Controversy: Can Repeat Concussions Cause Lou Gehrig's Disease? (preview)

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Football players diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease may suffer from the effect of repeated blows to the head, controversial new research says

By Jeffrey Bartholet ?| February 2, 2012?|

Image: Scott Cunningham/Getty Images

In Brief

• Kevin Turner, a former professional foot???ball player, suffered at least two concussions during his career and has been diagnosed with ALS, or Lou Gehrig?s disease. Some scientists believe that he has a distinct type of ALS caused by repeated concussions and that other players have suffered a similar fate.
• The findings, which stem from research connecting concussions to another brain disease, are controversial. Proponents compare their efforts to show a link between brain trauma and an ALS-like disease to the battle to prove a connection between smoking and lung cancer; others say that the science does not justify that analogy.
• There is widespread agreement, how?ever, that repeated blows to the head, such as those sustained during a football player?s career, can result in brain damage.

Kevin Turner was a premier athlete in the National Football League, a fullback who could run, catch and block. At 6' 1" and roughly 230 pounds, he was slightly undersized for his position, but he had tremendous thrust in his legs and used all of it to launch himself into players who were bigger than he was. He played for the New England Patriots from 1992 to 1994, then joined the Philadelphia Eagles, with whom he stayed until his abrupt retirement in 1999. Some called him ?the Collision Expert??a nickname he got because of the gouges he collected on his helmet.

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