Aaron Hernandez's brain shows signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) with a severity beyond anything experts have ever seen in an athlete his age:
The Boston researcher who examined the brain of former football star Aaron Hernandez says it showed the most damage her team had seen in an athlete so young.
Hernandez, whose on-field performance for the New England Patriots earned him a $40 million contract in 2012, hanged himself in a prison cell earlier this year while serving a life sentence for murder. He was 27 years old.
Dr. Ann McKee, a neuropathologist who directs research of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, at Boston University, said her research team found Hernandez had Stage 3 CTE and that they had never seen such severe damage in a brain younger than 46 years old. McKee announced her findings at medical conference on Thursday in Boston where she spoke publicly for the first time.
The researchers described the brain as one of the most significant contributions to their work due to the former athlete's young age at the time of his death. Also at the Boston Herald.
In other news, a lawsuit by the estate of Aaron Hernandez (filed while Hernandez was alive) against a prison phone service has been thrown out:
The identity of a hacker who accessed jailhouse conversations between Aaron Hernandez and his fiancee while he was awaiting trial will likely never be revealed now that a judge has spiked the former Patriot's lawsuit against the phone service hired to record and store non-privileged calls.
Suffolk Superior Court Judge Helene Kazanjian entered her judgment Monday allowing Texas-based Securus Technologies Inc.'s motions to dismiss Hernandez's complaint. It was initially filed in federal court last year, five months before Hernandez hanged himself in his cell at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley. Hernandez's estate was pushing forward with the civil action.
Did American football create a murderer and drive him to suicide?
Previously: NFL Acknowledges Link Between American Football and CTE
Ailing NFL Players' Brains Show Signs of Neurodegenerative Disease
Former Football Star Aaron Hernandez's Brain Found to Have Severe CTE
Related Stories
On Monday, the National Football League (NFL) publicly acknowledged for the first time the link between professional American football and degenerative brain disorders such as chronic traumatic encephalopathy. The league had long since admitted concussions were dangerous, but this is the first time long-term damage has been acknowledged. As recently as last month, long term damage had been denied. A 2012 study of the brains of deceased football players found that 34 out of 35 showed signs of damage.
The condition does not only affect football players, as athletes in rugby, boxing, ice hockey, association football (soccer), and wrestling are also at risk. CTE has been cited as a factor in the murder-suicides committed by football player Jovan Belcher and former WWE Champion Chris Benoit.
Will this admission impact our popular love of sports? Prior bad news had not impacted business:
"The news issues away from the field have had absolutely no impact. ... None," said John Wildhack, ESPN executive vice president for programming and production. "The NFL continues to have just an incredible grip on the American sports culture."
The largest study of its kind has found damage in the vast majority of former football players' brains donated for research after they developed mental symptoms during life. Of 202 former players of the U.S. version of the game whose brains were examined, 87% showed the diagnostic signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a neurodegenerative disease associated with repetitive head trauma. Among former National Football League (NFL) players in the sample, that number jumped to 99%. The findings will likely ratchet up the pressure on leaders at all levels of football to protect their players. Still, the authors and other experts caution against overinterpreting the results, because the brains all came from symptomatic former players and not from those who remained free of mental problems.
"I think it is increasingly difficult to deny a link between CTE and repeated traumatic brain injury, be it through contact sports or other mechanisms," says Gil Rabinovici, a neurologist at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), who was not affiliated with the study.
The researchers, led by Boston University (BU) neuropathologist Ann McKee, used brains from a bank maintained by the VA Boston Healthcare System, BU, and the Concussion Legacy Foundation. They were donated by families of former football players. The team defines CTE, a diagnosis made only at autopsy, as "progressive degeneration associated with repetitive head trauma." The designation remains controversial with some, who call it a muddy diagnosis that doesn't include an iron-clad clinical course and the kind of clear-cut pathology that defines classical neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's or Alzheimer's disease.
Clinicopathological Evaluation of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy in Players of American Football (open, DOI: 10.1001/jama.2017.8334) (DX)
Former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez, who committed suicide a week after being acquitted of double homicide, has been found to have had severe signs (original AP text) of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Hernandez's brain had been released to Boston University by his family for study. In 2015, Hernandez was found guilty for the murder of Odin Lloyd and automatically sentenced to life in prison without a possibility of parole:
Tests conducted on the brain of former football star Aaron Hernandez showed severe signs of the degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy, and his attorney said Thursday that the player's daughter is suing the NFL and the New England Patriots for leading Hernandez to believe the sport was safe.
In a news conference at his offices, Hernandez's attorney, Jose Baez, said the testing showed one of the most severe cases ever diagnosed. "We're told it was the most severe case they had ever seen for someone of Aaron's age," Baez said. Hernandez was 27 when he killed himself in April. Dr. Ann McKee, the director of the CTE Center at Boston University, concluded that the New England Patriots tight end had stage 3 of 4 of the disease and also had early brain atrophy and large perforations in a central membrane.
[...] A week before his suicide, Hernandez was acquitted in the 2012 drive-by shootings of two men in Boston. Prosecutors had argued that Hernandez gunned the two men down after one accidentally spilled a drink on him in a nightclub, and then got a tattoo of a handgun and the words "God Forgives" to commemorate the crime.
Baez said he deeply regretted not raising the issue of Hernandez's having CTE during his murder trials. He said the defense team did not blame CTE for the murders because Hernandez's defense was actual innocence.
Previously: NFL Acknowledges Link Between American Football and CTE
What if PTSD is More Physical Than Psychological?
Ailing NFL Players' Brains Show Signs of Neurodegenerative Disease
Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) has been diagnosed in a (formerly) living person and confirmed by an autopsy:
Researchers published, what they say is the first case of a living person identified with the degenerative brain disease, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE.
While unnamed in the study, lead author Dr. Bennet Omalu confirmed to CNN that the subject of the case was former NFL player, Fred McNeill -- who died in 2015.
Omalu is credited with first discovering CTE in professional football players. The only way to definitively diagnose the disease is with a brain exam after death.
The discovery was first made in 2012 using an experimental brain scan that can trace a signature protein of CTE called tau. The case study was published in the journal Neurosurgery [open, DOI: 10.1093/neuros/nyx536] [DX] this week.
[...] While the experimental technology has been used on at least a dozen other former NFL players including Pro Football Hall of Famer, Dallas Cowboy Tony Dorsett, McNeill is the first case to have the test results confirmed with an autopsy. Omalu helped develop and is invested in the diagnostic exam, which uses a radioactive "tracer" called FDDNP to bind to tau proteins in the brain. The tau proteins can then be seen on a PET scan of the brain.
Also at ESPN.
Note: Some skepticism may be warranted.
Previously: Researchers: Aaron Hernandez Had the Worst Case of CTE Ever Seen in an Athlete So Young
Abnormal Levels of a Protein Linked to C.T.E.[*] Found in N.F.L Players' Brains, Study Shows
Experimental brain scans of more than two dozen former N.F.L. players found that the men had abnormal levels of the protein linked to chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the degenerative brain disease associated with repeated hits to the head.
Using positron emission tomography, or PET, scans, the researchers found "elevated amounts of abnormal tau protein" in the parts of the brain associated with the disease, known as C.T.E., compared to men of similar age who had not played football.
The authors of the study and outside experts stressed that such tau imaging is far from a diagnostic test for C.T.E., which is likely years away and could include other markers, from blood and spinal fluid.
The results of the study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday [DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1900757] [DX], are considered preliminary, but constitute a first step toward developing a clinical test to determine the presence of C.T.E. in living players, as well as early signs and potential risk.
[*] CTE: Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy
Also at NBC.
Editorial: Links in the Chain of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (DOI: 10.1056/NEJMe1903746) (DX)
Related: NFL Acknowledges Link Between American Football and CTE
What if PTSD is More Physical Than Psychological?
Ailing NFL Players' Brains Show Signs of Neurodegenerative Disease
Former Football Star Aaron Hernandez's Brain Found to Have Severe CTE
Researchers: Aaron Hernandez Had the Worst Case of CTE Ever Seen in an Athlete So Young
CTE Can be Diagnosed in a Living Person
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 12 2017, @05:57AM (12 children)
>Did American football create a murderer and drive him to suicide?
It's like "journalists" can't help themselves with shit like this. As has been reported in many locations, NFL players on average commit less violent crime than your average US citizen. Granted, it's not a perfect comparison since being rich & famous gets you advantages in the legal system, but regardless, shouldn't the clickwhore question be "Does American football prevent crime?"
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday November 12 2017, @06:00AM
u mad? Been banged around a little bit?
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 12 2017, @06:00AM
in football?
Did that include gang initiation rites?
If so, his CTE may have started long before he started playing football either academically, or professionally.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 12 2017, @07:08AM (8 children)
That is not bullshit at all. Major brain trauma is not something to be shrugged off. Sure it is a clickbait type headline, but the point still stands.
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Sunday November 12 2017, @07:27AM (7 children)
OP was complaining about the bait question, not the headline. The headline accurately reflects the opinions of the researchers, who seem to be the foremost experts in their field:
http://www.bu.edu/cte/our-research/ [bu.edu]
https://www.theringer.com/nfl/2017/9/26/16372088/boston-university-cte-test-for-the-living-football-impact [theringer.com]
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nations-top-cte-concussion-experts-to-convene-at-boston-precision-health-summit-300534830.html [prnewswire.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by BK on Sunday November 12 2017, @05:04PM (6 children)
That's awesome! The best part is that historically, the foremost experts in various fields have never, ever, ever been wrong! Talk about appeal to authority…
...but you HAVE heard of me.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 12 2017, @07:29PM
The foremost researchers in the CTE field publish their findings as cursory descriptions in the washington post apparently... I would accept a blog that went into detail, but not this.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday November 12 2017, @08:44PM (4 children)
Goddamn. Next time I'll do an in-depth investigation of their entire careers.
They are getting the brains sent to them and have a CTE center. That must count for something.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by BK on Sunday November 12 2017, @09:42PM (3 children)
Well, they could be zombies. Just saying. Having a CTE center could be a good cover.
I'm all for trusting the experts. But not unconditionally. I hate 'they're the experts so they must be right(er)' type statements. Remember, the police are the experts at finding criminals. They have facilities devoted to the purpose. Trust em?
...but you HAVE heard of me.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday November 12 2017, @09:47PM (1 child)
Those facilities can't be called unique though, so it's not comparable.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by BK on Sunday November 12 2017, @10:02PM
Would you feel better if I said the FBI?
...but you HAVE heard of me.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 13 2017, @08:32AM
No, I trust 4chan to find teh bad guys.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Magic Oddball on Sunday November 12 2017, @01:51PM
True; it should have been phrased as, “could football–related CTE have increased Aaron Hernandez's tendency to lash out violently enough to result in a homicide?” Based on the effects of CTE, that's unfortunately a real possibility.
I tried to look into the NFL crime situation, and found that apparently there are some problems with the statistics and how they're interpreted:
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/more-on-the-rate-of-domestic-violence-arrests-among-nfl-players/ [fivethirtyeight.com]
(I really need to get some sleep, and I'm pretty sure that if I try to analyze or summarize the results I'll screw them up, so I'll just leave you with the link.)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 12 2017, @10:26AM (1 child)
USA USA USA! Let's play ball.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday November 13 2017, @03:59PM
Let's play ball is a phrase I would more likely associate with Baseball.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by crafoo on Sunday November 12 2017, @05:11PM (2 children)
What's up with the jail phone service lawsuit? Did they have poor security? It seems if hackers were able to access the phone calls without authorization then the company should be held accountable. Does anyone know why the lawsuit was thrown out?
(Score: 3, Touché) by frojack on Sunday November 12 2017, @07:47PM
The Link in TFS [bostonherald.com] adequately explains that. I know its an aweful burden to click it and read 4 paragraphs but do try it before asking us to do it for you.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by takyon on Sunday November 12 2017, @08:51PM
The main issue seems to be a legal lack of privacy for prisoners on the phone, making any hacking of the company irrelevant.
Prison phone services are a notable mess:
https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=17/06/14/0147239 [soylentnews.org]
https://www.npr.org/2015/10/21/450464766/fcc-moves-to-cut-high-cost-of-prisoners-calls [npr.org]
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/ppmemz/pen-pals-phone-calls-from-prison [vice.com]
https://theintercept.com/2017/06/16/fcc-prison-phone-call-rates-court-deregulate-trump/ [theintercept.com]
https://www.prisonpolicy.org/phones/ [prisonpolicy.org]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 13 2017, @08:37AM
There's going to be so few players in 5 years that NFL and all those beautiful State-funded stadiums will be all about the "1/2 time" entertainment and only a sprinkle of heavily sanitized football. Think of it like pro wrestling but with jock straps.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 18 2017, @05:28AM
Now that he topped himself, we can tell all kinds of stories about how evil football drove him to kill. It wasn't his will, it was his hurt brain that done it!
Yeah, I'll grant that he got shaken around a bit, but that's how he made his $$$. Just as he still managed to put food down his throat and drive to work, he killed his victim in a conscious action.