The Centers for Disease Control calls Sports Concussions an Epidemic

           Dr. Ann McKee , a neuropathologist at the Boston University School of Medicine  studied 16 athletes - including 11 football players - and identified a disease called Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy in every case.  CTE, as it's known, eats away at brain cells over time, eventually causing dementia. "This pattern of injury is only seen in trauma....You just don't see anything like this, what we see in athletes. It seems to be triggered by trauma that occurs in a person's youth," McKee tells Bob Simon in a report for 60 MINUTES to be broadcast Sunday, Oct. 11 (7:00-8:00) on the CBS Television Network. Watch an excerpt.

            CTE is most commonly found in boxers, says McKee, but "potentially, it could affect a lot of different sports, hockey, lacrosse; it could possibly affect soccer players," she says, anyone suffering "severe repetitive head injury."

            Ted Johnson, a former New England Patriots linebacker who says he suffered more than 50 concussions in his career believes this information won't change the way players play. "If they play with fear, they're not going to be very good players. I don't see [football] changing. I don't," he tells Simon.  The game probably changed Johnson, however.  He retired four years ago due to concussions and became clinically depressed, a condition that a University of North Carolina study of retired NFL players linked to severe repetitive head injury. 

Concussions were almost routine, he says. "A lot of times I didn't get my vision back before the next snap," he tells Simon.  "I'd have to get another linebacker to call the plays...I couldn't see my defensive coordinator signaling in because my vision was still blurred." He says he often went "right back in" after suffering head trauma.  "I didn't know any better. I really didn't."

Though diagnosis of CTE can only be made after death, prominent neurosurgeon Dr. Robert Cantu, who treated Johnson, believes he is suffering from brain damage just like other athletes he has seen.  Concussions are serious brain injuries says Cantu, and in football, they are especially impactful.  "Athletes can run almost 20 miles an hour and their size and their weight would be equivalent to crashing a car into a brick wall going 40, 45 miles an hour," he tells Simon.