Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a brain disease. Many dead NFL players, some of whom took their own lives, suffered through this degenerative disease, including Hall of Famers. CTE is a very real and very dangerous problem facing NFL athletes.
Colts owner Jim Irsay must not have received the memo.
In an interview with Sports Business Daily, Irsay failed to recognize the very serious nature of CTE and its effects on players. When discussing the safety of the NFL, he had this to say about the dangers of life after football:
To try to tie football, like I said, to suicides or murders or what have you, I believe that is just so absurd as well and it is harmful to other diseases, harmful to things like … when you get into the use of steroids, when you get into substance abuse, you get into the illness of alcohol and addiction.