As CTE questions mount, Eric Winston pledges brain to research

Tom Pelissero | USA TODAY Sports

Show Caption Hide Caption How 'Concussion' will impact the NFL The former executive director of the NBPA, Charles Grantham, breaks down how the movie 'Concussion' will effect the NFL and the future of football.

As research accelerates towards answering the many questions about a neurodegenerative disease found in some former football players and others exposed to repetitive head impact, one prominent NFL player is lending support in a personal way.

Eric Winston, veteran tackle for the Cincinnati Bengals and president of the NFL Players Association, told USA TODAY Sports on Tuesday he is pledging his brain to the Concussion Legacy Foundation for postmortem examination.

“Obviously, there’s a lot of noise out there in this space,” Winston said. “I think that’s a good thing, even though some of it hasn’t been proven yet, some of it still needs a lot more research. But it’s a lot better than 15 years ago when no one was saying anything.”

Friday’s national release of the provocative docudrama Concussion, starring Will Smith as Dr. Bennet Omalu, is the latest event to stoke public discourse about chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and its connection to long-term health problems.

But the lead principal investigator in a new study backed by a nearly $16 million grant from the National Institutes of Health is among those cautioning against panic from the youth sports level on up about a disease that still can be diagnosed only after death.

“There has been a lot of hype about CTE that has gone beyond the science,” said Dr. Robert Stern, professor of neurology, neurosurgery and anatomy & neurobiology at Boston University and clinical research director of the college’s CTE center.

“We need to have the science move forward so we can answer those important questions like, ‘What are the symptoms of CTE exactly? When someone has symptoms, what can we do to have a better understanding of whether it’s due to CTE or not?

“Just because someone has depression doesn’t mean it’s CTE. Just because someone has problems with impulsivity doesn’t mean it’s CTE. Just because someone develops memory impairment and eventually dementia, that doesn’t mean it’s CTE.”

The multi-center study led by Stern will include 120 ex-NFL players, 60 ex-college football players and 60 control subjects who never played contact sports, ranging from ages 45 to 74.

If researchers can develop a method to detect and diagnose the disease during life through objective biological tests – a central goal of the seven-year study led by Stern, who said he believes such a test is possible in that span – they can also study risk factors, including genetics, and begin clinical trials to try to treat or prevent it.

At this stage, Stern said, the science shows “repetitive head impact exposure is a necessary variable for getting the disease, but it’s obviously not sufficient, because not everyone who hits their head is going to get this brain disease. That’s pretty much all we know.”

Omalu and partner Dr. Julian Bailes, chairman of the department of neurosurgery and co-director of the NorthShore Neurological Institute, were among the co-authors of a 2013 paper documenting buildup of tau proteins on the brain and other signs consistent with CTE in five living former players, based on an experimental brain scan UCLA.

None of those ex-players was told definitively they had CTE, Bailes said, though that didn’t stop Hall of Fame running back Tony Dorsett from going public with his results.

“They already know that they’ve been exposed and they know what the symptoms are,” Bailes said. “Hopefully, there have been so many changes made that the risk is less than ever and the risk is not great going forward, at least in current players.”

Bailes said his educated guess is the disease might be found in 20%-25% of players from an era before the NFL implemented dozens of rules changes, concussion protocol and other safety measures amidst mounting criticism of its handling of head injuries and a lawsuit by former players that yielded a $1 billion settlement.

In September, the Concussion Legacy Foundation reported 87 of 91 brains of deceased former NFL players examined in recent years by researchers with the Department of Veterans Affairs and Boston University had CTE. But that’s a small and inherently biased sample, given players’ families mostly donated them because of suspicions that existed before death.

Donations from active players such as Winston, who has no symptoms, are a logical and significant step as the Concussion Legacy Foundation launches its My Legacy campaign.

“We need NFL players to mobilize behind fighting CTE if we want to have a treatment for those players in 20 years,” foundation director Chris Nowinski said in a statement.

Stern declined comment on an ESPN report on Tuesday that asserted the NFL, which gave a $30 million grant to NIH in 2012, pulled its funding from the study because of concerns about Stern’s objectivity. (The NFL called the report inaccurate; the NIH said it is funding Stern’s study and expects the league to continue funding future studies in addition to eight that are ongoing.)

“I’m the one person who says over and over again we have no idea what’s going on yet,” Stern said. “People should not overreact and be fearful that they’re going to develop CTE, especially our youth athletes.”

If a reliable CTE test becomes available for living people, would Winston take it, even if he’s still playing?

“Without a doubt,” Winston said. “Then I hope thing right after that is, ‘OK, now here’s how we’re going to treat it.’ I think that’s what it’s all about.”

Follow Tom Pelissero on Twitter @TomPelissero.