Bobby Hull had Stage 2 CTE when he died

[TheTotalPackage]

CTE stages as a point of reference.

Going through the Stages of CTE | The CTE Society

One of the challenging aspects of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) is that its onset can happen years after injury. It is not as simple as hitting your head yesterday and getting CTE today. It comes on its own time or may not come at all. So when it presents itself, its symptoms can be...

www.ctesociety.org

They all sound awful, but stage 4 sounds like a living hell.

Thanks for posting this. My immediate reaction when I read Stage 2 was I didn't even know they had categorized the various stages of CTE.

 

[TheMistyStranger]

Based on all the stories I heard about it, I assume he had it his whole life.

 

[McDNicks17]

To be fair, I don't think you really need a study to find out there's something wrong with the brain of someone who spent their life beating their wives and praising hitler.

 

[Ghost of Murph]

Off topic but Bad Brains was a f***ing great band. Just saying.

One of the best bands ever for sure, who had to fold oddly enough because of the lead singer's brain issues leading ultimately to brain surgery for headaches, but still suffering from severe schizoaffective disorder.

As for the NHL, it sucks that some players end up suffering from CTE. I wish the league would get more serious about it, but it seems like burying the head in the sand due to fear of lawsuits has been the approach.

 

[TheTotalPackage]

As for the NHL, it sucks that some players end up suffering from CTE. I wish the league would get more serious about it, but it seems like burying the head in the sand due to fear of lawsuits has been the approach.

This was going to be my exact comment as well.

I'm sure Bettman is toeing the line knowing what potential legal ramifications may come of it. But continually dismissing that there is no correlation between playing hockey and CTE -- especially at this point when there is more and more evidence to suggest as such -- is a bad look.

 

[WarriorOfGandhi]

A bit OT.

I was at a monster jam show in Tampa, and there was this pre- recorded Q&A on the screen with the drivers, and the question was would you want to lose your short term or long term memory or something to the effect. Admittedly I wasn't paying full attention till I was hearing some of the answers.

A lot of the drivers mentioned that their short term memory is already fading, jokingly or in a light manner, but I think there's some truth in there. Even though not a "contact" sport like hockey or football, they have violent landings, and even with all the safety harnesses these days there's still extreme forces launching a 12k lb truck 40 feet into the air and landing on flat ground. Your brain will still bounce around even with HANS devices keeping you safe.

I remember reading an article about how in the world of professional bullriding, you're old once you hit 20, and most riders' bodies simply start breaking down from that point on. It's definitely one of those moments of reflection where even if I never tasted anything resembling athletic fame and glory, at least I'm not in a wheelchair at my decrepit current age of 37.

 

[IWantSakicAsMyGM]

CTE stages as a point of reference.

Going through the Stages of CTE | The CTE Society

One of the challenging aspects of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) is that its onset can happen years after injury. It is not as simple as hitting your head yesterday and getting CTE today. It comes on its own time or may not come at all. So when it presents itself, its symptoms can be...

www.ctesociety.org

They all sound awful, but stage 4 sounds like a living hell.

It is, for everyone involved.

My father played football in the 1960s, and got a full ride scholarship to a D1 (at the time) school. Knee injuries ultimately ended his football career, but he used to tell me about all the times he got his bell rung during practices or games, and just kept playing. About 15 years ago, he was diagnosed with Parkinson's, but his symptoms have followed the CTE stages almost perfectly. The stage 3 symptoms started about 7 or 8 years ago, and pretty quickly progressed to stage 4. We won't know for certain that there's CTE until his body finally dies and his brain gets examined, but I'll be very surprised if there's not.

 

[Machinehead]

To be fair, I don't think you really need a study to find out there's something wrong with the brain of someone who spent their life beating their wives and praising hitler.

In this case, it's just a bit of a chicken and egg thing.

I mention that because he might have been a shitbag the whole time and I don't want to stigmatize people suffering from CTE as being bad people.

He was married to his first wife for 11 years and made the Hitler comment 25 years ago. He didn't snap one day; he had time to think about this shit.

 

[AvroArrow]

Read a bit into it this and apparently 18 out of the 19 former NHLers who passed away who had their brains tested, suffered from CTE.

 

[Midnight Judges]

Back in my day we called it “being a man.” You have a bad brain, you shout at people and get violent, inside you’re completely lost, it’s fine and cool.

/s

Your post is hilarious, and I take your point, but to this day we still have posters who feel as though they are tough guys for being willing to sit on their couches and watch other people get head shotted on TV.

So I think you have correctly identified and mocked an unenlightened cultural aspect that needs to die a quick death (but won't).

 

[Ghost of Murph]

This was going to be my exact comment as well.

I'm sure Bettman is toeing the line knowing what potential legal ramifications may come of it. But continually dismissing that there is no correlation between playing hockey and CTE -- especially at this point when there is more and more evidence to suggest as such -- is a bad look.

I wish the NHL would take the same approach as some racing leagues. For example IndyCar has come a long way in helmet design and car safety over the past couple decades. G forces and crashes at 200 mph are of course tough on the brain. Thanks to cooperation between the drivers, teams, and league there hasn't been a driver death in a decade. Those helmets and cars are now remarkable in the protection they provide, while the racing is still balls to the wall fast. Ditto Formula-One racing.

I understand that hockey is miles different than open-wheel racing. The point is that IndyCar brass finally got very serious about protecting its drivers and went to great lengths to solve a problem, while maintaining the excitement of the sport. Research and technology can accomplish a lot of there is a will. The NHL is pathetic, cowardly, and backwards in its approach to a known and very real problem.

 

[kingsholygrail]

Contact sports are bad for your health. Always have been.

 

[coolboarder]

Should they protect only the star players or every player????

All players. 20-30 games suspension per head shots and each length of punishment increases and that is how serious we should treat CTE epidemic among hockey player. The NHL should announce the length of punishment with a memo warning players from today and no more less than 5 games suspension or they'll repeat and reward the bad behavior. 15+ games of suspension is a good base to start the change to protect its own players.

 

[The Panther]

The "Bobby Hull spent his life worshipping Nazis" line is pretty stupid. He allegedly made a comment like this, once, to a Russian (?) interviewer, of which no recording exists, and it may or may nor be an accurate translation. Thus, he may or may not have said it, and all context or nuance (not that any such would be acceptable, obviously) is lost... if he even said it.

I have no stake in Hull's rep one way or the other (I couldn't care less about him personally), but a little more attempt at accuracy might be welcome rather than stating mass exaggerations about a dead man.

 

[tarheelhockey]

The "Bobby Hull spent his life worshipping Nazis" line is pretty stupid. He allegedly made a comment like this, once, to a Russian (?) interviewer, of which no recording exists, and it may or may nor be an accurate translation. Thus, he may or may not have said it, and all context or nuance (not that any such would be acceptable, obviously) is lost... if he even said it.

I have no stake in Hull's rep one way or the other (I couldn't care less about him personally), but a little more attempt at accuracy might be welcome rather than stating mass exaggerations about a dead man.

It was given a lot of credence when his daughter was asked about it and her reply was “yeah, that sounds like something he would say”.

If a Russian journalist claimed that he heard Wayne Gretzky make Nazi sympathizer comments, nobody would believe it because the claim would be in such obvious conflict with his well established character. That is not the case with Hull.

 

[habdynasty]

Most of the players from that era probably had CTE.