Junior Seau Had Chronic Brain Damage [NoeBrainer]

Former NFL linebacker Junior Seau committed suicide last May.  It turns out that Seau suffered from CTE, a disease associated with repeated head trauma.

It’s extremely sad that Junior Seau died at the young age of 43.  Seau committed suicide by shooting himself in the chest on May 2, 2012.  Brain specialists that were consulted by the National Institutes of Health concluded that Seau had Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) after examining his brain.

Many people blame the NFL solely for this tragic outcome.  The NFL simply isn’t totally at fault here.  The NFL is an extremely violent game.  If a player has a 20-year NFL career, he is going to involved in thousands of collisions.  Only specialists like kickers and punters are in a position to avoid repeated head trauma.

Without fail, people will find a way to blame the NFL for stories like this.  There might be a few callers on “The Noe Show” today that do the same thing.  There is absolutely no way to guarantee that players will not be at risk of suffering from a degenerative brain disease if they play in the NFL for a long period of time.  Not unless the game is altered so much that it doesn’t even resemble football anymore.  Let’s not act like there is.

Brian Noe is the Brand Manager at 104.5 The Team, ESPN Radio in Albany, NY.  Brian also hosts “The Noe Show” weekdays from 1-3 pm ET on WTMM.