Chronic traumatic encephalopathy is a degenerative brain disease that is caused by repeated blows to the head. Cases of the disease have been found in a number of deceased athletes like boxers, wrestlers, soccer players, and, so far, five football players.
In addition to dementia-like symptoms, the disease can also cause depression, erratic behavior, and suicidal tendencies.
quote taken from ABC News
The key word though is "
can". Certainly...and I don't think anyone is going to argue this...with repeated brain trauma over time many people are going to suffer some ill effects that can result in some very dramatic behavior...but that is not to say
all of them will. It's
possible that Seau taking multiple hits over the course of his career contributed to dramatic behavioral issues that ultimately ended with this act...it's equally as possible that that had nothing to do with it at all and he was simply suffering from a difficulty dealing with being out of the limelight (as Meister suggested), monetary problems, relationship problems, or perhaps he simply had "Richard Cory Syndrome". It could have been a number of things.
The point is that the news is less than six hours old so to immediately jump up and blame it on multiple concussions is a bit premature.
