As a junior in college, Emmett Cleary spent one summer interning at the Concussion Legacy Foundation. For Cleary, a biology major while he played football at Boston College, it was a natural fit.

He did data analysis on a handful of studies, worked on small projects around the office, and was more or less an extra set of hands for anyone who needed help.

Now, six years later, at the end of his first season with the Lions, Cleary is ready to help the foundation again — by donating his brain postmortem for study to help advance research on chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and brain injuries.

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"I’ve been so fortunate in my career and I’ve had such a good experience playing football that I think it’s a very small contribution to make," Cleary told the Free Press. "It’s not a big deal. It’s kind of analogous to signing your driver’s license. I don’t know how it is here, but in Illinois if you want to be an organ donor you can just check a box and sign your driver’s license, so it’s not like the commitment is some grand thing.

"But I just feel as a player who’s kind of aware of the ongoing research and has had such good experience playing ball, I almost feel like I owe it to the players and my own teammates I’ve had, and all the former players and all the guys that will play in the future, to I guess do my part in learning what we can learn about head injuries in football."

Cleary's announcement comes days after a third Lions offensive lineman reported a concussion after finishing a game this season, but he said his decision has been in the works "for a while."

In college, Cleary had one documented concussion, as a senior at Boston College. And while he's never had one in the NFL, he admits "a lot of that stuff’s kind of gray" when it comes to brain injuries in football.

"To this point I feel great," he said. "I still feel pretty sharp. I did the crossword on the flight back here (after the Bengals game), so I think I’m still doing alright. (But) it’s just something that every player has to keep in the back of their minds and that’s why we want to pursue this research so we can know exactly what people are getting into."

For Cleary, who hopes to go to medical school after his playing career is done, that's the bottom line.

Like many, he was alarmed this summer when Boston University announced that 110 of the 111 brains of former NFL players it studied had CTE, the majority with severe pathology.

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Given the skew of that data — most of the brains were donated by players or families who suspected CTE — Cleary said he wants to add another data point to help with research.

"The biggest thing is I just want to find the risk," Cleary said. "Cause there’s so much uncertainty now. They say all this stuff like, Oh, certain number of concussions and you should quit, or certain number of years in the league. And I think we just owe it to players to allow everybody to make an informed decision based on the risks. A lot more data is necessary. We’ve got to kind of suss out what’s an acceptable level of risk and what’s not, and everybody should know that. It might take generations, but the long-term epidemiological study is what’s going to allow the game to change if it needs to or just allow the players to know what they’re getting into."

Cleary joins Bengals offensive lineman and NFLPA president Eric Winston as active players who've pledged to donate their brains to the Concussion Legacy Foundation this year. More than 30 former NFL players, including Nick Buoniconti and Matt Hasselbeck, have said they'll donate their brains as well.

Cleary said he hasn't talked with any of his Lions teammates about the subject, but he said "everybody in the locker room is aware of kind of the growing body of research" on brain injuries and the risk they take playing football.

"You see all sorts of retired players doing it and I figured, yeah, I’m going to be using it for another 60 years here, but there’s no reason to wait," Cleary said. "To any player that would be considering it, you can always change your mind. You can opt in, you can opt out, you can choose whatever you want to do."

Contact Dave Birkett: dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett. Download our Lions Xtra app for free on Apple and Android!