CTE vs. Football

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/sports/despite-evidence-skeptics-try-cast-doubt-cte-football-link-n897416

CTE stands for chronic traumatic encephalopathy which is a degenerative brain disease that forms something called tau proteins in the brain. (Chuck, 2018) These clumps of proteins in the brain cause brain cells to be killed and results in devastating side effects such as depression, memory loss, and anger. In our American Sport in the 21st Century class on November 8, 2018 we discussed how the neurons in the brain are damaged during impact in sports such as football. However, many professionals in football still deny that contact during football can cause CTE. The head football coach at the University of North Carolina, Larry Fedora, made a statement earlier this year about he has his doubts that football causes CTE. This shadow of doubt may be one of the biggest issues surrounding CTE because it slows progress on making the necessary adjustments to the sport to make it as safe as possible. Fedora is not the only one who has made these types of claims either. During our CTE discussion on November 8, 2018 we mentioned that the NFL denied that there was any problem until 2009, even though Bennet Omalu had the first confirmed case of an NFL player with CTE in 2005. This denial that CTE was an issue may have caused a very large number of players to continue experiencing head trauma and developing CTE during that time period. However, in recent years the NFL has begun accepting the reality of this issue, and they have started to institute new rules to try and make the game safer for their players. In our November 8, 2018 discussion about CTE, we mentioned that the NFL has banned all helmet to helmet hits now in an attempt to reduce the amount of hits that could lead to the development of CTE. Hopefully these new rules surrounding player safety can help to reduce the risk of CTE that comes along with playing a sport like football which is so loved in America.