 The answer may lie in the portion of the program that discussed the brave parents of the 17 year old boy who died from second impact syndrome who donated their sons brain to science. The researcher discovered something that I think should be shocking to all. She stated that upon autopsy, the high school football player had the presence of “Tau” proteins in his brain. Tau proteins are only see in people with Alzheimers disease and post concussion syndrome.
This information is not new, we knew this was the case in retired football players based on groundbreaking research several years ago. This Alzheimers like demise of the brain was thought to take place in the brains of those who were retired from their sport, those who made a living and had an entire career in the sport of football. Most of our children will not play beyond high school, let alone 4 years of college and then 5-10 years in the NFL. Therefore we don't think anything of it.
This special showed the presence of “Tau” proteins in the brain of a 17 year old boy who had started playing foot ball just 4 years earlier at the age of 13. Four years and there is the presence of the “Tau” proteins, heretofore only seen in the brains of the elderly dying of one of the most horrible diseases known to man, Alzheimers diease, and those who have suffered a lifetime of repetitive head injury.
There is no turning back from knowledge. It s what it is. Its up to us to make decisions based on knowledge.
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An article on youth football started making the rounds on the internet and instead of prompting discussion, everyone reading it is left stunned and silent. It was written for Yahoo! Sports blog The Post Game and it raises this very question; should kids be getting hit in the head so much when we know how devastating concussions are in the long-term?
It is one thing for adult men making hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars to take that risk, but should you let your son make that decision? 
There is a lot to be learned from this CNN special and we are grateful for their attention to this important topic. I would like to comment on a portion of the special that grabbed my attention the most. Being a health care provider that specialized in concussion cases I am very interested in why some cases develop the progressive post concussion syndrome and others do not.
