CTE can’t be diagnosed until the brain is examined after death and researchers aren’t sure why some former players get it and some don’t. “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”.
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His brain was donated to researchers to study for patterns of CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy), the degenerative brain disease made famous in the movie “Concussion” that is connected with repeated head trauma.
Stabler, who died of colon cancer at 69 in July, had Stage 3 chronic traumatic encephalopathy, Dr. Ann McKee told The Associated Press. Stabler is one of the highest profile athletes to have been discovered to have developed the disease.
Stabler’s free-spirted, renegade personality on and off the football field came to define the entire Oakland Raiders team in the 1970s, leading the club to a 1977 Super Bowl victory. In 2012, Seau shot himself in the chest at the age of 43.
Ken Stabler attended a Raiders game in Oakland in 2009.
In the years preceding his death, Stabler anxious about the state of his brain, and added his name to a class-action lawsuit brought by former players against the National Football League seeking damages from decades of concussions.
“There was no evidence of any other brain disorder to explain the difficulties he experienced during life”, McKee said.
According to the New York Times, more than 100 players, including at least seven members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, have been diagnosed with having the disease.
The left-handed Stabler, nicknamed “Snake” for his ability to escape from defenders, led Alabama to an undefeated season in 1966.
The discovery is somewhat unusual in quarterbacks, but Stabler was known for being a scrambling quarterback and took more hits than players at the position usually did.
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Stabler’s family will find out Saturday if he will be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
