The Concussion Crisis: How Head Trauma Connects to Neurodegeneration
- Taylor Mann
- Oct 14, 2022
- 3 min read
Tua Tagovailoa playing for Miami Dolphins
Something that I’ve always considered interesting about myself is how much I love football. The sport has been an integral part of my life growing up, and I continue that passion on a daily basis. My family and I are Miami Dolphins fans. As for why, that’s a whole other story, but right now I’m going to talk a little bit about a recent event in the NFL community that really impacted me.
If anyone reading this pays attention to the world of football, you might have heard about what happened to Tua Tagovailoa about two weeks ago. Coming off a three game winning streak, the Dolphins were having an incredible season. Since the start of his professional career, the quarterback, Tua, has faced much adversity and doubt from the NFL fan base. This season had reinvented him, and anyone who ever was skeptical of his abilities had been proven wrong.
The game was Thursday night. That previous Sunday, Tua had fallen and hit his head. When he got up, he stumbled and seemed very disoriented. Many thought he was concussed, but he passed his evaluation and returned later to the game. It was determined he suffered a minor back injury, and that was what caused the stumbling. Thursday games are always difficult, as players only have four days to recover from any injuries they might have sustained.
I honestly can’t remember many events of the game besides the one that mattered. Tua Tagovailoa was sacked during a play, and brutally thrown to the ground, smashing his head on the turf. The camera instantly zoomed into his hands, which had locked up unnaturally as the rest of his body remained motionless. This is actually a very primitive trauma response called decorticate posturing, which is correlated with often severe neurological damage.
I was in shock, practically holding back tears. It seems silly, but my family and I had watched him grow so much and in this instant, any possibility of another game was unimaginable. I thought he was paralyzed, or worse. I couldn’t possibly fathom what was going on, or what would come in the future.
I ended up spending hours on the internet, researching traumatic brain injuries. It didn’t take me long to stumble upon CTE, or chronic traumatic encephalopathy. To my surprise, this is actually considered a neurodegenerative condition. While unlike many other diseases NeuroResilience focuses on, CTE falls under the neurodegenerative category because it causes the same damage to the brain, just not through genetics.
CTE is a brain condition that occurs from repeated trauma or blows to the head, and often occurs after multiple concussions. It is something the NFL has been trying to deal with for quite some time, as American football is a very dangerous sport. Symptoms vary, but often are similar to those of Alzheimer’s, and eventually lead to dementia. The condition causes shrinking of the brain, but in a different way than other conditions. Typically, someone with CTE may experience short term memory loss, frequent changes in mood or mood swings, increasing disorientation and confusion, and difficulty thinking. This may later worsen to slurred speech, significant issues in memory, tremors, slow movement, and possibly difficulty in swallowing (NHS). These are symptoms I saw in my grandpa, and many others see in their friends and family suffering from a condition like Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s. Sadly, changes to the brain cannot always be seen on brain scans, causing CTE to often not be confirmed until after death.
CTE has famously afflicted athletes such as John Mackey, Andre Waters, Owen Thomas, Jovan Belcher, and Aaron Hernandez. Of those five mentioned, four committed suicide, and two – Aaron Hernandez and Jovan Belcher – are notorious for also having committed murder. It was only after their own deaths that CTE was confirmed.
This condition is one that needs more research. Athletes need more neurological protection, and we must be looking for signs of CTE before it is too late. Following Tua, the concussion protocol in the NFL was upgraded, but that isn’t enough. Players need better protection on field, not excessive after care after an injury has already been sustained. There is still much to be done; football will continue its hold on the American public while making the imperative changes to its safety protocols and gear.
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