Jessica Glenza at The Guardian writes—Study links longer football careers to more severe cases of CTE. Only one of the 110 NFL players whose brains were examined after they died did not have evidence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). In the worst cases, and 86 percent of the NFL players fit into this category, symptoms of the degenerative disease may include cognitive deficits, behavioral changes, mood disorders, and signs of dementia. The report, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, can be read here.
The New York Times has posted photos here of brain slices of the deceased NFL players the researchers looked at.
The largest ever study of cases of football players with the degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) has, again, found a link between the condition and “prior participation in football”, particularly in professionals.
The study looked at the brains of 111 NFL players and found CTE in 110 of them, or 99% of those studied.
Researchers at Boston University and the Boston Veterans Affairs health system examined the brains of 202 high school, college, semi-professional and NFL players for evidence of the disease. They found increasingly severe CTE in players who had spent more time on the field.
“My hope is we’ll stop arguing about whether or not this is a problem, or whether or not it needs to be addressed,” said Dr Ann McKee of Boston University. “We need to take our heads out of the sand. It’s not going away because we want it to.” [...]
The NFL only acknowledged a link between degenerative brain disorders and the sport in 2016, after years of downplaying the links. The league also recently settled a class action lawsuit with players for $1bn.
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At Daily Kos on this date in 2004—The Fire Is Extinguished:
It's remarkable how seemingly intractable labor disputes can get quickly settled when there's massive pressure on the employer. My favorite story about outside events leading to a labor settlement concerns the Newspaper Guild and the Detroit News.
The Guild had won the vote to be recognized as the collective bargaining agent for the editorial staff at the News, but they hadn't been able to reach an agreement on a first contract with the paper, so they set a strike date of July 31, 1975.
The Teamsters offered to try to mediate the dispute, and both sides were negotiating at the Teamster hall in Detroit on July 30th when a person barged in to the room and whispered in the ear of the top Teamsters official, who immediately stood up and exited with his staff, leaving the Guild and newspaper bargainers by themselves. A few minutes later, another Teamster came in to the room and said something to the effect of "Jimmy's missing, so you all need to get the hell out of here."
There was no way the Detroit News would let a labor contract get in the way of covering the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa, especially since the Detroit Free Press would have scooped the News on everything about the disappearance. Therefore, the Guild got their recognition and their contract, and everyone went straight to work to cover the Hoffa story. All of a sudden the print deadline was far more important than the strike deadline.
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show, we test drive some new broadcast apps, with mixed results. Armando joins in to try to parse out the Zombie Treasoncare voting procedure and messaging, but there’s just no sense to be found in it. Oh, and Donald Trump remains a disgusting horror show.
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