The death of a former NFL receiver is stirring up concern and controversy at all levels of the football community due to the results of a recent examination of the player's brain. According to test results from examinations conducted on Ex-Cincinnati Bengals receiver Chris Henry's brain, doctors have concluded that the young player was playing with undiagnosed collision-related brain injuries consistent with that of an 80 or 90-year-old man. He is the first NFL player to have died with trauma-induced brain damage while still active in the National Football League.
Due to the findings, medical professionals and football coaches at all levels are extremely concerned. If a 26-year-old player can go undiagnosed with severe brain injuries, then every other wide-eyed young football player with aspirations of making it to the NFL someday could be at risk.
According to a recent Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article, Henry developed a brain disease called chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) while playing football over this career. Henry is the youngest active player to have evidence of this disease at the time of death.
The Brain Injury Research Institute at West Virginia University conducted the examination of Henry's brain, following his death. Researchers expressed that CTE is almost impossible to detect within living individuals and is usually detected in diseased individuals.
The discovery of CTE has been found in other retire NFL players and has continued to fuel the debate about the dangers of brain injuries while playing football. One doctor expressed that Henry's condition was "the result of repeated impact and blows to the head, perhaps going back to Henry's playing days in college, high school and even youth football."
Henry was killed last December, when he fell from the back of a pickup truck driven by his fiancee during a domestic dispute.
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