According to researchers at Boston University, former Florida and New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez had the most severe case of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, CTE, ever found in someone of his age.
Hernandez was 27 years old when he took his own life in April while serving a life prison sentence for the 2013 murder of Odin Lloyd.
Per Adam Kilgore of The Washington Post, Hernandez was found to have stage 3 CTE, which had never been found in the brain of anyone younger than 46.
“We can’t take the pathology and explain the behavior,” Dr. Ann McKee, head of BU’s CTE Center McKee, said Thursday. “But we can say collectively, in our collective experience, that individuals with CTE, and CTE of this severity, have difficulty with impulse control, decision-making, inhibition of impulses for aggression, emotional volatility, rage behaviors. We know that collectively.”
Credit: Al Messerschmidt
Credit: Al Messerschmidt
Hernandez played at Florida from 2007-09 and was with the New England Patriots from 2010-12.
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