• Home

• Purchase Picks

  • 2013 Major League Baseball Best Bets Service
  • Personal Best Basketball
    The ONE Strongest Game on the Board
  • Horse Racing Best Bets
    Best Bets From Belmont and Hollywood
  • Today's Free Pick
    Free Pick
  • Handicapping Publications
    Systems and Methods
  • Kelso's NBA Playoffs Turn Into Payoffs
    Start Winning With The NBA Tonight!
  • Chairman's Club Baseball
  • 2013 Football Investor's Bombshell
  • Big Game Universe Football
  • RIP Best Bets Club
  • Personal Best Baseball Club
    Tho ONE Best Game on the Board Every Day

  • Today's Specials
  • Wednesday 15 Unit Baseball Best Bets
  • Wednesday 25 Unit Chairman's Club Baseball Winner
  • 25 Unit NBA Eastern Conference Playoff Game 1 Winner

• Sports Information

  • NFL
  • News
  • Lines
  • Scores
  • Injuries
  • Standings

  • College Football
  • News
  • Lines
  • Scores
  • Injuries

  • MLB
  • News
  • Lines
  • Scores
  • Injuries
  • Standings

  • NBA
  • News
  • Lines
  • Scores
  • Injuries
  • Standings

  • College Basketball
  • News
  • Lines
  • Scores
  • Injuries
  • Top 25

  • NASCAR
  • News
  • Schedule

  • Horse Racing
  • News

• Betting Tools

  • Newsletter
  • Betting Glossary
  • Betting Guide
  • Parlay Calculator
  • Power Ratings
  • Sports Links

• Who is Kelso?

In the FCS Huddle: The end of football as we know it

Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - You know when you hear the symptoms listed for a disease and you get that inkling of hypochondria?

"Symptoms may include: upset stomach, headache, loss of feeling in extremities."

And you think, "Ah, my stomach does feel a bit woozy." Or, "My head was hurting the other day..."

It is a natural reaction, a survival instinct, a form of self-preservation. It's your mind running a check list, making sure everything is in order.

Recently, when I covered the Penn-Lafayette game at Franklin Field in Philadelphia, I felt a bit of that old hypochondria sinking in.

Penn was opening its 2010 campaign, but the game itself was a backdrop. The real story was Owen Thomas.

During the offseason, Thomas, a 21-year-old defensive end and co-captain for the Quakers, committed suicide in his Philadelphia apartment. A few weeks before the game, it was announced that Thomas was in the early stages of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) when he took his own life. CTE, which has been linked to more than 20 deceased NFL players, is a disease brought on by repeated head trauma. Linked to depression and impulse control, it was justifiable to speculate that CTE may have played a part in Thomas' death.

As I researched the disease for my story, the symptoms struck me. These included: lack of concentration or memory, confusion, dizziness, headaches, poor judgement.

"Ah, lack of concentration, dizziness ..."

These symptoms are not unfamiliar to me. I began to wonder just how many blows to the head it takes for toxic proteins (called tau) to build up in the brain, an onset of CTE. Are these types of diseases and brain injuries reserved only for those athletes who play at the highest possible levels?

While not a professional athlete, I have played sports aggressively for the majority of my 26 years. Football and soccer in my youth, baseball from T-ball through high school, and small-time college basketball. I have been diagnosed with concussions. I have spent nights in the hospital due to sports- related head trauma. I have been blindsided as a quarterback and drilled in the head in the batter's box. When I was 16, I attempted to steal third base. The catcher threw a seed and the third baseman didn't get leather on the ball. The result: a concussion and 25 stitches.

During a playground basketball game I got into a jawing match with an opponent. As I turned to walk away, he grabbed me by the shoulder, spun me toward him and connected with a right-cross. I came to staring at my reflection in a police car window. I was diagnosed with a concussion. I was playing the next day.

So nowadays, when I rise out of bed and have to wait for my vision to settle before walking, or when I am talking to someone and completely blank on his name, I can't help but wonder: is this a byproduct of one too many hits to the head?

The implication here is not that I have taken an extraordinary amount of physical punishment as a result of athletics, but rather that science is proving that maybe it doesn't take that much punishment to cause lasting damage in the first place.

Take baseball icon Lou Gehrig. Until recently, it was commonly believed that Gehrig met his untimely end at the hands of a disease known as amytrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a disease which, to this day, shares the former slugger's namesake (Lou Gehrig's Disease).

But as reported by the New York Times this past August, doctors at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and the Boston University School of Medicine, the primary researchers among deceased NFL players, published a report claiming that former athletes diagnosed with ALS may have actually been suffering from a similar, yet different disease. The report stated that the markings in the spinal cords of two former NFL players and one boxer did not indicate ALS, but rather a disease brought on by concussions and other brain trauma.

The connection between these athletes and Lou Gehrig was not specifically discussed in the report, but it was implied: perhaps the man who became the face of ALS, in fact, never actually had the disease to begin with. Perhaps he suffered from a concussion-related, head-trauma induced disease, which was difficult, if impossible to diagnose at the time.

At the time of the reports, Dr. Ann McKee, the lead neuropathologist on the study, had identified 14 NFL players since 1960 who had been diagnosed with ALS, a total about eight times higher than typically found in U.S. males of a similar age.

McKee found that two of these men - Wally Hilgenberg, a linebacker for the Minnesota Vikings during the 1970s, and Eric Scoggins, a linebacker who appeared in just three games for the 1982 San Francisco 49ers - actually suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), the same disease found in Owen Thomas.

The revelation in Thomas' case is he is the first active college football player to be diagnosed with CTE, and his medical records show no history of concussions.

The ALS connection also has been prominent in professional soccer. A 2005 study found that Italian professional soccer players have developed the disease at rates about six times higher than normal.

So we have the icon Gehrig, playing in a relatively tame sport, Italian soccer players, participating in a sport railed by Americans and soft, and a 21-year-old, Thomas, with no history of concussions, all suffering from degenerative, sports-related brain diseases.

Even after reading about Gehrig's struggles, and watching video of retired NFL players, incapable of holding a thought, or conversing with their wives, I do not regret, nor do I plan to curtail, my athletic endeavors.

But what about former Division I college football and NFL players, the ones at the crux of this burgeoning issue? Do they regret their chosen path?

Former Harvard football player and professional wrestler Chris Nowinski is in a unique position to comment.

Nowinski molded his scholar-athlete status and Harvard degree into a character featured in the WWE (World Wresting Entertainment). After suffering six concussions, Nowinski was forced to retire with what doctor's called post- concussion syndrome. The diagnosis motivated Nowinski to better understand his condition, and he has since been a leading catalyst on the issue, prompting the NFL's efforts to understand and treat concussions and head-traumas in their players.

Through his work with The Sports Legacy Institute (an organization he founded) and The Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy, Nowinski has collected the brains of numerous deceased football players, including that of Thomas, for examination.

In a 2007 interview with HBO's "Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel," Nowinski reflected on his revelations in light of his research:

"I said, 'How can this be in the medical literature and yet I've been playing football and wrestling for 11 years and no one has told me any of this?'"

Former New England Patriots linebacker Ted Johnson, speaking on the same program, had a similar thought:

"All I ever asked was, 'Tell me what my risks are and then let me decide if I want to go out there and screw my brain up.' But I never had that choice. Now I may have early onset of Alzheimer's. I just can't imagine living with that."

So now players at the highest level are becoming aware, and it appears they have regrets.

While I may not regret my athletic endeavors, these recent revelations will likely inform my decisions when, one day, my own children become old enough to play sports. And a small part of me wonders what my brain is going to be like when they become old enough to reflect on their own athletic careers.

The fact is, though, a slew of future parents will likely be signing their kids up for Little League baseball, maybe even golf, over pee-wee football.

And that is simply the case moving forward. The NFL will continue to stiffen penalties and hand out suspensions to aggressive tacklers. Companies will make new helmets, and so on and so on. But the fact is, just like it did years ago in professional boxing, the talent pool will eventually dry up.

Nowadays, boxing is a shell of its former glorious self and discussions about the sport generally revolve around what it lacks: lack of a unified belt, lack of legitimate heavyweights.

Do you know why there is a lack of legitimate heavyweights? For one, take a look at Muhammad Ali or Joe Frazier in either of their current states. Now, what are you going to give your kid for his or her next birthday, boxing gloves, or a basketball?

Exactly.

The same will happen for football. It will still exist, it will still be relevant on the sporting landscape. But between rule change and a lack of high-caliber athletes, it will never be the same again. Make no mistake about it, this is a watershed moment for American football, and for better (players safety) or worse (league popularity) the Golden Age of football in America has reached its apex. It is all downhill from here.

Do not fear change, though, the evolution of sporting violence is natural after all. Where we once had gladiators, we now have football, and where we now have football, we will one day have ... charades?

10/26/2010 4:33:58 PM

 

PRODUCTS

• 2013 Major League Baseball Best Bets Service
• Personal Best Basketball
• Today's Free Pick
• Kelso's NBA Playoffs Turn Into Payoffs
• Chairman's Club Baseball
• 2013 Football Investor's Bombshell
• Big Game Universe Football
• RIP Best Bets Club
• Personal Best Baseball Club
• Horse Racing Best Bets
• Handicapping Publications
• Wednesday 15 Unit Baseball Best Bets
• Wednesday 25 Unit Chairman's Club Baseball Winner
• 25 Unit NBA Eastern Conference Playoff Game 1 Winner

INFORMATION

• About Kelso
• Contact Us
• Privacy Policy
• Follow Kelso on Facebook
• Follow Kelso on Twitter
• Signup for the Newsletter
• Support

KelsoSportsHandicapping.com

1-800-755-2255

CustomerService@KelsoSportsHandicapping.com

THIS IS NOT A GAMBLING SITE Information contained within this website is for news and entertainment purposes only.
Use of this information in violation of State, Federal, or Local laws is strictly prohibited. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results.

No portion of this site may be reproduced or redistributed without the prior express written consent of Kelso Sturgeon.

Copyright © 2000 - 2013 All rights reserved.