Ann McKee

Former New England Patriots player Aaron Hernandez suffered substantial damage to parts of the brain that affect memory, judgment and behavior from the most severe case of a degenerative disease linked to head blows ever found in someone so young, a researcher said Thursday. Dr. Ann McKee, director of Boston University’s CTE Center, stressed that she could not “connect the...

Former football star Aaron Hernandez’ brain was riddled with damage from a degenerative brain disease linked with head blows, but that doesn’t necessarily explain the troubles that plagued his young life. The diagnosis comes from a Boston University researcher who has studied hundreds of brains from football players, college athletes and even younger players, donated after their deaths. Dr. Ann...

A startling new study by Boston University researchers found that after an examination of 111 deceased former NFL players, 99 percent of them had a progressive degenerative brain disease.

NFL executive Jeff Miller acknowledged a link between football-related head trauma and the brain disease CTE, the first admission by a league official that there is such a relationship.

Brandi Chastain, whose penalty kick gave the United States the 1999 Women’s World Cup title, has pledged her brain for concussion research. The 47-year-old Chastain announced her donation to the Massachusetts-based Concussion Legacy Foundation on Thursday. Upon her death, her brain will go to the VA-BU-CLF Brain Bank, a joint project with the Department of Veterans Affairs and Boston University...