Ken Stabler Diagnosed with CTE, but His Family Gets Nothing Under the Settlement
The New York Times and Boston University reported this morning that Ken Stabler had Stage 3 CTE.
Dr. McKee described Stabler’s brain as showing severe neurodegeneration caused from years of repetitive brain trauma,
“He had moderately severe disease,” said Dr. Ann McKee, chief of neuropathology at the V.A. Boston Healthcare System and a professor of neurology and pathology at Boston University School of Medicine, who conducted the examination. “Pretty classic. It may be surprising since he was a quarterback, but certainly the lesions were widespread, and they were quite severe, affecting many regions of the brain.”
His changes were extremely severe in parts of the brain like the hippocampus and amygdala, and those are the big learning and memory centers,” McKee said. “And when you see that kind of damage in those areas, usually people are demented. So if he was still functioning reasonably well, he was compensating, but I don’t think that compensation would have lasted much longer.”
According to his family, Stabler spent the last few years of his life suffering.
“On some days, when he wasn’t feeling extremely bad, things were kind of normal,” Bush said. “But on other days it was intense. I think Kenny’s head rattled for about 10 years.”There were days when I walked in the door and looked at his face, and I could tell,” Bush said.
“He was sitting in his chair, because he was always waiting for me, and the news was on and whatnot, and he had his head laid back, and his eyes just scrunched up so tight that I used to think that would give you a headache in itself, just the pure pressure of squinting like that.”
Shamefully, as noted nearly 7 months ago when Stabler’s death was disclosed, his family will receive nothing under the NFL Concussion Settlement. Instead, the NFL and owners will get to sit back and continue to print money off the backs of the thousands of players who have sacrificed their lives and brains to make the NFL a cash-cow juggernaut.
All the while, the NFL can revel in the fait accompli knowing they have effectively eliminated any future liability for CTE. In other words, they will never have to pay a dime to another family who has been inflicted by the so-called industrial disease of football because of the sweetheart deal they were able to broker under the NFL Concussion Settlement.
Stabler’s daughter likewise noted the injustice perpetrated by the Settlement’s terms:
“He played 15 seasons in the N.F.L., gave up his body and, apparently, now his mind,” Alexa Stabler said as she fought back tears. “And to see the state that he was in physically and mentally when he died, and to learn that despite all the energy and time and resources he gave to football — and not that he played the game for free, he made money, too — without the knowledge that this is where he would end up, physically and cognitively, and for the settlement to say you get nothing? It’s hard not to be angry.”
It is indeed a sad state of corporate greed when the NFL and owners can objectively see the damage they have caused, yet shirk all financial responsibility.
Unfortunately, there will be—and already has been—many more families who will receive a stiff arm by the NFL and the Settlement.
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If it weren’t for the Settlement’s terms excluding any future compensation for CTE after April 22, 2015, Stabler’s family would have received approximately $980,000. The conclusion that Stabler’s family will receive nothing under the settlement assumes he was never diagnosed with another compensable disease (i.e., dementia, ALS, Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s). Finally, this also assumes that the Settlement survives appellate scrutiny.