PHOENIX
—
Matt
Hasselbeck
took
some
nasty
hits
to
the
head
during
his
17-year

NFL
career,
four
years
at
Boston
College
and
a
childhood
full
of
sports,
but
the
quarterback
seems
to
have
emerged
from
more
than
two
decades
of
collisions
relatively
unscathed,
enjoying
middle
adulthood
with
his
wife
and
three
children.

The
50-year-old
knows
that
some
of
his
friends
and
former
teammates
haven’t
been
as
lucky.

That’s
why
the
three-time
Pro
Bowl
selection
recently
spent
two
days
at
Boston
University,
going
through
a
battery
of
scans
and
tests
to
determine
how
much
all
those
collisions
affected
his
brain.
The
hope
is
that
it
will
be
a
small
step
toward
a
goal
that
has
eluded
doctors
—

diagnosing
CTE
(chronic
traumatic
encephalopathy)
in
the
living.

“They
need
guys
like
me
—
they
need
people
who
are
feeling
good
to
step
up
to
the
plate
and
volunteer,”
Hasselbeck
said.
“I
played
quarterback,
so
I
didn’t
take
some
of
the
hits
that
a
lot
of
my
teammates
took.

“But
the
guys
who
were
blocking
for
me,
or
playing
special
teams,
or
trying
to
get
the
ball
back
for
me
on
defense,
I
wanted
to
do
something.
They
had
my
back,
so
in
a
way
I’d
like
to
have
their
back.”

CTE
puts
harsh
spotlight
on
NFL,
college
football

A
degenerative
brain
disease
that
has
been
linked
to
concussions
and
other
head
trauma
common
in
military
combat
and
contact
sports,
CTE
has
been
diagnosed
in
more
than
100
former
NFL
players,
casting
a
pall
over
the
United
States’
most
popular
sports
league.
Some
high-profile
football
players
diagnosed
with
CTE
after
their
deaths
include
Hall
of
Famers
like

linebacker
Junior
Seau,
and

quarterback
Ken
Stabler,
along
with
former
Patriots

tight
end
Aaron
Hernandez.

Right
now,
CTE
can
only
be
diagnosed
after
death.

CTE
can
affect
regions
of
the
brain
involved
with

regulating
behavior
and
emotions.
This
can
lead
to
memory
loss,
depression,
violent
mood
swings
and
other
cognitive
and
behavioral
issues,
though
researchers
note
these
symptoms
can
also
be
linked
to
other
illnesses.

Hasselbeck’s
participation
is
just
a
small
part
of
a
study
that
Michael
Alosco,
co-director
of
clinical
research
at
the
Boston
University
CTE
Center,
hopes
will
expand
to
hundreds
of
participants
in
multiple
locations.
Alosco
is
the
principal
investigator
in
Boston,
and
there
are
also
sites
in
California,
Arizona,
Texas
and
Florida
with
potentially
more
to
come.

The

study
seeks
two
types
of
people:
Those
who
played
professional
or
college
football
and
those
who
have
been
diagnosed
with
Alzheimer’s
disease
and
never
played
contact
or
collision
sports
and
have
no
history
of
repetitive
head
impacts.

Alosco
said
that
there
are
many
similarities
between
Alzheimer’s
and
CTE
because
both
are
degenerative
brain
diseases,
but
there
are
also
some
key
differences,
and
mapping
out
those
discrepancies
is
key
to
figuring
out
a
way
to
diagnose
CTE
properly.

“We’ve
applied
what
we’ve
known
worked
for
Alzheimer’s
disease,
but
we’ve
learned
it
does
not
work
for
CTE,”
Alosco
said.
“We’ve
really
got
to
push
discovery
efforts
and
find
the
marker
that’s
specific
to
the
protein
of
CTE
versus
Alzheimer’s
because
they’re
different.

“How
we’re
going
to
get
there
is
through
the
research
we’re
doing
right
now.”

Nicholas
Ashton,
the
principal
investigator
in
Phoenix,
said
roughly
10
patients
have
participated
at
the
Arizona
site.
He
said
that
currently,
diagnosing
CTE
in
the
living
is
mostly
guesswork
because
so
many
of
the
symptoms
mimic
Alzheimer’s.

“The
more
people
involved,
the
more
information
we
get
and
the
closer
we
get
to
an
answer,”
Ashton
said.
“Treatments
exploded
with
Alzheimer’s
once
we
were
able
to
accurately
diagnose.
We’re
trying
to
get
to
the
same
spot
with
CTE.”

NFL
QB
says
tests
are
eye-opening

Hasselbeck
said
he
went
through
a
variety
of
mental
tests
—
like
counting
backward
from
100
by
sevens
and
reciting
the
alphabet
backward.
He
also
had
a
blood
sample
taken,
an
MRI
on
his
brain
and
a
PET
(positron
emission
tomography)
scan
that
injects
a
small
amount
of
safe
radioactive
tracer
that
maps
out
the
brain’s
function.

The
former
quarterback
said
the
procedures
were
eye-opening
and
humbling.

“I’ve
got
a
healthy
respect
for
people
who
are
dealing
with
serious
brain
trauma,
whether
it’s
tumors
or
cancer,”
Hasselbeck
said.
“I
walked
in
there
feeling
completely
healthy
and
you
still
get
a
little
anxious
when
you’re
doing
a
brain
scan,
an
MRI.
You
come
out
and
you’re
looking
at
your
brain.”

Hasselbeck
is
also
donating
his
brain
for
research
after
he
dies.

Not
everyone
in
the
study
is
a
famous
former
NFL
player.

Bryan
Savage,
a
56-year-old
who
lives
in
Maryland,
is
a
former
linebacker
at
Union
College
in
Schenectady,
New
York
—
an
NCAA
Division
III
school.
He
traveled
to
Boston
for
the
study
and
has
also
committed
to
donating
his
brain.

Savage
said
he’s
lucky
to
be
relatively
healthy
but
that
he’s
been
diagnosed
with
depression
and
ADHD
over
the
past
few
years.

“I
was
interested
because
of
some
of
the
things
that
I’ve
gone
through
physically
and
mentally,”
Savage
said.
“You
wonder
if
it’s
just
getting
older,
a
mid-life
crisis
or
if
it’s
related
to
any
brain
trauma
I
might
have
had
playing
football.”

Savage
praised
the
researchers
who
were
with
him
during
the
study
and
said
he
was
relieved
to
find
out
his
brain
scans
look
normal
for
a
man
in
his
mid-50s.
He’s
reached
out
to
some
of
his
former
teammates,
encouraging
them
to
get
involved
in
the
study.

“I’ll
talk
to
some
of
my
former
friends
and
they’re
going
through
a
lot
of
the
same
things,”
Savage
said.
“They’ll
say
–
‘Why
do
I
feel
like
this?
I’ve
never
been
depressed.
Things
that
I
used
to
be
passionate
about
I
don’t
care
about
anymore.’”

Alosco
said
the
main
reason
Alzheimer’s
research
is
much
more
advanced
than
CTE
research
is
sheer
numbers:
Alzheimer’s
research
dates
back
decades
and
there
have
been
countless
people
who
have
been
studied.

By
comparison,
CTE
research
is
relatively
new.
Volunteers
like
Hasselbeck
and
Savage
are
crucial
to
bridge
the
gap.
The
National
Institutes
of
Health
is
sponsoring
the
current
study,
awarding
$15
million
for
the
research
in
2025.

“The
(Alzheimer’s
progress)
is
through
years
and
years
of
research,
of
people
donating
their
brains,
and
also
collecting
data
during
life,”
Alosco
said.
“While
we’ve
been
studying
CTE
for
a
while,
we
haven’t
had
the
point
where
we’ve
had
all
this
data
during
life,
that
have
also
donated
their
brain.
We
need
to
get
to
that
place.”

He
added:
“I’m
really
hopeful
about
detecting
CTE
—
I
don’t
think
that’s
too
distant.
Once
we
can
accurately
diagnose,
that’s
when
we
can
start
some
treatment
trials.”

Culture
around
head
injuries
in
NFL
changing

Hasselbeck
—
who
played
in
the
NFL
for
the
Green
Bay
Packers,
Seattle
Seahawks,
Tennessee
Titans
and
Indianapolis
Colts
—
said
he
had
three
concussions
before
he
even
started
college,
one
playing
football,
another
on
the
basketball
court
and
another
while
goofing
around
while
ice
skating.
He
had
a
few
concussions
during
his
college
or
NFL
career,
but
wasn’t
sure
of
the
exact
number
because
some
might
have
gone
undetected
since
there
was
a
culture
of
toughness
in
locker
rooms,
particularly
early
in
his
career.

Hasselbeck’s
pro
career
spanned
from
1998
to
2015
and
the
quarterback
said
there
was
a
huge
change
regarding
head
injuries
during
that
time.
Early
in
his
career,
the
only
acceptable
answer
after
a
hit
to
the
head
was
“I’m
good,”
but
by
the
mid
2010s,
players
were
much
more
honest
about
potential
concussions.

Hasselbeck’s
proud
of
that
change.
Now
he
hopes
his
participation
in
the
current
CTE
study
can
continue
that
progress.

“I’ve
always
had
a
passion
for
making
the
game
safer,”
Hasselbeck
said.
“I
love
football.
One
of
the
things
I’m
most
proud
of
as
an
NFL
guy
is
not
just
as
a
player,
but
the
entire
time
I
worked
with
the
league
and
NFLPA
for
ways
to
make
the
game
safer.”