A former football player made the worst kind of headlines this week when he entered a Manhattan high-rise and started shooting. By the time the smoke cleared, five people lay dead, including the gunman. Authorities said the shooter – 27-year-old Shane Devon Tamura – drove from his home in Las Vegas to 345 Park Ave., which included the corporate offices of the National Football League. Authorities found a suicide note in the shooter’s pocket that claimed that he suffered from CTE.
“He was not an NFL player,” NYC Eric Adams said in a media appearance. “We have reason to believe that he was focused on the NFL agency that was located in the building, and we’re going to continue to investigate with our federal partners to ensure that we can find a reason and identify any other weapons.”
“Study my brain please I’m sorry Tell Rick I’m sorry for everything,” he wrote, according to CNN.
Needless to say, authors continue to investigate the tragedy.
CTE Haunts Former NFL Players
Several violent incidents have fueled increased awareness around chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) over the last 20 years.
- Former Philadelphia Eagles player Andre Waters shot himself just outside his Florida home in 2006. Bennet Omalu, MD, of the University of Pittsburgh, examined his brain post-mortem and later told the New York Times that the 44-year-old Waters had the brain of a man nearly twice his age.
- San Diego all-star – and 20-year NFL veteran – Junior Seau shot himself in the chest in 2012. The autopsy report later confirmed the 43-year-old’s CTE diagnosis.
- In 2017, prison guards found former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez hanging from a tied-up bedsheet in his Massachusetts prison cell. Surprisingly enough, the suicide occured just after jury found him not guilty of a 2012 double homicide. A postmortem brain scan later revealed that Hernandez had CTE. He was 27.
This tragic incident further highlights the recurrent – yet frustratingly opaque – problem of CTE amid the seemingly unstoppable popularity of the NFL.
For example, research published last year showed that one out of three former NFL players believed they had CTE. The players who feared they had the disease reported more cognitive problems, along with a host of other symptoms. Those included higher rates of suppressed testosterone levels, struggles with depression, mood swings, frequent headaches, and chronic pain.
“The symptoms that raise CTE concerns are real and CTE concerns are valid, but it’s critical to understand that having persistent fears about this condition can take a toll on mental health,” co-author Ross Zafonte, MD, said. “When these concerns discourage former NFL players from receiving effective treatments for other or interrelated conditions related to physical and emotional health, it’s our responsibility to intervene.”
Research Persists
It also puts into perspective new research out of Northwestern University that challenges one of the central tenets of what we know about sports and brain health.
The paper, which appeared in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, detailed how researchers examined 174 donated brains — 48 from former non-professional football players and 126 from non-athletes. The researchers wanted to find out whether playing amateur contact sports increases the buildup of p-tau, a protein linked to both Alzheimer’s and CTE. More specifically, they set their sights on the CA2 region of the hippocampus.
The team uncovered no measurable difference in p-tau levels between former football players and non-athletes. Instead, the data exposed a stronger link between p-tau buildup and age, rather than sports history.
“The long and short of it is no, this protein in this specific brain region is not increased in people who played football at the amateur level. It throws a little bit of cold water on the current CTE narrative,” corresponding author Rudolph Castellani, MD, professor of pathology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, explained.
The study’s authors also urge other researchers to embrace a more cautious interpretation of subtle changes in the brain. It also highlights the persistent challenge of defining conditions like CTE without clear clinical evidence.
“Modern studies on CTE may be expanding the boundaries of what’s considered normal variability in the human brain,” Castellani added. “This work reminds us to be cautious in interpreting pathology without clear clinical correlation.”
Further Reading
A Third of Former NFL Players Believe They Have CTE
