I wasn't really sure where to put this, so please move if it belongs elsewhere.

I've always loved football and the NFL since I was a kid going to Oilers games cheering on Warren Moon (long story). But as more information on links between brain injury to football and other sports with collisions has become more apparent, I've often felt ambivalent of spending so much time and money on a entertainment business that likely will cause major health effects for many the players I appreciate and root for on and off the field. These feelings only furthered as I have progressed with my medical career.

So a few years ago, I made the decision to help support CTE research and donate money to the cause, as my own research interests have gone in a different direction.

I only recently realized that I am probably not alone with facing this dilemma, and that some other members of the board may be in a similar situation. So I figured, I would pass on the information of the research group that I donate to, the Boston University’s Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) Center at https://www.bu.edu/cte/. The donation page is https://www.bu.edu/cte/financial-support/ if you are having trouble finding it on the website.


Sorry, if this is a bit a downer or comes off as a guilt trip. That is not my intent. I'm not trying to make people donate or anything. Just passing on the information for anyone who has wondered about this, but was not sure how to go about it.

---

Ok. Do you feel the same with people who smoke? Over eat? Because here is the thing... These people, athletes(CTE), smokers(cancer), and fatties(diabetes) all have in common - consent. Players voluntarily choose to play in the NFL knowing full well, even before CTE was a known thing, that permanent injury to their body, not just their head, is very likely in this sport. Just like the human chimney or garbage disposal, they should know their actions left unchanged will inevitably return to harm them at some point in the future.

I get it, we want these players be safe, but at what cost to the sport itself? These dudes could easily choose a career that's less hazardous than ramming your body into another body going 15-20 mph. If I were you, I'd stop viewing these guys like they're kidnap victims, they know the consequences of ramming their heads and bodies into players.

There is also this, which shows just how controversial CTE research really is, and why some ex players were/are skeptical of the entire thing. There are numerous articles and reports of credentialed medical experts who are also skeptical of the science behind CTE.

https://sports.yahoo.com/op-ed-one-flawe...49666.html

https://www.boston.com/sports/sports-new...ll-and-cte

---

There's a few posters around here that I would donate to the research, preferably alive.

---

“An empty vessel makes the loudest sound, so they that have the least wit are the greatest babblers.”. - Plato

This is like saying a person who enlisted in the military post 9/11 shouldn't because of the almost guaranteed possibility of being deployed and being either KIA, seriously injured physically and/or mentally injured, or something else. Especially when we were super active in OIF/OEF.

These dudes choose to play a dangerous sport just as our troops choose to enlist. I can't say it doesn't bother me when I see some truly bone crushing hits, but they made their choice. And I love watching good football.

---