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Dr. Chris Nowinski asked the crowd to raise their hand if they had gotten a severe knock on the head in the past year. About 20 people raised their hands—not too surprising from the crowd of about 200, considering many in the room were there to learn about brain trauma after having experienced it firsthand. Dr. Nowinski then asked “How many of you have been hit in the head 10 times?”
No one raised their hands.
The reason for that, Dr. Nowinski explained, is that adults know better than to hit their head repeatedly.
The only people time people repeatedly hit their heads is if they are 1) paid for it or 2) children.
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The crowd was gathered for a fundraiser put on by Junior Seau’s sister, Mary Seau, for the Mary Seau CTE Foundation. Junior Seau was an All-Pro linebacker for the San Diego Chargers. He took his life in 2012 at the age of 43. He shot himself in the heart so his brain could be studied. Research by the National institute of Health later confirmed that Seau suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). The disease is thought to be caused by repetitive hits to the brain and can lead to conditions such as dementia, rage and depression.
Before Junior died, he had told his sister “Take care of the kids brains.”
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The event brought together people people who CTE has affected, and some, like Mary Seau, who have decided to make CTE awareness their life’s work. Often there is an “aha” moment when people finally comprehend the severity of the CTE as a progressive disease. Other times, the catalyst is a loved one who is affected or has died of the disease. Debbie Pyka is a CTE activist who has been coming to our Disposability of Men / Sports and Traumatic Brain Injuries group. Her son Joseph died after playing contact sports and his brain was subsequently found to have CTE. Debbie has taken on the really difficult calls to parents after their child has died, asking them to consider allowing the brain to be studied to see if it has shown signs of CTE. Anyone who had played a collision sport and then dies unexpectedly — whether it is through suicide, an accident (which might have been caused by reckless behavior or poor cognitive function), or drug overdose — has possibly had CTE. Studying the brains is a path towards awareness of the scope of the problem as well as better understanding prevention and possibly a future cure. Kimberly Archie, another activist who has also lost a son, spoke at the event about the need for more outreach and more conversations about this issue.
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Dr. Nowinski went on to explain in his speech that the approach to decreasing the rates of CTE (which we don’t even know how big a problem it is, only that it is, in fact, widespread) takes its cue from efforts to stop the ravages of damage that cigarettes caused in smokers. For smoking, it was found that you could decrease the harm caused by cigarettes in three ways:
- Reducing the number of packs smoked.
- Reducing the number of years smoked.
- Reducing the time of onset.
CTE is thought to follow a similar pattern. Reducing the risk would come from:
- Reducing the number of hits / severity of hits in a season.
- Reducing the number of hits in a lifetime.
- Reducing the time of onset of hits in football, ie, the age at which children first start to play.
At 5 years old, most kids are still in a car seat. So why are we letting them start to play football at that age? Dr. Nowinski believes that having kids play flag football up until age 14 can reduce the risk of CTE. Junior Seau’s words “take care of the kids brains” shouldn’t haunt us. We know how to do this.
Watch Dr. Nowinski’s speech here.
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Sitting in the audience, hearing both the different potential solutions to the problem along with glimpses into Junior Seau’s life, I found myself welling up with tears every time someone talked about how Junior Seau had touched their life.
Host Zeke Moreno talked about the time he had just gotten into USC, and Junior came over to him at a restaurant, paid for his meal, and told Zeke he’d be watching his career. 5 years later Zeke was playing in the NFL with Junior.
Kimberlie Archie met a random stranger, a driver she was riding with, who spoke of how Junior reached out to his father when he was dying of cancer and made his final months better.
Junior’s older brother, Savai’i, told a funny story of Junior in trenchcoats. His father and mother were as emotional as you could imagine as they spoke of their son. His sister, Mary, has devoted her life to carrying out Junior’s legacy. “I’m going to do this,” she told Savai’i soon after Junior died. And she did.
Junior Seau. A man so full of life should not have had his life end the way it did.
We failed Junior. Let’s not fail our kids.
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Find out more information:
Mary Seau CTE Foundation
Faces of CTE
Beyond Concussion
Concussion Legacy Foundation
Save Your Brain Facebook Page
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Here’s what we are doing at The Good Men Project:
Weekly calls to discuss this important topic. On TUESDAY APRIL 3rd at 9 pm EST / 6 pm PST, we’ll be discussing this event and where to go next.
CALL IN NUMBER:
701-801-1220
Access Code 934-317-242
RSVP HERE TO GET EMAIL REMINDERS.
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