I have a lot of college football players in my Brain Bank with CTE.
I definitely agree about the future of youth football being flag. There's just more and more evidence that the youth brain is particularly susceptible to the injury - thin necks, big heads. They're not as coordinated; they're not as skillful. For many reasons, I think the wave of the future is flag football for youth.
Families don't donate brains of their loved ones unless they're concerned about the person.
Certainly, our work has identified CTE in many professional football players, but we're also seeing it in a very high percentage of college players.
My brothers played football. In fact, I was an absolutely enormous Packer fan, and because I was raised in such a football-centric community, I have always had a terrific admiration for football players.
My son was a goalkeeper in soccer, and he luckily never had much head trauma. He never had any concussions or anything. I really wanted him to play football, but now I'm thankful he didn't.
My three children played soccer and lacrosse. I grew up as a Green Bay Packers fan. I am not against sports. We want kids to play sports, but we want them to be safe.
I was born and raised right outside of Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Our national identity is so interwoven with football.
We're hoping that there is large-scale recognition that CTE is a risk when playing football.
If football is your passion in life and you would rather play football for 20 years and have a shortened life span, that's your choice.
I started out as a neurologist. I then trained in neuropathology and was focused on neurodegeneration. So, for years, I studied Alzheimer's, aging, Parkinson's, that kind of thing.
Dave Duerson had classic pathology of CTE and no evidence of any other disease.
It's almost un-American to say that you want to change football.
