Mothers Appealing To Congress To Ban Contact Sports Like Football In Schools

Mothers are now alarmed of this disease called chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), as it has taken the lives of so many young athletes just recently. This is the reason why these concerned parents went to congress on March 23 and demand for federal regulations involving contact sports.

According to CNN, many NFL players were reported to have suffered and succumb to CTE. Among these athletes were Chicago Bears' Junior Seau and Dave Duerson. This disease also recently killed Ken Stabler, also a professional football player who is even a Hall of Famer. Reports claimed at first that he died of cancer back in July of last year, but came February this year, it was revealed that it was CTE that really took his life.

But why CTE was the culprit behind all these athlete's deaths? Apparently, studies show that the act of being hit on the head repeatedly could cause degenerative brain disease that could eventually lead to memory loss and even depression resulting to suicide. Other athletes could end up becoming more aggressive and irritable once this disease hits them. CTE made news for the first time back in 2002 affecting a professional football player.

The NFL didn't say anything about the issue that time until March 15 when they publicly declared that CTE has something to do with the lives of contact sports athletes being at risk. Unfortunately, there is no cure for it as of the moment. This is why mothers like Karen Zegel and Kimberly Archie are appealing to congress because their sons are currently suffering from CTE and they weren't even professional players yet but are just playing youth sports. They are hoping that the government will put a ban or at least, do something with the issue so other mothers won't have to experience what they are going through.