Although no definitive diagnosis can be made until after a person’s death, when researchers are allowed to conduct post-mortem examinations, the effects of CTE routinely seen in football players are uncomfortably noticeable: confusion and Episodes of amnesia, spasms of anger and argument; sharp decline in communication and decision-making abilities.
“It’s just watching them really turn into someone completely different,” said Haike Klein, the widow of Paul Klein, who served as center and linebacker at Alabama and eventually developed CTE before his death in 2020.
But some 60 years ago, long before CTE was recognized as a risk, football in places like Alabama was a beacon to wealth, fame and envy. Even now, players and their families, in their anguish, are often reluctant to keep football off campus and American culture. Some say change sports, keep doing it.
Head injuries and CTE in sports
Permanent damage from a brain injury in athletes can have devastating effects.
For many men playing at the time, the threat to health was worth the personal sacrifice.
“I was from a small town in Tennessee,” says Steve Sloane, a starting quarterback in Alabama in the 1960s, who later became the athletic director of Alabama, Duke Mississippi, Texas Tech University and Vanderbilt football. You say you coached.
“I wanted to get a scholarship. I just got lucky. “
the decline of a happy life
Like Sloan, Ray Perkins came to Tuscaloosa looking for a life away from the small town where he grew up. Bryant won his six-time national championship before his death in 1983 and now has his name on his 100,077-seat campus stadium.
