As reported by the Mercury news, Ken Stabler, the late, great Raiders quarterback who died of colon cancer in July, might make news Saturday night when he’s considered for Pro Football Hall of Fame induction.
The news that Stabler’s brain showed an advanced stage of CTE, or chronic traumatic encephalopathy, didn’t come as a shock to those among his Raiders family. But it did reignite concerns about what might lie ahead for many former players.
His family says Stabler “was a kind, generous and unselfish man, never turning down an autograph request or an opportunity to help someone in need. A great quarterback, he was an even greater father to his three girls and grandfather to his two ‘grand snakes.’”In an HBO “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel”, legendary player and coach, Mike Ditka says “the risk is worse than the reward” of playing football, telling Gumbel he would dissuade children from participating in the sport.
Former Bears center Mike Pyle, the center and captain of the 1963 title-winning Chicago team, died in July at the age of 76 and on Monday was diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), the neurodegenerative disease found in athletes who have been subjected to repeated head trauma.
Concerns over the long-term health effects of playing football have led many current and former athletes (from Joe Namath to LeBron James) to declare that they would not let their children participate in the sport. Pyle’s former Bears roommate
- Mike Ditka’s advice for grandchildren: Take up golf.