SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — The sponsor of a proposal to ban Illinois children younger than 12 from playing tackle football told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the measure aimed at delaying the effects of helmet-banging head trauma lacks the votes to pass this session.
Rep. Carol Sente, a Vernon Hills Democrat, said parents and taxpayers “need more time to absorb the evidence” of a link between repeated blows to the brain and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a dementia-like, degenerative disease characterized by memory loss, violent urges, depression and other cognitive troubles.
Prominent ex-football players have died by suicide, and others who are living blame their brain-related dysfunctions on CTE.