I interview applicants for my alma mater, Yale University. Parents frequently ask me what is the best way to get their sons accepted, and I answer unequivocally, "be a football star".It is ironic that in promoting American football, these bastions of intellectual achievement are directly contributing to the largest organizationally supported legal cause of brain damage to the youth of America Ryan Grant Jersey. Terry Bradshaw jokes aside, this is a real issue, and bears mentions at the start of the football season.
Today's article in the NYT is about the problem of head trauma in the NFL, and the statistics are pretty grim. Former NFL players have a Alzheimer's rate are increased 19 fold, as well as depression, cognitive loss and behavior changes. These statistics understate the problem dramatically.
Any head trauma, even if not enough to cause a concussion, can still result in irreversible damage to the brain. Minimal trauma is difficult to measure but accumulates over time. Occasionally actual lesions are seen in MRI's of the brain, and I saw quite a few in my career as a Radiologist Packers pro shop. The continued head blows, intrinsic to the game of football, can have a very negative long term cumulative impact.
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