BOSTON — The degenerative brain disease that has besieged the National Football League for two decades with a billion-dollar lawsuit, congressional hearings, an A-list movie and an unrelenting cortege of ex-players’ obituaries has now intruded on America’s favorite sport in the most violent manner yet.
The Las Vegas casino worker who killed four people in a New York City skyscraper that is home to the NFL’s headquarters carried a note blaming the league for his mental health problems.
Shane Tamura, 27, who played football in high school, said in a three-page note found in his wallet that he had chronic traumatic encephalopathy — diagnosable only after death — and implored those who found him: “Study my brain.” Among his grievances against the NFL was a claim that the league put its profits ahead of player safety by concealing the harm CTE, and football, can cause.
Echoing an eerie trend in NFL player suicides, he shot himself in the chest, preserving his brain for an autopsy that could confirm whether his layman’s diagnosis was correct.
Dr. Michael Alosco is the co-director of clinical research at Boston University’s CTE Center.
“I think, in this situation, we need to be careful about attributing it to any one cause,” said Alosco. “It starts a national discussion about what is CTE.”
He added, “Mental illness is also very common, and mental illness can be treated and managed, and that is important to know.”
His department is working to diagnose CTE cases while patients are alive. Now, they are only able to diagnose it when they are dead.
He finished, “It provides insight, but at the same time, you’re still left with a lot of questions about what exactly is causing these behaviors.”
Dr. Varsha Radhakrishnan, a psychologist at Tufts Medical, works with people in mental crisis daily.
“It’s not a normal case by any means,” she said Tuesday. “I always wonder was there any concern for an acute manic episode or psychotic episode in the middle of everything.”
She said CTE could cause behavioral changes like agitation and violence.
A degenerative brain disease that has been linked to concussions and other head trauma common in military combat and contact sports, CTE has been diagnosed in more than 100 former NFL players and arisen as an existential threat to the United States’ most powerful pro sports league.
Its dangers have led some states to consider banning youth football, prompted leagues at most levels to limit contact drills in practice, and spawned a series of concussion protocols and other rule changes designed to take the most violent edges off the hard-hitting sport.
ocal football programs like the Mattapan Patriots are once again met with the CTE national discussion that’s grown over the last decade.
Their president Mick Brunache said it’s something he tackles daily.
“Safety is always our number one concern,” he said. “These kids know how to use their shoulders, their hips. They know how to get low and protect themselves.”
His program begins as flag football for kids 6 and under. Once in pads, their practice days in gear have been limited.
He says conversations with parents about kids’ safety is common. Brunache’s goal is to use football as a springboard for kids to get into local, private institutions on scholarships.
“Football is a carrot for these kids,” he said. “We do want to keep these kids brains safe because our priority is to make these kids scholars.”
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Associated Press writers Maryclaire Dale and Laura Ungar contributed to this story.
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