On Saturday December 1, Jovan Belcher shot his girlfriend Kasandra Perkins, the mother of their 3-month-old daughter, several times. He then drove to the Kansas City Chief’s practice facility and shot himself in front of his general manager, head coach and linebacker coach.

The reasoning behind the murder-suicide of the Chiefs linebacker is being linked to a brain disease called Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), which comes in an “ordered and predictable” four-stage Pattern. CTE typically begins with headaches and an inability to focus, then moves to depression, memory loss and outbursts of anger, according to the Boston University Medical Journal, BRAIN.

Two days after the tragic occurrence, Brain published an extensive study of CTE, a brain-destroying disease that occurs as a consequence of repetitive mild traumatic brain injury.

According to the study, CTE is clinically associated with symptoms of irritability, impulsivity, aggression, depression, short-term memory loss and heightened suicidality that usually begins 8–10 years after experiencing repetitive mild traumatic brain injury. As evidenced through Belcher’s actions before the murder-suicide, he seems to have experienced some of these symptoms and they may have been a result of him having CTE.

According to a friend of Belcher’s, Zoe, who emailed a media website deadspin.com, Belcher was described as “a young man whipsawed between football-related head trauma and ongoing substance abuse. She also speculated that a “combination of alcohol, concussion and prescription drugs,” along with the apparent domestic issues, led to the murder-suicide.

An episode of short-term memory loss is also mentioned by Belcher’s friend where he took a few direct hits to the head at a game against the Cincinnati Bengals. Belcher “was dazed and was suffering from short-term memory loss. He could not remember the events that had taken place prior to that game or what he had said to get Kasi [Kasandra Perkins] to return home.”

The report stated that the stage of heightened suicidality usually takes 8-10 years before it manifests.  With Belcher having domestic problems, alleged alcoholism and prescription drug issues, these factors may have sped up the progression of his condition to where he wanted to commit suicide.

According to the study, “Among the 51 subjects with CTE and CTE-MND, there were seven deaths from suicide; six others clearly expressed suicidal ideations at some point during their life. There were six deaths from drug or alcohol overdose.”

Belcher is the sixth NFL player to commit suicide in the last two years, and with the number increasing more research will have to be done to determine if CTE is the culprit of these deaths. The current study from BRAIN proves what most researchers have been speculating for some years:

“Of the 35 former professional American football players (34 National Football League and one Canadian Football League), one showed no disease (Case 27, age 26 years), three had stage I/IV disease, three had stage II/IV, nine had stage III/IV disease, seven had stage IV/IV disease, two had CTE plus Alzheimer’s disease, four had CTE plus Lewy body disease, two had CTE plus Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body disease, four had CTE plus frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) and three had CTE and motor neuron disease (CTE-MND).”

With only one individual tested having no disease, there is an apparent connection between direct head injuries that professional football players receive and CTE but more research will have to be conducted in order to make more concrete determinations.

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Rex Ryan has had to deal with the recent sniping going back and forth in his locker room between Santonio Holmes and Brandon Moore. He still has to deal with stuff people are saying — except this time, the culprit is himself. On a conference call Wednesday with reporters in San Diego, Ryan said he’d already have two Super Bowl rings if he had been hired by the Chargers in 2007.

Ryan, who interviewed for the job, said, “I’m telling you, those teams were loaded.” That was a slight toward Norv Turner, who landed the head-coaching gig in ’07 and has yet to reach a Super Bowl. Ryan knows how hard it is to coach in the NFL as he watched his father Buddy Ryan do it for years.

He has a ton of respect for the profession and would never insult another coach. However, as we have seen over the past two years, Rex also has a bravado not matched by many and especially not by anyone else currently in his profession. This, at times, gets him into trouble as it did Wednesday, when the lack of filter from brain to mouth came back to haunt him.

Ryan reached out to Chargers coach Norv Turner to clarify his remarks and let him know he was in no way taking a shot at him. Turner is known as a very low key coach, but he wasn’t happy with the comments and made sure to get even with Rex to the media.

“I hadn’t seen his quote and I was a little bit surprised by the call,” Turner said. “And then after I saw the quote, I didn’t have a chance to ask him this, but I was wondering if he had those rings with the ones he’s guaranteed the last couple of years.”

Ryan lets his players speak their minds and this has become somewhat problematic for the team. He says this policy will never change, but even Ryan felt the need to talk to Holmes and Moore and tell the team, “Enough is enough.” People have been trying to draw more conclusions out of this story than there really are.

He wasn’t taking a shot at the Chargers or Norv Turner, nor was he taking shots at his own team. He’s been predicting a Super Bowl since day 1, so he must have a pretty good reason for doing so, other than just overconfidence. This is just another case of Rex being Rex, not some genius attempt to shield his team from the recent controversy they’ve been dealing with.

One thing is for sure, people will be watching after the game what Rex and Norv do with their handshake. Another thing you can bank on is that if this Jets team doesn’t turn things around, Rex being Rex won’t seem so funny to the people of New York.

Image Courtesy of  http://www.flickr.com/photos/keithallison/

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Monday, the day after the Jets were beat down in Baltimore, Rex Ryan laid into his team about their recent performance and promised a return to the “Ground & Pound” that has made the Jets such a formidable contender the past two seasons. Rex seemed calm after their loss Sunday night, but according to guard Matt Slausson, “(Sunday night) he was definitely hurt, emotionally hurt, but today he was pissed.”

A player speaking on the condition of anonymity said that Ryan was, “as angry as I’ve ever seen him.” Ryan told the team they need to get their identity back, which for the Jets means running the ball and playing smashmouth in your face football. The Jets the past two seasons have built their reputation as one of the most prolific running teams in the NFL.

This season has been a different story as they’ve gotten away from that and become a pass happy team. That pass happy mentality backfired badly against the Ravens. The blitzes put Sanchez under heavy pressure all game causing him to commit four turnovers and take 10 QB hits.

The Jets rushed for 38 yards against the Ravens, which is a season-low. “We have to be able to run the football better than we’re running it, there’s no question about that,” Ryan said. “Maybe we’re built differently than other teams. We can get a lot of (passing) yards and all that stuff, but we want to get wins.”

The Jets problems are stemming from the lack of offensive line play. For years this has been the strength of the team but it is beginning to show signs of deterioration. They were playing bad before All-Pro center Nick Mangold went down and has missed three games with a high-ankle sprain. The team is hopeful he can play against he Patriots  on Sunday.

The only new starter is right tackle Wayne Hunter, who was a backup so the drop off is somewhat shocking for the team and its fans. The Jets average 71 rushing yards per game which is good for 30^th in the league compared to a year ago when their average was 148.4.

Ryan hasn’t blamed RB Shonn Greene, who was named the “bell-cow” running back this year. So far he has 157 yards and 3.1 average, which is the lowest per-carry mark among the top 40 rushers in the league. However, Ryan has no plans to reduce his role and feature LT more.

“Shoot, no,” he said. “How ’bout we give Shonn Greene a chance?”

However, Ryan is partial to second-year back Joe McKnight out of USC, who has been impressing coaches with his special teams play. He forced a fumble on Sunday nights opening kick-off and returned a kick 107 yards for a touchdown. He was also in on defense, causing pressure on the Joe Flacco pick six.

“Concerned? Not at all,” left tackle D’Brickashaw Ferguson said. “We have tough skin and we’ll get it fixed.” But running the ball is a mentality, and it might be harder than the Jets think to just switch back to the way they were in 2009 and 2010. But they will try. When asked if Ground & Pound is back, Slauson smiled and said, “Absolutely. … We’re going to be back. We’re going to be back real soon.”

The Jets better hope they come back sooner than later or the Jets are in for a long season in which their franchise quarterback ends up in the ER.

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