Concern Over CTE Growing

After recent studies showed over 90% of NFL players have CTE, a neurodegenerative disease found in people who have had multiple head injuries, football in general has been a hot button issue. To add even more complexity to the issue, researchers have come out and said former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez was found to have the, “most severe case,” of CTE.

Hernandez’s lawyer announced on Thursday a lawsuit against the NFL and the Patriots, saying they hid the truth about the dangers of the sport. Separating his personal life from his football career, Hernandez was 23 years old when he played his last NFL football game. As Robin Lundberg of Sports Illustrated points out, that means he played about 80 football games up to the end of his career.

“There is going to be a rush to directly link Hernandez’s actions to CTE,” Lundberg said. “I think that’s a bit irresponsible in a sense that none of us know, right? But it’s part of the context of the conversation.”

Access to knowledge of CTE in living individuals is limited as it can only be diagnosed in an autopsy. It would seem CTE is an issue that is not going away, and will continue to cause debates in the NFL and sports world period.