National Football League and Boston University to Players: Donate Your Brains

I was listening to the CBS Evening News last night while reading a magazine article at the same time, when the news anchor blurted out just a couple of sentences that made me look up from my reading. As an alumni of Boston University (never mind the class year, thank you very much), mention of the college always commands my attention. Did I hear correctly? I thought I heard him say that the National Football League was imploring current and former players to donate their brains to the Boston University Medical School.

What? Creepy! I had to know more. So, after my research, this is what I found out. You National Football League fanatics already know all this, I'm sure. This is for the rest of the world that doesn't follow the hallowed sport and all its nuances on a daily basis!

There has been a lot of focus lately on the traumatic brain damage that is done to American athletes, especially football players, from repeated blows to the head during contact sports. A lot of the controversy was stirred up when the University of Michigan conducted a phone survey that showed retired National Football League players have a 19 times greater rate of dementia than the general American public.

The National Football League, of course, had to go on the defensive. But now that several studies and testimonies are backing that survey and other research, the National Football League is bowing to the pressure to take better care of its players. The CBS News report last night also mentioned that the NFL was pledging at least a million dollars to fund the research at Boston University. Only a million dollars? Come on! I'm not a football fan, but even I know how much those players make a year. The National Football League will have to do much better than just a million dollars if it wants to be seen as seriously supporting this research.

Why is Boston University School of Medicine the chosen site for this important research, more specifically, its CSTE or Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy? Founded in 2008, the center is at the forefront of dementia research and traumatic brain injury correlation.

So far, Boston University CTSE has studied the brains of former high school and National Football League players and a champion boxer, ages 18-73. They have discovered Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) in all of them that can be directly linked to repeated concussions. They have also studied the brain of a 73 year old former National Hockey League player and found CTE, as well.

It remains to be seen how many current National Football League players and National Hockey League players will sign up to give their brains to Boston University for this important but strange research. I am not comfortable with the thought, but I am not comfortable with organ donation at all, unless it's about a kidney, and both parties walk away and live happily ever after.

Which reminds me. I am sure glad I graduated from Boston University awhile ago. With all those brains to be stored on campus, I'm sure it will become a target for all kinds of creepy activities and creeps! I guess I just read too many science fiction and horror stories when I was a kid.

Sources:

1. CBS News

2. "Boston University | Alzheimer's Disease Center | Research | Brain Imaging | Neuroimaging Initiative," bu.edu/alzresearch/research/encephalopathy/index.html.
3. "First Hockey Player Diagnosed with Degenerative Brain Disease Caused by Repetitive Brain Trauma » School of Medicine » BUMC," bumc.bu.edu/busm-news/2009/12/18.