Head injuries are the most important question in sports at all levels, according to Ken Dryden.
The former Montreal Canadiens goalie and hockey Hall of Famer says it’s time decision makers finally catch up with the life impact of their sport on players lives.
He says players will suffer health problems for decades after playing.
“Memory problems, anxiety problems, confusion, anger, depression, lousy stuff that makes life lousy,” says Dryden.
He adds that “CTE [Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy] is scary, its impact is not much different than dementia or Alzheimer’s, it is sports smoking gun.”
CTE* is a progressive degenerative disease found in people who have had a severe blow, or repeated blows to the head, and was previously known as “dementia pugilistica” or “punch drunk” because it was initially found in people with a history of boxers.
Dryden says athletes these days go faster, and collide more forcefully in more games in more months of the year.
*Symptoms of CTE generally begin 8–10 years after experiencing repetitive mild traumatic brain injury. First stage symptoms include deterioration in attention as well as disorientation, dizziness, and headaches. Further disabilities appear with progressive deterioration, including memory loss, social instability, erratic behavior, and poor judgment. Third and fourth stages include progressive dementia, slowing of muscular movements, hypomimia, impeded speech, tremors, vertigo, deafness, and suicidality.
