Noah Welch, seen in a 2007 game, has played 33 games in the NHL. (Doug Benc/Getty Images)Noah Welch of the Florida Panthers is one of a number of pro athletes who have agreed to donate their brains for examination after their deaths to study the long-term effects of concussions, the New York Times reported on its website Tuesday night.
Former New England Patriots linebacker Ted Johnson, one of the players who committed to the donation, hopes Boston University's Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy can help clear up the debate on the issue.
"I shouldn't have to prove to anybody that there's something wrong with me," Johnson told the newspaper.
Johnson's neurologist has pointed to the former player's multiple concussions between 2002-05 as a cause of his permanent and degenerative problems with memory and depression.
"I'm not being vindictive. I'm not trying to reach up from the grave and get the NFL," Johnson added. "But any doctor who doesn't connect concussions with long-term effects should be ashamed of themselves."
Seattle Seahawks linebacker Isaiah Kacyvenski played in Super Bowl XL in 2006. (Michael Conroy/Associated Press)Among the living athletes, most with a history of concussions, who have agreed to donate their brains for examination after their deaths are former NFL players Frank Wycheck, Isaiah Kacyvenski and Ben Lynch. Welch and Cindy Parlow, a former member of the U.S. national soccer team, are also participating.
The Boston University centre operates in collaboration with the non-profit Sports Legacy Institute, founded by Chris Nowinski and Dr. Robert Cantu,
Nowinski is a former Harvard University football player who was a professional wrestler under the name of Chris Harvard.
Nowinski spoke to CBC's The Fifth Estate at length about the effects of brain injuries in the wake of the murder-suicide in June 2007 involving Canadian-born wrestler Chris Benoit.
Cantu has worked with a number of athletes who have suffered head injuries, including Boston Bruins forward Patrice Bergeron and pro boxer Joe Mesi.
Welch, a 26-year-old defenceman, is attempting to make the Florida Panthers and enjoy his first healthy season in three years. He has been limited to 66 games over the past two seasons due to concussion and shoulder injuries.
The centre is expected to announce Thursday that former Houston Oilers linebacker John Grimsley was the fifth deceased NFL player found to have brain damage commonly associated with boxers, according to the Times. Andre Waters, Mike Webster, Terry Long and Justin Strzelczyk were the first four.
"We support all research that would further the scientific and medical understanding of this injury, which affects thousands of people, athletes and non-athletes alike, every year," said NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. "Hundreds of thousands of people have played football and other sports without experiencing any problem of this type, and there continues to be considerable debate in the medical community on the precise long-term effects of concussions and how they relate to other risk factors."
Grimsley died in February of a self-inflicted gunshot wound that police ruled an accident.
The NFL is conducting its own study on concussions, and Aiello expects the results to be published in 2010.
