Does playing in the NFL have an effect on your brain? Warren Sapp seems to think so.
Hall of Famer Warren Sapp announced today via Players’ Tribune that he will donate his brain to the Concussion Legacy Foundation when he dies.
In the video below, Sapp said he decided to donate his brain after receiving an email that quoted NFL owners claiming there’s no correlation between football, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and suicides.
Sapp compared himself and former teammates to “dinosaurs” in the way they roughed each other up in practices. He said it’s a frightening feeling to think that his brain is deteriorating and feels like a child at times. Sapp hopes that research and knowledge can develop to make football safer for generations to come.
Check out the full video below. It’s worth watching.
After 13 Hall-of-Fame seasons, @WarrenSapp is making the ultimate sacrifice to improve the game of football: https://t.co/ZbXtEtOpqo pic.twitter.com/mgIttHfQud
— The Players’ Tribune (@PlayersTribune) June 20, 2017
Sapp spent 13 seasons in the league and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2013. He finished with 232 tackles and 96.5 sacks.
Sapp isn’t the only one that is experiencing/did experience issues post-football.
A report came out last November discovering CTE in 90 out of 94 brains of former NFL players that have died.
Dr. Bennet Omalu discovered CTE in 2002 and his story was told in the movie “Concussion”. The movie premiered in 2015 and starred Will Smith as Dr. Omalu. Go watch it.
This is a real problem in the NFL and I hope more players make the decision Sapp did today to improve the game’s safety.
