Football’s Young Victims

from The New York Times I'm Michael. borro this is the. [Music]. daily they started playing football as. young as 6 years old they died in their. teens and 20s with. CTE today my colleague John branch on. the growing body of evidence that a.

disease many believed was reserved for. professional athletes is also afflicting. young. [Music]. [Applause]. [Music]. amateurs it's Tuesday December. [Music]. 19th John we wanted to talk to you.

because you have spent many years trying. to understand what's been happening to. the brains of athletes who play contact. Sports and you have been talking to. researchers who study those brains and. those researchers recently told you. about a major new discovery so tell us. about that yeah so what we're talking. about when we're talking about brain. damage in contact Sports athletes is CTE. which stands for chronic traumatic. enop and what this is It's the brain. disease progress of brain disease caused.

by concussions and hits to the head and. for the most part CTE has been connected. with at least in terms of the public. perception aging football players Hall. of Fame style football players you know. Ken sta the Earl morals people like. Junior SEO there are now 300 and some. former NFL players who have been poly. diagnosed with CTE but what's new now is. that for the first time these. researchers have gathered this growing.

subset of young brains of young people. people under the age of 30 into a. profound. study and it shows you know things that. we knew or suspected but it puts it in. very in very Stark terms young athletes. even teenagers as young as 17 years old. are getting CTE and feeling the effects. of it wow and these researchers at. Boston University have found cases of CT. in more than 60 brains of young athletes. who have died some of them were really. Advanced cas.

which is genuinely startling right I. mean that would seem to completely. change how we think about the very idea. of CTE yeah I think where this changes. the mindset for us is this is afflicting. people who are just in high school who. are maybe just in college who had no. aspirations to go to the pros you know. these are people who starting from a. really young age suffer the same kinds. of symptoms that we've seen in the Pro. players things like memory loss and. impulse control insomnia they're having. troubles with substance abuse and severe.

depression and sometimes ultimately even. suicide H and once John you absorb this. new research and the implications of it. what do you do with all that we wanted. to go talk to some of these families. whose children had been part of this. data group you know these are families. who have watched their child decline for. reasons they couldn't explain and they. now have information that tells them a. little bit more about what might have. been.

behind those confusing years all those. signs that they couldn't make sense of. and we wanted to understand how they. processed that new information knowing. now what that answer might be and which. of those families stands out to you well. there are several all right well thank. you both but I would say that the family. of Hunter forre. um let's start chronologically tell me. about his parents Bill and Kim for.

still really stick with me of our life. in 1992 Hunter was born in. May why the name. Hunter bill came up with that name Bill. can you tell us why it was a Colorado e. and as it turned out it was perfect for. him Hunter was a kid who grew up in. Colorado and when I went to visit his. parents they really reminisced about how. great his childhood was we lived in the.

mountains we had a chocolate lab named. Hershey and we hiked every day we Str. how much he loved the outdoors fishing. hunting um skiing how much time they. spent skiing and hiking and doing things. up in the mountains Hunter was. definitely a Colorado boy. yeah his parents described him as quiet. but also very mature never a. troublemaker and when he was 7 years.

old he began to play tackle. [Music]. football the name of the team was. cougars and Bill was the. coach get go hunter go go go go his. father Bill thought the best thing to do.

would be to coach my own child to teach. him the game to teach him how to play it. safely I was concerned if he was going. to play a a contact sport like football. that I was there to. supervise good. job and so he coached his son all the. way until his son got up to high school. he was lights out he he excelled I mean.

at levels that they'd never seen before. in a kid that young in high school he. becomes a star at Mullen High School. which is one of the big Powerhouse. football programs in Denver and sometime. in his mid- teens was it during his. sophomore summer yeah Hunter sustained a. concussion a pretty serious concussion. he I never knew during the scrimmage I I. knew he was you know acting a little. different but uh nothing alarming um he.

he was woozy afterward seemed to have. shaken it off the way a lot of kids do. mhm but on the way home that day he. started to vomit he threw up in the. car the for Acres then took him to the. hospital and then to his pediatrician. his pediatrician looked him over and he. said Hunter you're a big kid you're. tough you got your bell wrong go get him. you're going to be an.

All-American in other words go back to. the football field go back to the. football field and that's exactly what. Hunter. does he becomes the captain of the. football team his Junior and Senior year. that football team goes on to win a. State title and Hunter is a an all state. player but you know off the field there. were some challenges uh some of them. felt like normal high SCH stuff to the.

fouracres and some of them didn't. especially in hindsight there were some. signs of him getting a bit of a temper. he began to drink a little bit and you. know a lot of kids do how big of a. concern is it he was also having. nightmares he had horrible nightmares. and I asked him to please explain to me. these nightmares and he said they are so. effing bad I cannot begin to tell you. what they are and so he started getting. some therapy and they thought he was. okay you know he's doing well in school.

he's playing well in football but hunter. was not the type of person who thought. he would ever go professional I think. football to Hunter meant a way to a. higher education you know a lot of these. kids might dream of the NFL that was not. really his dream his dream was actually. for the best education possible and so. he saw football as potentially a useful. tool to get him into a better school and. he fell in love with Dartmouth and sure. enough that's where he went because. Dartmouth in New hampsh reminded him a.

lot of Colorado with the mountains and. the outdoor activities and what happens. to Hunter once he gets to Dartmouth yeah. so he plays on the JB team his freshman. year and does very well and then during. training campus sophomore year he has. another serious concussion and it took. him about a week and a half to really. fully recover um he was foggy he would. report um serious headaches um and he. was really uncomfortable with the way. concussions were handled Hunter told his. parents he had seen some of his other.

teammates with concussions and saw how. they hurried back despite having. symptoms and then I remember having a. conversation with him that it scared him. to death that he's witnessed other. football players on his team that have. had concussions and he knows it and they. would just go right back in um and he. said you know what this is not for me. this is not really the reason why I'm. here I'm here to get an education and he. quit football so he understood these. hits he had been taking as accumulating.

to something that he no longer wanted to. be a part of that's right and what. happens once he walks away well he. continues there at Dartmouth focuses on. his studies and actually graduates with. a double major in environmental science. and anthropology and he stays at. Dartmouth to work for the alumni. relations department from Bill and Kim's. perspective he seemed to be doing okay. but there were some worrying signs some. of the issues that they had seen in. previous years from him seemed to be. intensifi fine he seemed to be drinking.

more and more his nightmares seem to be. getting worse he started to talk a. little bit about loneliness and. depression which they accounted to the. fact that he was still a Dartmouth While. most of his friends from the. undergraduate years had moved on and. then they get a call and he said um Mom. and Dad I'm so sorry I really effed up. and we were like what did you do cuz. this kid was never in trouble and he. goes well I I drank too much I ended up.

at Hitchcock Hunter was at Dartmouth. Hitchcock hospital and they told him he. was an alcoholic that's where he first. got. labeled so he spent a year or so you. know rehab detox rehab detox in and out. of rehab in and out of detox it was just. the circle drinking became a bigger and. bigger. problem I know the nightmares were. horrible and he was just trying to. survive I think that is part of the.

reason he was binge drinking was to get. those thoughts out of his mind to clear. those thoughts what do his parents think. is happening at this point how are they. making sense of what he's going through. well it's impossible right because. they're trying to make sense of small. Clues phone calls and notes things they. hear you know he's not living with them. so it's hard for them to know at one. point Hunter told him that he had been. diagnosed as bipolar and with de and. anxiety and he had been given.

medications his weight had dropped by at. least 50 lb he was just skinny no muscle. tone unshaven. unkept you know those were alarming. science test that something was wrong. with him but at the time we were still. hearing from the professionals that he. is an alcoholic and this must just be. what happens to one's body.

and then they got a call one day one. winter when they had not heard from him. for a few days and he was supposedly on. a ski trip in Colorado and found out. that Hunter had had attempted. suicide he had um tried to drink himself. to death his intoxication level was the. highest they had ever found a person to. be and they could not believe that he. was still. alive.

and at that point Hunter goes back into. rehab and into counseling but after a. few weeks he seems to be better things. seem to be clicking for him he had. cleaned up he was freshly shaven he had. a nice haircut he had on new clothes. that fit him nicely and we thought oh. he's sober he's on the right track he. put back on yeah he's turned a corner. he's you know just to kind of point out. you know how this went back and forth. and just just as soon as you think. things are getting really dark now you.

start to see the light and you start. thinking maybe he's moving forward maybe. this is a positive step here he actually. got a job a good job in Dallas and so. Kim and the couple's daughter helped. move Hunter into an apartment in Dallas. he seemed so happy um the old Hunter he. was just the old Hunter and we were. thrilled for him and they left there and. went back home thinking hunter in a. really good place whatever all that was.

he seems to have worked his way through. it mm but a few days later he stopped. answering. [Music]. texts so Thursday we tried to get a hold. of. him no answer couldn't reach him Friday. called him you know hey can let's less. FaceTime let's Skype texting no. answer and over the course of a weekend.

by Sunday I was I was frantic Monday. morning over the top they couldn't get a. hold of him and finally called the. police to do a wellness check finally. hours. later we get a call we got to call back. that was that was. it that was. it and they found that Hunter had shot. himself that he had taken his own life.

hm the worst news you ever want to. [Music]. hear you know the worst news you ever. want to hear you lost your. [Music]. child so after the police find Hunter.

the local coroner goes to the apartment. and notices all the football helmets. that Hunter. has and calls the family and says have. you considered donating your son's brain. for research the corner obviously. understands there's a connection between. football and brain disease and the. fouracre family would not considered. this turned around at that moment and. said yeah yeah we're desperate for. answers we want to what happened to. Hunter and if this helps us understand.

it then by all means let's donate his. brain so Hunter's brain ends up in. Massachusetts at the same brain bank. that has examined the brains of all. these famous football players um. hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of. brains and the researchers then call Kim. and Bill and. say your son had stage two CTE out of a. four stage scale severe case of CTE. especially for somebody that age. and then we started asking questions of.

course what exactly does that mean you. know what are the symptoms and then she. started telling us and it and then it. just came together and it was like. that's that was Hunter that's exactly. his actions his Chang in his lifestyle. his everything it just started coming. together and so in some ways they were. relieved they had an answer for what had. happened to their son all these. inexplicable things that he had been.

going through the last few years now. suddenly kind of made sense they could. be explained in some. way but it also struck them with a hard. piece of guilt because they're the ones. who put him into. football you know how could we have let. our. child get harmed to that point how could. we have. ever have let Hunter in a sport that. damaged his brain to a point that gave.

him stage two CTE I mean that is. something an NFL player has and I. feel a tremendous amount of. guilt because I was there coaching the. whole. time.

[Music]. we'll be right. [Music]. back.

John I want to better understand the. research at the heart of this reporting. that you have been doing and you. mentioned it briefly at the beginning of. our conversation the work of these. researchers at Boston University who've. been studying the brains of people like. Hunter for acre so take us more deeply. inside of that research and into its. specific. findings yeah so this study is focused. on brains of young athletes under the. age of 30 and since 2008 between 2008.

and 2022 they collected 152 of them and. what they have to do is to take them. into a lab and they literally slice them. into really thin sheets and put them. underneath the microscope and what. they're looking for is the buildup of. what they call tow proteins and what tow. proteins do basically is is tangle the. neurons in the brains not unlike what we. see with older people who have uh. Dementia or Alzheimer's so the. researchers take a look at slices of the.

brains from the 152 samples that they. have of people under 30 years old and. they find CTE in 63 of those brains wow. a little bit more than 40% of them had. CTE that's a lot yeah it sounds like a. staggering number I think surprised even. the researchers now we have to be clear. that this is a biased sample people are. donating these brains because they are. looking for answers so it's a no way to. suggest that 40% of kids who play. football or anything else are going to.

have CTE but yeah more than 40% of the. brains that they had had CTE among those. are athletes who were as young as 17. years old 18 year olds with very severe. cases of CTE as bad as many of these NFL. football players and Hall of Famers that. we've been talking about and it crosses. a lot of sports we typically associate. this with football and that's where most. of these brains came from were the. families of football players but there. were other sports as well hockey soccer. boxers an equestrian athlete rugby these.

are all contact sports that are now. seeing increasing numbers of people with. CTE including young people with CTE. something you just said seems a little. hard to wrap your head around which is. that there are cases where these young. athletes have CTE that is as serious as. professional athletes which is very. counterintuitive I mean even a young. athlete who plays football for a long. time time doesn't evoke the kind of hits.

that I think of when I think of. professional football so how do the. researchers come to understand that yeah. I mean this is all part of the nasty. trick of trying to figure out what CTE. is and who gets it and why researchers. don't know why somebody is more apt to. get it why somebody is more apt to get. more severe cases of CTE Michael you and. I could have the same career you and I. could play football through our youth. and into the pros for 20 years I may. have a severe case of CTE you show no.

signs whatsoever and part of the. difficulty of this is that this does not. just involve concussions that we see on. TV every Sunday where somebody is is. maybe knocked out and carded off the. field CTE is the product of. subconcussive hits as well and. subconcussive hits are those hits that. maybe don't even register to the person. who's absorbing them certainly not to. anybody else who's watching if you think. about the in the NFL or in football the. offensive linemen and defensive linemen. are banging heads every single play. right CTE they believe is basically the.

accumulation of the total force that. you're taking that force can be in. several big hits or it can be thousands. of little ones and so what you're. talking about with kids is when you're. putting them into football at the ages. of six or seven those hits add up so. according to this theory about. subconcussive hits in the case of. someone like Hunter what ultimately. mattered to his CTE might not have been. those two big big concussions he. suffered one in high school one in.

college it may have been ultimately. countless smaller hits he took over his. career that he didn't even notice all. the way back to when he was in pewe. football that's exactly right I mean his. family knows of two big concussions they. don't know if Hunter had a lot of other. ones he never owned up to they don't. know if he had a lot of ones that maybe. he thought were just minor hits that he. felt and maybe made him feel weird for a. day or two and they certainly don't know. how many thousands and thousands are. whatever the total might be hits he took. in every single practice from the age of.

seven through the first year or second. year at Dartmouth in college but you. know that's 10 or 12 years or more of. football and being hit in the head a lot. of times Well given that reality what do. these researchers say about the overall. safety of any version of Youth contact. sport especially football but really any. of the sports that we've been talking. about here yeah the researchers say.

essentially don't do it are they That. explicit yeah they believe that you know. look in this country we're not going to. stop the hits in the NFL and at this. point we're probably not going to stop. them in college and maybe even in high. school in some of these communities that. are are you know worship Taco football. but one thing they believe we can do is. to stop letting kids from the ages of. five or six or seven or eight hit. themselves in the head up until at least. they're in high school so their. recommendation is anybody under say the. age of or anybody before they get to. high school should not be playing tackle.

football if it really truly is an issue. of number of years of exposure to hits. we know most people are not going to go. play in college very few people are ever. going to play in the pros so how much. CTE could we eliminate by just. eliminating them. tackling when they're young in other. words limit the exposure to the four. years of high school for most people. which is a lot of years potentially of. brain damage but it's fewer than if a. kid starts when they're five or six.

that's exactly right I'm curious are. these recommendations are they focus. just on football or do they extend to. other youth contact Sports there are now. other sports that are certainly more. aware of concussions and even. subconcussive hits and an example might. be soccer where a lot of the youth. leagues now are Banning heading of the. of the soccer ball because soccer. players now have been shown to have CTE. well they're not hitting each other like. football players on every play where. they're getting a lot of their hits are. from just heading the ball and that's a.

subconcussive hit and now we know there. might actually be long-term. ramifications to that right John you had. mentioned that Hunter's parents when. they learned of his diagnosis of. CTE looked back at his time as a player. with a lot of guilt how have the parents. of the other young athletes in this. study who were also diagnosed with CTE. handled that news and what did they tell. you about how they now think about. football and what their kids were.

doing yeah there's certainly a lot of. family that are on board with the idea. that young kids should not play football. at least to a certain age and they. regret what they had their kids do but. not everybody in fact we talked to a. couple families who are still deeply. involved in football one of them who. lost their son the father is the head. football coach at University of Maryland. he believes football does so many good. things for kids that even though his own. son had CTE. he is still involved at the highest.

level of the game the 18-year-old who. had stage two his parents say if they. had it to do over again he would still. play football H that's going to be hard. for some listeners to wrap their heads. around the idea that a parent whose kid. is diagnosed with CTE. ously doesn't regret them playing. football and doesn't want to discourage. anybody else from playing football yeah. I think for a lot of people it seems. simple right but it's complicated and. it's compated for these families who are.

going through you know the worst thing. that any of us could ever imagine right. the tricky part of this is that CTE is. there's not a straight line between CTE. and you know the ultimate death of your. child some families will say look I know. CTE maybe had some factors in the. decline of my child but he was going. through a lot there were some other. mental health issues there were changes. in his own life I can't draw a straight. line between what happened to him and. CTE and so I wouldn't want to take away.

what gave my son so much joy that for. all those years growing up those are the. best times in his life and if I can't. necessarily say that that's exactly why. he's not here anymore then why would I. take that. away there's. something I think ultimately very sad. about the way we got to this entire. conversation John which. is as you said you can't diagnose CTE. when somebody's alive the only way we.

get here is because so many young people. suffered so much that many of them took. their own lives donated their brains to. these scientists in Boston therefore it. feels like the only way we're going to. keep getting a deeper understanding of. this is through the death of more and. more young. athletes yeah I mean unfortunately the. the brain banks are are going to grow. with the brains of young athletes I. think it's it's just the fact that CTE. is just mysterious enough and intangible.

enough that people are able to sort of. ignore it and think you know what it's. probably not going to happen to my kid. and I'm not going to be the one that. pulls him off the football field because. of some fear that is probably. unrealistic but as we found out from. these families it is realistic and there. is a cultural awareness now that didn't. used to exist probably didn't exist 10. years ago in that even kids today and. certainly families today increasingly.

are aware of concussion issues and CTE. one of the families that we spend time. with was the family of Wyatt brownwell. he took his life at the age of 18 and. had stage two CTE a very severe case of. CTE the worst that they have seen in. somebody so. young hello so what this is this is me. explaining what's wrong with me um but. moments before he took his own life he. recorded a video in his car explaining. his. my head is pretty messed up and.

damaged to be sent to family and L ones. but the voices and demons in my head. just started to take over everything I. wanted to do cuz my life for the past. four years has been living hell inside. of my head and he says it's all because. of football I took a lot of hits through. football a lot of hits through football. took a lot of concussions and a lot of. times and all the concussions that he. took including the ones that he never. told anybody.

[Music]. about Dad I know you're capable of doing. this and I want you to do it his last. request is to his father after my. funeral which will be an open casket I. want my brain donated to be studied I I. feel like it'll be closure for me and. it'll be closure for you guys to know. that maybe Wyatt suffered from brain. damage Maybe that was the reason so do. that for yourself I would like that to.

be. [Music]. [Music]. done basically Wyatt was predicting his. own. CTE and he was absolutely. [Music]. right.

[Music]. well John thank you very much we. appreciate. it thank. [Music]. you we'll be right. back.

here's what else you need to know. today on Monday Pope Francis gave. priests permission to bless same-sex. couples his boldest step yet to make the. Roman Catholic Church more welcoming to. lgbtq Catholics it was a major about. phase for the church which has long. argued that any official approval of. same-sex couples amounted to blessing a. sin but the church stopped short of.

allowing priests to marry gay couples. which remains. forbidden and the governor of Texas. Republican Greg Abbott has signed a law. that permits Texas police to arrest. migrants who illegally enter the state. from Mexico setting up a legal Showdown. with the federal government Abbott said. that such arrests are needed to allow. Texas to reduce illegal Crossings into. the state which exceeded 60,000 over the.

past year but according to Democrats and. immigration activists it would violate. the US Constitution which gives the. federal government not States the power. to enforce immigration. law today's episode was produced by Will. Reed and Alex Stern with help from. Michael Simon Johnson it was edited by m. J Davis Lynn with help from Rachel quer.

contains original music by Mar Lozano. Dan Powell and Sophia lman and was. engineered by Chris Wood our theme music. is by Jim brunberg and Ben lansburg of. [Music]. [Music]. wonderly that's it for the Daily I'm. Michael babo see you. [Music].

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