NEW YORK, Sept. 24, 2008
Ex-NFL Players To Donate Brains For Study
Long-Term Effects Of Concussions At Heart Of Research; 12 Athletes In Total To Participate
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Former New England Patriots linebacker Ted Johnson, left, has agreed to donate his brain to a study researching the long-term effects of concussions. "I shouldn't have to prove to anybody that there's something wrong with me," Johnson told The New York Times. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)
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Former New England Patriots linebacker Ted Johnson, one of the players who committed to the donation, hopes Boston University's Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy can help clear up the debate on the issue.
"I shouldn't have to prove to anybody that there's something wrong with me," Johnson told the newspaper.
The 35-year-old's neurologist has pointed to Johnson's multiple concussions between 2002-05 as a cause of his permanent and degenerative problems with memory and depression.
"I'm not being vindictive. I'm not trying to reach up from the grave and get the NFL," Johnson added. "But any doctor who doesn't connect concussions with long-term effects should be ashamed of themselves."
Among the living athletes, most with a history of concussions, who have agreed to donate their brains for examination after their deaths are former NFL players Frank Wycheck, Isaiah Kacyvenski and Ben Lynch. Also participating are Noah Welch, who played hockey for the Florida Panthers last season, and Cindy Parlow, a former member of the U.S. national soccer team.
The center is expected to announce Thursday that former Houston Oilers linebacker John Grimsley was the fifth deceased NFL player found to have brain damage commonly associated with boxers, according to the Times. Andre Waters, Mike Webster, Terry Long and Justin Strzelczyk were the first four.
"We support all research that would further the scientific and medical understanding of this injury, which affects thousands of people, athletes and nonathletes alike, every year," NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said. "Hundreds of thousands of people have played football and other sports without experiencing any problem of this type, and there continues to be considerable debate in the medical community on the precise long-term effects of concussions and how they relate to other risk factors."
Grimsley died in February of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in February that police ruled an accident.
The NFL is conducting its own study on concussions, Aiello expected the results to be published in 2010.
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Add a Comment See all 28 Comments
- We should get GWB''''s brain in that study. Then we can see what happens from a brain not being used!!!
Posted by bm6005
hard to use what you don''t have - Reply to this comment
- We should get GWB''s brain in that study. Then we can see what happens from a brain not being used!!!
- Reply to this comment
- As long as they don''t study Vinne Testaverde--he''s not the brightest light in the harbor.
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- Posted by bionhoward
That''s one soccer injury that I''d not heard of before. The guy should never have been allowed to play. I''m sorry for your continued problems.
This study should expose a lot of problems. I would suggest the results will be frightening with regard to the severity of the injuries and how commonplace they are. I hope the results will be accorded full disclosure. Kudos to the players involved.
Note to CBS. Whoever came up with such an idiotic phrase for the headline of this article should be terminated. - Reply to this comment
- What a wonderful opportunity; to be one of the first biologists to study a brain that is completely cleared of useful information.
I can''t even get my computer hard drive to be that clean of chaff. - Reply to this comment
- NFL players have brains? Is finding them going to involve micro-surgery?
- Reply to this comment
- They should be in very good condition. They''ve hardly ever been used.
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- Wait - football players have brains?
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- Well this story is a dream for comedians.....
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Posted by nextGenMan at 12:04 PM : Sep 24, 2008
Well, let me know when one shows up then... - Reply to this comment
- After being knocked our for 3-days in a varsity college soccer match, by a Vietnam vet with a steel plate in his head (we were going to head the same ball), I can tell you the effects of concussion are not funny. It took nearly a year for initial recovery. To this day over 35 years later it has been very clear since that incident I''ve had diminished capacities, suffered depression, memory lapse, headache, and likely have underachieved compared to pre-1972 IQ test indications. Please refrain from mocking professional athletes who are victims -- any more than we should mock military heroes who now are shown to have long term concussion effects from just being near weapons blasts (See current issue of Popular Science).
- Reply to this comment
- What is it with all the people making comments that are trying to tie this into things that have nothing to do with football or with concussions? All of you idiots bringing politics into this, or the economy into this... this story has nothing to do with those things! Instead, why don''t you actually use your brain and make relevant comments. What a concept!!
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- Yep, Im a humorless old ***hole. ----------------------------------------
------------ Posted by FSW3
Maybe they should study your brain, too?
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Posted by TheVicar1 at 10:56 AM : Sep 24, 2008
Now that would be a scary thought. - Reply to this comment
- Wait - football players have brains?
- Reply to this comment
- Well this story is a dream for comedians.....
- Reply to this comment
- they should start donating now......starting with Vick....he needs to be first in line, fresh before he is dead.....
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Posted by bdrlnt4rl at 09:50 AM : Sep 24, 2008
I''m sure the padded walls in the prison showers reduce the concussion risk...
actually, they got dibs on his ***....in prison. - Reply to this comment
- Somebody needs to do a study on what''s inside the heads of the Wall Street bankers -
I''d really like to know what makes them so freaking greedy that they would wreck the US economy. Their greed is sick and now the whole country is sick, too. - Reply to this comment
- Wish they could do a follow-up on participants of high school sports. How many beer guzzling, middle aged cripples got that way because they were led to believe they had a future as a "Pro" by the local high school sports coach years earlier.
You know the coach-the home town hero/father figure that encourages adolescents to be "team players" and "give it all for the team". - Reply to this comment
- Absolutely nothing wrong with this study,football is a brutal,unforgiving game as is boxing, studies like this are necessary for insight into ways to deal with concussions or brain injuries, maybe it could be adapted for everyone.
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- Yep, Im a humorless old ***hole. ---------------------------------------------------- Posted by FSW3
Maybe they should study your brain, too? - Reply to this comment
- No jokes please.
Posted by FSW3
Why? Are you one of those old grouchy people?
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Posted by Displeased at 09:24 AM : Sep 24, 2008
Yep, I''m a humorless old ***hole. - Reply to this comment
Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
