Dr. Clif CleavelandIn 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt convened a meeting of college presidents to address a rising tide of serious injuries and deaths among collegiate football players.
Eighteen deaths and scores of serious injuries, including skull and spinal fractures, prompted the meeting. Roosevelt called for reforms in the game to make it safer. Changes in rules and subsequent improvement in protective equipment led to safer games.
In October 2014, President Barack Obama hosted a White House meeting of sports officials, medical experts and concerned parents to address concussions in athletes. It is not clear if this meeting will have a lasting influence.
In addition to acute injuries, attention in recent years has focused upon chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a progressive neurological disease detected in autopsied brains of former football players, especially those who had played professionally. CTE is characterized by dense deposits of a protein called “tau” that disrupt the brain’s delicate architecture and function.
Before their deaths, former players with CTE exhibited a variety of symptoms, including depression, impaired judgment, confusion and aggressive behavior. Some had dementia resembling Alzheimer’s disease. Others suffered from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease), a progressively debilitating neurological illness.