Originally Posted by bbhero
Going to CTE...
It's not a one size fits all. I believe it is a very broad spectrum. Person A gets knocked out and recovers quickly. They get knocked out again shortly after.. and they are fine again.. in other words be they never have any problems with CTE... Person B gets knocked out and has issues recovering and it is a slow process.. that person gets knocked out again and it takes even longer the 2nd time to truly recover. And eventually they have long term effects... And many other circumstances in between these two here..
Key point... We have to identify very early on who is going to have problems and who will not... And treat those people accordingly. Plus they will have the information to make an educated and informed decision going forward.
I remember Dale Earnhardt Jr got knocked out in 2004 Corvette race... You could tell he was not right for 4-5 weeks. Until he won the Bristol night race.. It didn't surprise me in 2012 he decided to sit out 2 races... In fact I would have been glad if he decided not to run his last season. Id bet he had been knocked out before that 2004 race... But that one he really had a hard time recovering from. I would say Dale Jr is on the more affected side of this spectrum. Where has other drivers have had the same or worse situations... And recovered quickly and just fine afterwards. Again they key is identifying those who are more susceptible to having trouble early on or when someone crosses a line to where they will start having trouble.
CTE stands for "chronic traumatic encepalopathy". Emphasis on the "chronic", in that they're finding that CTE is more often caused by the accumulation of
repeated sub-concussive hits, not the spectacular get-your-bell-rung hits that cause concussions. In other words, the stuff that the offensive linemen, defensive linemen and linebackers do EVERY SINGLE PLAY causes CTE, not necessarily big hits that cause concussions. I have no doubt that they're not good for anyone either, but they're not the primary cause of CTE from what I've read; that's the every-play helmet collisions that linemen do every play, or running backs every time they get tackled, etc... It's the same thing that boxers get- "punch-drunk"/dementia pugilistica, and for the same reason- every punch or helmet hit counts, even if it's not one that gives anyone a concussion.
But the NFL has started making a lot of racket about concussions and that kind of thing, because that's something they can be seen making an effort about, even though they're not changing the game in any fundamental way that would lessen most players' risk for CTE.
I have a feeling that this lack of action is going to come back and bite the NFL in the [censored] hard in years to come.
https://www.npr.org/sections/health...be-behind-a-type-of-chronic-brain-damage