Pittsburgh Steelers’ Hines Ward gets hit by Tennessee Titans’ Courtland Finnegan
AP Photo/John Russell/Alami
In November 2022, a young woman named Heather Anderson committed suicide at a military camp in Perth, Australia. Anderson is a former Australian rules footballer who has struggled with depression. Her family donated her brain to the Australian Sports Brain Bank, confirming what everyone suspected: Anderson suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease associated with repeated blows to the head. She is the first professional female athlete to be diagnosed with the disease. She won’t be the last.
As strange as it may seem, it took nearly a century for people to understand what a blow to the head really meant. Most people are familiar with concussions, but now we know that even minor hits to the head can cause long-term problems. “It’s misleading to think that the physical force exerted on the head is smaller and the consequences will be smaller,” said Allison Reiss of New York University.
These consequences occur primarily in professional athletes, some of whom live in the shadow of CTE. Recently, we have seen a number of people taking legal action against governing bodies. But it’s not just athletes who are at risk. Even one blow to the head can put a person at risk for future cognitive problems.
Thankfully, next to…
