Two former CFL players found to have brain disease CTE
Posted Jul 27, 2011 06:52:07 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
TORONTO – Testing on the brains of four deceased CFL players shows two of them suffered from a neurological disease known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE.
Former Toronto Argonaut and Hamilton Tiger-Cat Bobby Kuntz who played his high school football and lived in Waterloo Region, and Jay Roberts, an Ottawa Rough Rider, had repeated concussions during their careers and their brains showed signs of CTE.
CTE can cause memory impairment, emotional instability, erratic behaviour, depression and poor impulse control, and may eventually progress to dementia.
The brains were donated to the Canadian Sports Concussion Project at the Krembil Neuroscience Centre in Toronto, but doctors say the relationship between concussion and CTE is not yet known.
Former Winnipeg Blue Bomber Peter Ribbins, who died in December of Parkinson’s disease, and former Montreal Alouette Tony Proudfoot, who died this year of Lou Gehrig’s disease, did not show signs of CTE.
Kuntz died in February after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease, while Roberts died last October after suffering from dementia and lung cancer.
