Editorial on the Concussion Crisis

UC Press has published my editorial with Matt Ventresca, which provides a commentary about recent events related to concerns about Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) and overview of our new book, Violent Impacts: How Power and Inequality Shape the Concussion Crisis.

The full text is available through the UC Press website. Here is a preview:

Traumatic Brain Injury is Much Bigger than a Sports “Concussion Crisis”

This past July, mere days after the start of National Football League (NFL) training camps, a tragic shooting in New York City put the connection between football and brain injury back in the national spotlight. Shane Tamura, a 27-year-old Las Vegas casino worker who played high school football in California, walked into the Manhattan office building where the NFL headquarters is housed and fatally shot four people—Aland Etienne, Julia Hyman, Didarul Islam, and Wesley LePatner. He then took his own life. 

Tamura was carrying a note criticizing the league for giving insufficient warning to its players about the dangers of brain injury. Tamura’s note also requested that his brain be studied for evidence of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), the neurodegenerative brain disease caused by repetitive head impacts that has been diagnosed in the brains of over 350 dead NFL players. It was a stark reminder of how the relationship between traumatic brain injury (TBI) and football is a hallmark of what has come to be known as sports’ “concussion crisis.”

With greater public awareness of the concussion crisis, discussions about players’ neurological health have often accompanied the beginning of the NFL and college football season. This year, Nsini Umoh, director of the National Institute of Health’s (NIH) traumatic brain injury research program, has published an op-ed declaring, “NFL players, fans are getting serious about CTE. At NIH, we are, too.” Umoh describes advances in CTE science that will improve diagnostic tools and develop potential treatments. Yet the aftermath of the New York shooting has loomed over both the start of football season and Umoh’s words encouraging scientific progress.