Hernandez family suing Patriots because Hernandez had CTE

[PatriotsNumero1Fan]

the suit names his daughter...i imagine that most of any Award will go into a Trust for her...

That's the only person i feel sorry for.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

That's the only person i feel sorry for.

and, IMO, she's the only family member who should benefit from any Award.

 

[Ring 6]

and, IMO, she's the only family member who should benefit from any Award.

There shouldn't be any award.

 

[pctronics0072]

World's smallest violin and all that jazz.
I think their argument may be the supposed CTE predisposed him to committing suicide so wrongful death. Weak argument in my opinion because he had other depressive factors (like being in jail for life)

If they are suggesting he became a sociopath because of CTE, then it is going to be a science fight because they prolly have to prove occurence? Also, wouldn't his college be more to blame?

 

[PatriotsNumero1Fan]

World's smallest violin and all that jazz.
I think their argument may be the supposed CTE predisposed him to committing suicide so wrongful death. Weak argument in my opinion because he had other depressive factors (like being in jail for life)

If they are suggesting he became a sociopath because of CTE, then it is going to be a science fight because they prolly have to prove occurence? Also, wouldn't his college be more to blame?

He was a loose cannon way before he came into the nfl. I hope they don't receive a penny from the pats

 

[PatsFanSince74]

World's smallest violin and all that jazz.
I think their argument may be the supposed CTE predisposed him to committing suicide so wrongful death. Weak argument in my opinion because he had other depressive factors (like being in jail for life)

If they are suggesting he became a sociopath because of CTE, then it is going to be a science fight because they prolly have to prove occurence? Also, wouldn't his college be more to blame?

I think you're probably right on all fronts and that it's unlikely they will prevail...but one never knows what a Judge or Jury will find...if it gets that far.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

I strongly discouraged my (now 35 year old) son from football his entire life, even in college, when the coach tried to get him to walk on. He chose basketball and volleyball, and to this day has a great time playing volleyball in the city leagues around the country. And his brain works really well.

Ethical dilemma for me because I love the game but don't want anyone I know or care about to play it.

That's a very honest assessment.

One of my kids entered high school this year and told me over the summer that he wanted to try out for the football team...he played QB on his flag football team in Middle School and throws a nice spiral.

I figured that if I told him "No," he would stomp around and be a jerk until I gave in just to shut him up. So, I said something like, "Well, I don't think that's a great idea, but I'll say "Yes" if you convince me that you really want it. But, first I want you to research CTE [he's a science nerd] and write a two page essay making the case as to why I should give permission for you to play." He's super smart.

A couple of weeks later, he told me that he was going to try out for the Swim team and asked if I would finance some lessons over the summer so he could improve his technique. I breathed a sigh of relief and told him, "Of course, but where's the paper on CTE?" He answered, "I only had to spend a couple of hours on the Internet to figure out that Football was a bad idea."

Sometimes you just have to get lucky as a parent.

 

[primetime]

If he got it like that then everybody must have CTE playing right now. I still feel drugs played some part here.

Yeah, no, I think NFL players having CTE is the rule, not the exception. That's what a meta-analysis of all published CTE studies would suggest.

 

[DSting]

These CTE studies drive me crazy. They are poorly designed, but nobody seems to be calling them out for their design. The only real way to determine whether football causes CTE is to divide a group of kids, at a young age, evenly and have some play football and some not. It can not be by choice. Otherwise, you have no way of knowing if some kids choose football because they are more aggressive, love physical contact, have some anger, etc. That all seems obvious. Other kids choose cross country, and would be horrified at having to tackle, block and hit. Do the aggressive kid have different brain structure than cross country runners before they start playing football? We don't know because the studies don't measure this.

 

[primetime]

Just to be clear, the estate is suing for the NFL being complicit in his death, not in his criminal behavior. The latter would obviously come up during the case, but it's not the proximate charge being levied against the NFL.

 

[SalemPats]

These CTE studies drive me crazy. They are poorly designed, but nobody seems to be calling them out for their design. The only real way to determine whether football causes CTE is to divide a group of kids, at a young age, evenly and have some play football and some not. It can not be by choice. Otherwise, you have no way of knowing if some kids choose football because they are more aggressive, love physical contact, have some anger, etc. That all seems obvious. Other kids choose cross country, and would be horrified at having to tackle, block and hit. Do the aggressive kid have different brain structure than cross country runners before they start playing football? We don't know because the studies don't measure this.

geeky sportswriters who have never played sports love it

 

[primetime]

These CTE studies drive me crazy. They are poorly designed, but nobody seems to be calling them out for their design. The only real way to determine whether football causes CTE is to divide a group of kids, at a young age, evenly and have some play football and some not. It can not be by choice. Otherwise, you have no way of knowing if some kids choose football because they are more aggressive, love physical contact, have some anger, etc. That all seems obvious. Other kids choose cross country, and would be horrified at having to tackle, block and hit. Do the aggressive kid have different brain structure than cross country runners before they start playing football? We don't know because the studies don't measure this.

Everyone, and especially the researchers themselves, are aware of the limitations. What you propose is strictly impossible, by the way. Currently, a CTE diagnosis can only be rendered posthumously. So unless you're planning on killing your cohort of children at age 30 to pry open their skulls, you're just going to have to make do with relatively small n convenience samples of people who donated their dead brains.

I've said this before, though. Even if literally nobody else but the brains they had in the last study had CTE (in which they found like 95% had CTE), it would still represent about 10% of the NFL population who died during the period brains were collected. That's literally the bottom floor possible (it's probably several times higher), and even that is stunning, epidemic levels. By contrast, it presents in just a fraction of a percentage point of the non-football population.

 

[primetime]

CTE is a geeky writers dream.

Further proves the ****ification of our society

Everyone knows real men take their traumatic brain damage, suffer dementia at age 30 in silence, self-medicate with booze and opioids, break with reality, hit their wives, and shoot themselves. Damn millennials and their participation trophies.

 

[varjao]

Have to agree with Screamin A Smith

 

[Hercules Rockefeller]

Everyone knows real men take their traumatic brain damage, suffer dementia at age 30 in silence, self-medicate with booze and opioids, break with reality, hit their wives, and shoot themselves. Damn millennials and their participation trophies.

No no see we're being ****ified because taking steps to not become the broken shell of a man you describe is for wimps.

 

[Hercules Rockefeller]

Have to agree with Screamin A Smith

Transgressions, things of that nature!

 

[mb6592]

No no see we're being ****ified because taking steps to not become the broken shell of a man you describe is for wimps.

I know you’re being a wise ass, but you’re right it is for wimps. Or more accurately, trying to impose your wimpness on others through lawsuits, bans, shaming, is a real downer. Throughout history man has CHOSEN to engage in activities that have proven dangerous to their health (smoking, drinking, sports, mountain climbing, sky diving, extreme skiing, running with the bulls – I think you get the point). Why have we now become a society of studies, expert opinions, and mass hysteria seeking to take away an individual’s choice to engage in dangerous activities? If it’s for education, fine. If it’s to restrict individual choice, not fine. If it's to remove personal responsibility, not fine again.

 

[primetime]

I know you’re being a wise ass, but you’re right it is for wimps. Or more accurately, trying to impose your wimpness on others through lawsuits, bans, shaming, is a real downer. Throughout history man has CHOSEN to engage in activities that have proven dangerous to their health (smoking, drinking, sports, mountain climbing, sky diving, extreme skiing, running with the bulls – I think you get the point). Why have we now become a society of studies, expert opinions, and mass hysteria seeking to take away an individual’s choice to engage in dangerous activities? If it’s for education, fine. If it’s to restrict individual choice, not fine. If it's to remove personal responsibility, not fine again.

Participation in these activities generally decreases as awareness of the harmfulness increases (see Surgeon General's warning, etc.). There are trillion dollars industries dedicated to getting people to buy **** that's bad for them. High level athletes have financial incentives to play. The idea that you're making decisions without being compelled and with full information is just total fallacy.

The issue is the NFL sweeping the problems under a rug and actively fighting the science, not the activity itself. If people know football causes tremendous physical and mental trauma as a rule and still want to participate, that's on them. They don't now, though, and there's an active campaign to prevent them from doing so.

 

[Hercules Rockefeller]

I know you’re being a wise ass, but you’re right it is for wimps. Or more accurately, trying to impose your wimpness on others through lawsuits, bans, shaming, is a real downer. Throughout history man has CHOSEN to engage in activities that have proven dangerous to their health (smoking, drinking, sports, mountain climbing, sky diving, extreme skiing, running with the bulls – I think you get the point). Why have we now become a society of studies, expert opinions, and mass hysteria seeking to take away an individual’s choice to engage in dangerous activities? If it’s for education, fine. If it’s to restrict individual choice, not fine. If it's to remove personal responsibility, not fine again.

People can smoke all they want, play football, jump out of airplanes. I'm for education and information into those activities, which was being oddly ridiculed.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

Everyone, and especially the researchers themselves, are aware of the limitations. What you propose is strictly impossible, by the way. Currently, a CTE diagnosis can only be rendered posthumously. So unless you're planning on killing your cohort of children at age 30 to pry open their skulls, you're just going to have to make do with relatively small n convenience samples of people who donated their dead brains.

I've said this before, though. Even if literally nobody else but the brains they had in the last study had CTE (in which they found like 95% had CTE), it would still represent about 10% of the NFL population who died during the period brains were collected. That's literally the bottom floor possible (it's probably several times higher), and even that is stunning, epidemic levels. By contrast, it presents in just a fraction of a percentage point of the non-football population.

When you consider the emotional investment that millions of American fans have in football and the financial investment that Owners, Sponsors, Media, Municipalities (Stadium Bonds), Major Universities, Alumni Associations and even High Schools and smaller Colleges have in the sport, it's not surprising that advocates will twist themselves into pretzels to deny that CTE might just turn out to be as bad as it now seems it is after more comprehensive studies have been completed and, most importantly, when there is a reliable way to diagnose the disease in living persons.

In the meantime, nonsense lawsuits like this one distract from the underlying issues by making absurd claims in the case of a sociopath whose issues fairly clearly go way beyond his illness.