Written by Frank Schwab at YahooSports.com
You have to be tough to play in the NFL, and few were tougher than Warren Sapp. He’s one of the best defensive tackles of the past generation, and rightfully in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
So it was a bit of a jolt to hear Sapp talk about what he believes the game has done to him. That he can’t remember certain things now, even though he said he always had a great memory. He relies on reminders on his phone to keep from forgetting daily events. He said “it’s from the banging we did as football players.” Sapp said he’ll try to blame lack of sleep or something he drank on his forgetfulness, hoping to avoid a more serious answer.
“You try to find a reason that it’s not that, ‘It’s my brain,’” Sapp said in an interview with The Players’ Tribune. “That I’m not deteriorating right before my own eyes.”
In the interview Sapp said he’ll donate his brain to the Concussion Legacy Foundation for research.
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
There are still significant questions about what exactly is the connection between chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), concussions and football. The studies are still in the very early stages and as Yahoo’s Eric Adelson recently wrote about, one issue in the medical community are presumptions about CTE and the fear involved. The more work that’s done on brains of former football players like Sapp, and non-football players too, the closer we’ll get to answers.
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