Excuse Me, But Are You Gonna Use That Brain?

As Trent Green will learn for about the 18th time on Sunday, concussions are a serious problem plaguing pro sports, particularly football. So, to help study sport-induced head trauma, 12 athletes have agreed to donate their brains to the cause:↵↵⇥A dozen athletes, including six N.F.L. players and a former United States women’s soccer player, have agreed to donate their brains after their deaths to the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy.↵⇥↵⇥The former New England Patriots linebacker Ted Johnson, one of the players who has agreed to donate his brain, said he hoped the center would help clarify the issue of concussions’ long-term effects, which have been tied to cognitive impairment and depression in several published studies. The N.F.L. says that, in regard to its players, the long-term effects of concussions are uncertain.↵⇥

↵↵Despite strong evidence that concussions suffered on the football field lead to post-career adverse health effects, the NFL still is yet to “determine if there are any long-term effects of concussion in N.F.L. athletes.” This is basically akin to cigarette manufactures claiming that inhaling their product is as healthy as all natural Tasmania oxygen. Hopefully, the studies conducted with the donated brains will help bring the NFL out of the leather helmet days and realize that the damage done to their players over the brief time they play in the league lasts a lifetime.↵↵But here’s my question: Once the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy is finished with the athletes’ brains, will they in turn be donating them to the starving zombies of our great nation? ↵

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