Chris Nowinski

Enlarge iStockphoto.com High school football players will experience more than 40,000 concussions this season. iStockphoto.com High school football players will experience more than 40,000 concussions this season. A 2000 study that surveyed 1,090 former NFL players found that more than 60 percent had suffered at least one concussion during their career. Concussions, a type of traumatic brain injury, generally occur when the head either spins rapidly or accelerates quickly and then...Read Full Story

Since his college days, New England Revolution forward Taylor Twellman has had seven diagnosed concussions. Given all the headers and hits over his career, he's wondering if that number might be drastically higher. Twellman still deals with the effects of a concussion he sustained during a collision with a goalkeeper two years ago, one that possibly cost him a shot at making the U.S. World Cup team and cut short his 2010 season after going on injured reserve in late June. Now he's volunteered...Read Full Story

Dave Duerson of the Chicago Bears, NY Giants and Phoenix Cardinals suffered from an advanced form of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). He commit suicide on February 17, 2011 at the age of 50.  And football players and the media are calling him “Football’s first martyr”. Click here for a video from the Center for the Study of Traumatic Ecephalopathy discussing this case. Before he took his life, he took steps to help others: he left a note and text messages and asked his survivors...Read Full Story

Dave Duerson of the Chicago Bears, NY Giants and Phoenix Cardinals suffered from an advanced form of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). He commit suicide on February 17, 2011 at the age of 50.  And football players and the media are calling him “Football’s first martyr”. Click here for a video from the Center for the Study of Traumatic Ecephalopathy discussing this case. Before he took his life, he took steps to help others: he left a note and text messages and asked his survivors to...Read Full Story

Former wrestler and anti-head-trauma advocate Chris Nowinski said some very critical things about Senate candidate Linda McMahon and the WWE in a recent interview with NECN, alleging that the WWE encourages steroid use and provides an unsafe environment for its wrestlers. While the McMahon campaign has not responded, to my knowledge, the WWE has. The WWE emailed this response to Nowinski's criticisms today: WWE RAISES CREDIBILITY ISSUES FOR CHRIS NOWINSKI • Chris Nowinski did not...Read Full Story

Former WWE wrestler Chris Nowinski discussed the head trauma issues in professional sports with the Philadelphia Inquirer, and recalled a long talk he had with Vince McMahon on the matter last week. ""The WWE interestingly had a more advanced program more quickly [than the NFL] six months after the Chris Benoît tragedy," Nowinski said. "They instituted neuropsychological testing. They've had it over a year now. They have pre-talks with new hires on concussions and CTE. They limit bumps in...Read Full Story

"They have an environment where it's absolutely unsafe to work in that ring," said Nowinski, whose wrestling persona was a cocky Harvard graduate. "They have no oversight into what actually happens in the ring. And they are encouraging steroid use," he said, citing the enormous physiques of recent champions such as Triple H and Batista. "It's garbage that they're not using stuff," he said. "They absolutely know what's going on.".. "The WWE rewards the guys who use them,"... More...Read Full Story

Former WWE wrestler Chris Nowinski issued a memo to PWTorch today listing several former WWE wrestlers who have agreed to donate their brains following death to aid the research of brain trauma from repeated blows to the head. "Over 20 wrestlers have already enrolled or recently pledged to join the study, including Rob Van Dam, Matt Morgan, Lance Storm, Ken Kennedy, Molly Holly, Tony Garea, Antonio Thomas, Dawn Marie, Kevin Fertig, and other big names who at this point choose to remain...Read Full Story

Matt Morgan stated the following on his twitter page: “I’m now an official member of Chris Nowinski’s Sports Legacy Institute! I have signed on to donate my brain to this very earnest, admirable cause. Concussions is a very serious topic that desperately needs more addressing so I’m proud to be part of something that will def help future wrestlers and other athletes for yrs to come. I've noticed more & more, that wrestlers are starting to see the ramifications that concussions can cause. Its...Read Full Story

The Sports Legacy Institute, which is co-chaired by Chris Nowinski, who played college football at Harvard and wrestled professionally for WWE (and whose wrestling career ended due to a concussion), studies the degenerative neurological condition these football players have experienced, which is called Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). Through the study, Nowinski says his group will get an idea of the risk factors, how the disease progresses, the symptoms and potential treatments. He is...Read Full Story