Ex-Raider QB Ken Stabler, who died in July, has tested positive for CTE. If you aren’t familiar with the disease, it stands for ‘chronic traumatic encephalopathy’ meaning:
a progressive degenerative disease of the brain found in athletes (and others) with a history of repetitive brain trauma, including symptomatic concussions as well as asymptomatic subconcussive hits to the head. CTE has been known to affect boxers since the 1920s.
There is a scale for severity of CTE, Stabler tested at level 3. Dr. Ann Mckee is the chief of neuropathy at the V.A. Boston Healthcare System and also a professor of neurology and pathology at Boston University School of Medicine had thoughts on Stabler, from The New York Times:
“Pretty classic,” Dr. McKee said. “It may be surprising since he was a quarterback, but certainly the lesions were widespread, and they were quite severe, affecting many regions of the brain.”
It may seem like a drop in the bucket of other former players suffering the same disease, but I see it as a growing eyesore for the NFL that will eventually be too big to ignore. It will affect the future of the game, but the question is how much and will things change before it’s too late?