of the impact of CTE.

Former star NFL RB Larry Johnson has extreme symptoms of it. His ¨inner demons¨ have led him thinking he should kill himself by jumping off a 50 story building, he has huge anxiety, paranoia, and huge self destructing impulse. He may have gotten it because of his position. As a running back, you get tackled every single time you run the ball unless you´re literally the second coming of god and you score every play. No one has ever and will ever do that. He led the league at carries at his position at 416 times. Only 17 of those were scored. Getting tackled 399 times against heavy defensive athletes in the span of 4 months is not  great for the body. He played 9 seasons in the NFL, 1427 carries, 55 touchdowns. Yikes.

Junior Seau, a former Middle Linebacker, was one of the greatest defensive players in the history of the NFL and arguably the greatest at his position. Middle Linebacker is also a position where you tackle a lot, fall, and can get hit easily. He played 20 YEARS in the NFL. 20 YEARS. He was very injury prone so his body probably did not like the choice he made. Great career though but his post career was not good because on May 2, 2012, at the age of 43, he killed himself with a gunshot to the chest, and after his death, it was confirmed CTE had caused it. It was so bad that his family sued the NFL over how much brain damage Seau had. 

Aaron Hernandez was supposed to be a superstar Tight End while he was in the league. Right after he got his big day for his new contract, a different big day happened for him. He randomly shot his friend, Odin Lloyd and murdered him, 2 years later he was sentenced to life on first degree murder. 2 years later after that he killed himself in Jail. All of this was caused by CTE, as sources say his brain was one of the worst Ever for the disease. He only played 3 years in the NFL too, so his brain was seriously broken down.

Despite all of that, this article was actually inspired because of what happened recently. I really have no idea who this guy was until this came out about a week ago, but former NFL safety Phillip Adams randomly out of nowhere shot 6 people at his home and killed himself right after. His brain is now being tested for CTE because he had no prior criminal record before. 

I cannot fit every NFL athlete who has died of CTE here on this, so here is a link of exactly that if you want who and how. https://www.legacy.com/news/culture-and-history/a-tribute-to-the-nfl-players-who-suffered-cte-brain-injury/.

All and all, CTE is dangerous, and if you read this and play football, stay safe.