Upon retirement, many players have scientifically proven to suffer from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy or CTE. Former Linebacker, Junior Seau for the San Diego Chargers also suffered from CTE (Samson 159). CTE is commonly initiated by multiple head injuries, which leads to brain degeneration and dementia (McKee 169). Seau’s son Tyler claims his father exhibited “wild mood swings, irrationality, forgetfulness, insomnia and depression” (washingtontimes.com). Multiple former players have shown these same symptoms, and ultimately committed suicide. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) conducted blind brain studies on multiple brains, one of which included Seau’s brain. The findings on Seau’s brain were similar to people with multiple head injuries (washingtontimes.com). Therefore, there has been a decline in youth sports participation. During 2010 and 2012, there was a 6.7% decrease in kids playing Pop Warner Football (Fainaru 169). If these declines continue in the future, the amount of athletes playing NFL football will be
Upon retirement, many players have scientifically proven to suffer from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy or CTE. Former Linebacker, Junior Seau for the San Diego Chargers also suffered from CTE (Samson 159). CTE is commonly initiated by multiple head injuries, which leads to brain degeneration and dementia (McKee 169). Seau’s son Tyler claims his father exhibited “wild mood swings, irrationality, forgetfulness, insomnia and depression” (washingtontimes.com). Multiple former players have shown these same symptoms, and ultimately committed suicide. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) conducted blind brain studies on multiple brains, one of which included Seau’s brain. The findings on Seau’s brain were similar to people with multiple head injuries (washingtontimes.com). Therefore, there has been a decline in youth sports participation. During 2010 and 2012, there was a 6.7% decrease in kids playing Pop Warner Football (Fainaru 169). If these declines continue in the future, the amount of athletes playing NFL football will be