Welp, Aaron Hernandez had CTE...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/21/sports/aaron-hernandez-cte-brain.htm…
Apparently it was "one of the most severe cases anyone had ever seen," and he was only 27 at the time of his death. It certainly doesn't excuse his disgusting actions, but it may help explain why such a young guy with a bright future and all the money in the world seemed to like to murder people for fun?
September 21st, 2017 at 6:50 PM ^
This 100% this.
September 21st, 2017 at 9:02 PM ^
September 22nd, 2017 at 12:20 AM ^
September 22nd, 2017 at 8:31 AM ^
Everything you just said is unproven except in your own mind. You do know that in any given sample of people anywhere, in any group, that there will be bad people driven to do bad things, some of them with CTE or other mental problems right? It's called standard distribution.
September 21st, 2017 at 4:24 PM ^
September 21st, 2017 at 4:30 PM ^
This was an I Ferrari g article and certainly provides a piece to the bizarre puzzle that he was.
I'm not saying he's not a sociopath and a complete thug, but depending on how early he started playing football and receiving brain injuries, it could have exacerbated what was already a grim path for him. It certainly didn't give help him.
I get he's a criminal, but don't forget there is a root cause to everything.
September 21st, 2017 at 4:41 PM ^
September 21st, 2017 at 4:43 PM ^
September 21st, 2017 at 7:43 PM ^
September 22nd, 2017 at 5:17 AM ^
For the record, I played football and many other contact sports, and tended to get into fist fights as a kid. I've had 6 diagnosed concussions, and probably more undiagnosed. My coaches used me as a human battering ram, and at 14-18 years old, I didn't know any better. I continued to partake in sports that left my head vulnerable until 29.
I'm not a murderer or gangbanger, but I sure as hell am concerned about what lies ahead for me. I can't for certain link my attention issues and severe depression to the trauma, but the more I hear, the more it makes sense.
Thank god I have daughters, as I'd be a complete fool to let my sons play football. No way would I chance the suffering that I've endured over the years.
I'll continue to watch, as it brings back some nostalgia for me, but I do watch less and less each year. To the point where I really only watch Michigan because it reminds me of Saturday's spent with my father. Otherwise, football is no longer for me.
Please share your angry opinion again.
September 22nd, 2017 at 5:33 AM ^
Very well put.
Not everyone that suffers closed-head injuries becomes a serial killer. Indeed, a only a very tiny percentage of them do.
However, an overwhelming percentage of serial killers suffered closed-head injuries and most in their youth while their brains were still developing (I've seen estimates above 90%, but the data is partial and incomplete at best, given that many serial killers are, um, difficult to interview and study).
So no, closed-head injuries don't excuse this kind of behavior, nor do they fully explain it. Nor should we imprison everyone that has suffered a closed-head injury in their youth "just to be safe". But in terms of a "highly suggestive" correlation, and undoubtedly in combination with other factors (sexual abuse during youth, other enormous emotional traumas, etc.), you cannot ignore this as a potential cause of this kind of behavior...
September 22nd, 2017 at 5:33 AM ^
September 21st, 2017 at 4:25 PM ^
so did 99% of the people that were in that recent large study....how many of them were murderers?
September 21st, 2017 at 4:30 PM ^
Everybody murders...
September 21st, 2017 at 4:42 PM ^
But most of us, at least those of us inside my head, keep it quiet. It's the adverse publicity that should concern us. In here.
/s a cereal killer
September 21st, 2017 at 6:04 PM ^
September 21st, 2017 at 4:30 PM ^
A) No.
B) That 99% statistic has severe selection bias.
September 21st, 2017 at 4:29 PM ^
1) The characterization of the severity, per the article, comes from Hernandez's (and Casey Anthony's) lawyer, Jose Baez. Those words are not directly from the researchers.
2) The finding of CTE does not attribute a cause. Yes, Aaron Hernandez stopped playing football at age 23 (24?), but that does not mean head trauma ceased. Reportedly, AH was in many violent fights in prison.
3) AH's sociopathic behavior was alledgedly dated all the way back to his freshman year in college.
September 21st, 2017 at 5:26 PM ^
All valid points, but he probably played football for up to 10 years, if not more. Based on what we do know, that football can cause CTE, it is a safe assumption that some of that damage was probably caused by football.
September 21st, 2017 at 4:34 PM ^
September 21st, 2017 at 4:35 PM ^
September 21st, 2017 at 4:35 PM ^
I want to say that I am admittedly an idiot and am no expert on medical diagnoses. With that said, is it correct that there is no way to monitor CTE in a living person? Also, it seems like everyone who has donated their brain has been found to have CTE with alarmingly few exceptions. How do we know that CTE doesn't occur postmortem? I am legitimately curious and am not constructing my own theories (yet). It has always been obvious to me that playing football carries with it risks toward ones health, and you can never have enough info.
September 21st, 2017 at 7:51 PM ^
September 21st, 2017 at 4:36 PM ^
But feel worse for families of murder victims killed by a DB.
September 21st, 2017 at 4:39 PM ^
I feel like Dave Brandon murdered my soul, but who did he murder literally?
September 21st, 2017 at 4:47 PM ^
Joined Toyz R Us so that he could take away toys from little children and crush their souls too. I read that on the webz.
September 21st, 2017 at 5:18 PM ^
September 21st, 2017 at 5:33 PM ^
Moral bankruptcy, bankrupt emotions ... in actuality, the problems with that business were entrenched long before Dave showed up at the helm.
September 21st, 2017 at 11:49 PM ^
September 21st, 2017 at 4:42 PM ^
I think the data will one day show that some brains are very vulnerable to CTE or the negative effects of it. But most are not.
September 21st, 2017 at 8:30 PM ^
September 21st, 2017 at 9:16 PM ^
September 22nd, 2017 at 10:14 AM ^
That there is an "I like football" gene? hahahahahahahahahahahahah
what the fuck are you talking about?!
September 22nd, 2017 at 11:26 AM ^
September 22nd, 2017 at 12:49 PM ^
September 21st, 2017 at 4:45 PM ^
But I'm also of the mind that at some point actual structural damage to someones brain might relieve them of culpability for their actions.
I mean say one day you have a whole and healthy brain and you act one way and the next day portions of that brain are simply dead and now you're acting differently and so much so that it's to your detriment. I think it would be a pretty dick move for someone who was aware of your disability to hold you as responsible for the actions you took on day two as they would have on day one.
September 21st, 2017 at 5:02 PM ^
Having CTE would make it harder for him to do his own taxes.
The condition of his brain doesn't indicate any cause for criminal activity and killing people.
That's not a definitive diagnosis, but it does recall the proven statement: Association does not necessarily indicate correlation.
Or to put it another way: There are plenty of criminals who never played football.
September 21st, 2017 at 5:15 PM ^
I'm not a neurology expert by any means, but I am a clincian at an inpatient psychiatry facility, so there's a little overlap in my education.
CTE has been shown to cause atrophy/loss of matter in areas of the brain that are associated with decision making, implusivity, and behavioral/personality changes. So a person with CTE would have an impaired ability to control their emotions, and think rationally before making a decision/taking action. Not saying that Hernandez isn't still guilty because obviously he is, but I wouldn't write off the possibility that the CTE played a heavy component in it as well.
September 21st, 2017 at 7:08 PM ^
I respect your observations regarding Aaron Hernandez. Those could certainly be contributing factors.
However, since he was engaged in violence and criminal activity as a teenager, I would suspect early developmental experience was the primary causative factor in his subsequent behavior.
I'm sure we can agree, these things can be connected in complex ways you and I can only guesstimate from our distant perspective.
In any case, God rest his soul.
September 21st, 2017 at 6:00 PM ^
What about Junior Seau, Dave Duerson and the guy who shot himself in Kansas City? I don't know much about their stories. Were they suffering from extreme depression caused by the CTE and that precipitated their suicides? Or did the CTE cause them to have poor judgment - irrational judgment - and killing themselves was a product of that?
September 21st, 2017 at 4:58 PM ^
I don’t know the science but could it be that CTE can develop without head trauma? Why could it not be that people that have severe mental health issues actually is cause by CTE? Can CTE really only happen because of banging one’s head? This is not something we can monitor in the living but how much analysis has been done on someone that has mental health issues but never played sports? I agree football would not have helped the condition, but what if he had the condition without football? This is me just thinking out loud but this raises more questions than anything else.
September 21st, 2017 at 5:07 PM ^
Brain studies at autopsy in mental illness and other neurodegenerative dieases have been studied as well, and experts are confident enough to say the pathophysiology/presentation is markedly different. So there is something that causes CTE that does not seem to have a high coorelation to the brain pathology of other mental illnesses or neurodegenerative diseases.
There are definitely some similarities in the sense that a lot of those disease have decreased brain volume, and neurotransmitter imbalances, but the areas where those abnormalities happen appears to be different.
September 21st, 2017 at 5:16 PM ^
thank you for the information. These extreme cases just seem like more is at play but maybe just like anything some people can be more sensitive to the trama then others. And that compiled with a natural occuring and unrelated metal illness and it gives that individual little hope.
September 21st, 2017 at 5:03 PM ^
I feel like if there were any real link between CTE and Hernandez being a murdering gangbanger, more football players would be murdering gangbangers. Instead all we have besides Hernandez is Rae Carruth and possibly Ray Lewis.
September 21st, 2017 at 5:05 PM ^
September 21st, 2017 at 7:23 PM ^
Some definitely kill themselves...and that counts. How can you say killing someone else isn't an extension of that? The behavioral issues are just not that well understood yet.
September 21st, 2017 at 10:58 PM ^
September 21st, 2017 at 5:26 PM ^
Aaron Hernandez was a total aggressive douche. I have a feeling he had a few concussions from bare knuckle fights as well. I don't know his home life but was he maybe beaten as a kid? Or commonly got into fights as one?
September 21st, 2017 at 5:56 PM ^