Three former Oakland Raiders players have vowed to give their brains to the Concussion Legacy Foundation in honor of former teammate Ken Stabler, who died last summer at the age of 69.
George Atkinson, George Buehler, and Art Thoms told Elliott Almond of the Bay Area News Group that they have pledged their brains to the foundation studying chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
CTE is a degenerative brain disease, caused by repeated blows to the head, that can only be diagnosed after death.
Stabler passed away after a battle with colon cancer, and research on his brain thereafter determined that he'd been suffering from Stage 3 CTE.
"When you see your teammate deteriorate a lot through the end of his life, to see him go out like that, it brings us together," Thoms said.
Atkinson has two sons who play football - one of whom is currently on the Raiders' practice squad - and says whether they play the game is their choice. But the former safety indicated he's been seeing a neurologist for six years, and that he had to stop broadcast work with the team due to memory loss.
"I'd get in the middle of a piece and forget where I was going," said Atkinson.
NFL senior vice president and chief security office Jeffrey B. Miller admitted last week that there's a link between CTE and football, marking the first time a league official has done so.
