Nick: For years, researchers
have studied the effects
repeated blows to the head have
on athletes in pro football,
hockey, soccer, and other
sports.
Now, as John yang tells us,
they're turning their attention
to players who start as early as
grade school.
John: Researchers at Boston
university are conducting the
first major study of cte,
chronic traumatic
encephalopathy, in athletes who
died before their 30th birthday.
Cte is the degenerative brain
disease linked to repeated hits
to the head.
Researchers recently released
findings based on the study of
the brains of 152 athletes, 63
of them, more than 40%, had cte.
48 of them played football, most
of them no higher than high
school or college.
Some started playing tackle
football when they were as young
as six.
The main sports for others in
the study included hockey,
soccer, and wrestling.
Some of the parents of these
young athletes told the New York
Times about the changes they saw
in their children.
>> His whole person started to
change.
>> It was an abrupt change.
>> He just was -- he was a
different person.
>> He wasn't the same kid.
>> He became unrecognizable.
>> Just a fragment of himself.
>> And we couldn't figure it
out.
>> And unfortunately, we
couldn't recognize possibly what
was happening with him until it
was too late.
John: That video was part of an
interactive story in the new
York Times website.
Times reporter John branch
worked on the project.
John, we heard those parents
talk about these changes that
they saw, this unrecognizable
children.
Did any of them make the
connection to football?
>> Yeah, most of them did not.
And that's not uncommon.
I think it's because they're so
young that they weren't assuming
that that was the cause of their
problems.
These kids were 18, 19, maybe
into their early 20's.
And so, kids are going through a
lot of changes at that time
anyway.
So, they wondered if they were
just typical changes that we see
or if the kids are now using
drugs or alcohol, maybe even
just running in with the wrong
crowd.
They couldn't make sense of it,
unfortunately, really until it
was too late.
John: And not only could the
parents not make sense of it,
some of the athletes couldn't
make sense of it.
>> Yeah, that's right.
One of the clips I believe you
played was the Bramwell family,
and Wyatt Bramwell did not tell
anybody this until he recorded a
video before his suicide, in
which he said that he had heard
voices in his head, the demons
in his head, that his life had
been a living hell because of
what he assumed were the
concussions that he had absorbed
over several years of youth and
high school football.
John: Cte, of course, can't be
diagnosed until after death.
They can examine the brain after
death.
These parents sent, donated
their children's brains for
research because they were
seeking answers.
What was their reaction when
they got the confirmation that,
yes, their children, their child
had cte?
>> Yeah, I think the reactions
are really mixed, of course.
I think there's a little bit of
horror and regret.
They think, oh my gosh, what
have I done to my child?
What did I do to my child?
What could we have done
differently to prevent this?
You know, for the most part,
they're the ones who send their
kids into football.
Some of them coach their kids in
football.
And now, to find out that they had died and that they had ct
tells them that all the things
they thought they were doing
right for their kids may have
actually been one of the causes
of death for their kids.
Also, when they get the
diagnosis, there is a strange
bit of relief because of all the
answers they could not quite get
or find.
They were searching for them
with doctors or therapists.
Now they know that there is a
scientific explanation, at least
in their minds, of what happened
to their children.
John: You talk about how what
they could have done
differently.
You also asked the parents if
knowing what they know now, they
would have still had their child
or let their child play
football.
The first couple we're going to
hear from are the parents of
hunter Foraker, who played at
dartmouth and died when he was
25.
>> If we had the knowledge
today, hunter would have never
played football, period.
If I have a grandson, he will
not play football.
It's not worth the risk.
>> When I drive by a football
field and see these young kids
in helmets and pads, it just --
it just breaks my heart.
>> Delaying the onset of contact
is what I would have championed.
And I still love football.
We still have a son that plays
football.
>> Does it hurt that I lost my
son 100%?
-- Does it hurt that I lost my
son?
100%, it does.
But if you were to ask me today
how I feel, you know, like I
said, I have grandsons now that
love football and are playing
contact football before high
school.
I would be willing to say that I
would do it again.
John: That last couple, we
should note, is the parents of
meiko locksley and his father.
-- His father Michael locksley
is the head football coach at
the university of Maryland.
Interesting division there.
Some saying, I would never have
let my child play football.
Others saying, my grandchildren
are playing tackle football.
What do you make of that?
>> Yeah, Michael locksley is a
fascinating case because he
coaches football.
He coaches 100 or more young men
to play this game, knowing that
his son
had cte.
And to Michael and to many of
the others, it's a strange
calculation, an impossible
calculation between risk and
reward.
While many of us might say, oh,
of course, we would never let
our kids play football knowing
that they might end up with cte
, families, even these families
are a little bit more torn than
that, because they wonder or
they look at all the rewards
that football can offer, you
know, the things like the
camaraderie, the physical
fitness, the sense of community,
especially in small towns in
America.
They don't want their kids to be
ostracized in certain places for
not playing football or not
being part of it and love the
game.
And so, they're trying to
balance those kinds of rewards
for the risk.
And the tricky thing with cte is
we don't know exactly what the
risks are.
We don't know if a child who
plays high school football has a
1 in 100 chance of developing
cte, or is it 1 in 20, or is it
1 in 10?
To some, no matter what the risk
is, that's too much.
But to others, they're trying to
figure out where that lies and
what's best for their own
children.
John: Do you think this is going
to lead to changes in youth
football, or is the sort of the
cultural pull of football in
America just too great?
>> Yeah, it's an interesting
question.
I think at least having the
conversation, and I think
there's a push more and more for
having these conversations about
whether children, especially
before high school, should play
tackle football.
The researchers behind this
believe that there is a
correlation between the number
of years that somebody plays
tackle football and the
likelihood of them getting cte.
And most kids never go on to
college, and certainly not on to
the pros.
They would like to see that
number limited by at least not
how many people play or kids
play tackle football until, say,
high school.
In the case of Wyatt Bramwell,
who took his own life at age 18,
he played 10 years of tackle
football.
Would it have been different had
he played three years only in
high school?
We don't know exactly, but
that's the kind of limitations
that I think a lot of people
would like to see.
We're going to be talking about
in the next few years.
John: John branch of the new
York Times on an important
subject to be talking about.
Thank you very much.
>> Thank Yo