I hate to be a party pooper about the start of the football season--and it's not only bitterness about my second-drafted fantasy player dropping the ball four times in this week's game. It's just that it's hard to watch all these guys steamrolling each other, in light of Monday's news.
Owen Thomas was a junior on the football team at U. Penn. Last spring, after a sudden emotional breakdown, he killed himself. His parents let researchers at Boston University autopsy Owen's brain, and what they found was shocking: Owen was the youngest person ever with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a deterioration of the brain that comes from repeated pummels to the head.
CTE was first described in boxers, back in the 1920s. It can only be diagnosed with an autopsy. The disease involves protein buildup in the brain, and can lead over time to memory loss, impulsivity, aggression, depression, and ...
