Lance Briggs Featured in Video Campaign About CTE

Since the days of Dick Butkus in the late 1960s, to Mike Singletary in the 1980s, to Brian Urlacher in the 2000s, the Chicago Bears' linebackers have been always been known for their hard-nosed and physical style of play. In recent years, this identity was embodied by Lance Briggs, who played his entire 12 seasons in the NFL with the Bears from 2003-2015.

Briggs is now working on a video campaign with Sqor Sports, where he describes his experiences as a professional football player and his concern over CTE. In the first video, available on Sqor's website, he stated “I get concerned for myself. And even though I’ve never had any suicidal thoughts or anything like that, for it to happen to some great men and great football players, I know that I can’t separate myself from that crowd.”

Although CTE can currently only be officially diagnosed postmortem, many prominent players have in recent years publicly acknowledged their struggles with CTE-like symptoms and/or their concerns with what impact it may have on their lives in the future. Among these are Bo Jackson, who stated that he "would never have played football" had he known the risks of repetitive head trauma, in addition to Hall-of-Famers Brett Favre, Tony Dorsett, and Harry Carson.

Briggs' video campaign is obviously important for spreading awareness about CTE to fans of the game who may not understand what CTE is or even that it exists. Another group of individuals I hope it impacts, though, is former NFL players who may be experiencing CTE-like symptoms but are hesitant to recognize or acknowledge them. It's an unfortunate reality, but the more research about CTE that is done, the more it begins to seem like an occupational disease of playing football professionally. That's not to say that every NFL player will get CTE, and there is a sample bias within CTE research in that the brains that are studied are most often from players whose families noticed possible symptoms in them. But just like many NFL players expect to get arthritis as they get older, expect to deal with back problems, etc, they too should expect to experience some form of neurological or mental disorders.

It's heartbreaking to hear about former players, some of whom are only in their late 30s or early 40s, stating publicly their struggles with dementia, impulsiveness, depression, and other symptoms that can arise from CTE, but it's arguably even sadder to hear about people like former Chargers linebacker Junior Seau, who committed suicide back in 2012, who along with his family had to endure CTE symptoms without knowing their exact cause. In an interview with Frontline, Seau's daughter, Sydney, described how Seau grew more emotionally distant, forgetful, and had bouts of rage in the later years of his life. Yet she also stated, "obviously I never thought of a disease in this equation." Some people speculate that Seau was indeed aware of his condition, at least somewhat, because he shot himself in the chest rather than the brain. However, he left no instructions regarding a desire to have his brain medically examined. In either case, had Seau's family been aware of his infliction, or at least of its possibility, they'd have been able to take more precautionary measures and help Seau get the medical care that would help him manage his symptoms and live a quality life. Lance Briggs, for example, stressed the importance of staying mentally and physically active after football, and described his attempts to stay busy and engaged in the community. Hopefully with Briggs' example, more former players will actively monitor their well being and seek help from families and friends in their lives after football.