When Noah Greene, 25, with no history of violence, crashed his car into a barricade at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., killing one police officer, and then lunged at others with a knife, his family was in disarray. Ta. I answer.
“My heart sank,” his mother, Maisie Green, told me. At first glance, it was a murder case that had nothing to do with American football.
But three years later, Maisie, speaking publicly for the first time since that day, said she now believes it had something to do with American football.
Greene was shot and killed by responding police, and several days after the murder, the FBI recommended that Maisie submit Noah’s brain for analysis.
The diagnosis came back several months later, showing that Green had stage 1 chronic traumatic encephalopathy, more commonly known as CTE.
This is a brain disease caused by repeated blows to the head that affects participants in contact sports such as American football. Symptoms include aggression, paranoia, and impulse control problems.
“Noah was hit hard,” Maisie says. At Allegany High School in rural Virginia, Green played defense, was named Most Valuable Player, and later played at Christopher Newport University.
Teammates recall him as trustworthy and friendly, but Maisie said she noticed a change after suffering several head injuries.
“He wanted to be tough, to prove himself,” Maisie says. Then he lost his keys and forgot how to cook and prepare his meals.
“Then he started having really bad headaches. One day he said, ‘I don’t know what’s wrong, Mom, I’ve lost 20 pounds…I have to leave the house. I feel like I have to get out of the country. They’re going to kill me, FBI, they’re going to kill me.”
“He was paranoid.”
Officer William Evans, the police officer killed by Noah Green left behind two young children. I ask Maisie if she has any message for her family.
“Officer Evans should not have died that day. Noah should not have died that day. Someone has to take responsibility for telling parents what to do if something goes wrong with their kids playing football.” For entertainment. “
Shannon Terranova, Officer Evans’ ex-spouse and mother of two young children, said: “I want to be mindful of everyone affected by this real horror, but there is no way to rationalize what happened.” It’s difficult to understand,” he said. Regarding Billy and the events leading up to his death, I am grateful for efforts to raise awareness of the long-term effects of physical trauma from sports injuries. But nothing justifies what Billy’s coworkers and family went through, witnessed, and went through. I felt it on April 2, 2021, and every day since. ”
Christopher Newport University declined to comment on Noah Greene’s case. Allegany High School did not respond to Sky News’ request for comment.
The question of whether CTE is linked to violent crime has come to the fore following a spate of violent incidents involving former soccer players.
In 2021, former San Francisco 49ers star Phillip Adams shot and killed six people in a violent outburst.
He murdered Robert Leslie, a doctor, his wife Barbara Leslie, and their two grandchildren, Ada, 9, and Noah, 5, in their South Carolina home.
They also killed James Lewis and Robert Shook, who were working on the home’s air conditioning system. Analysis of Adams’ brain revealed that he had severe CTE.
Kellen Winslow, another ex NFL The player was convicted of multiple rapes in 2021.
His lawyer argued for a reduced sentence, citing head injuries sustained on the soccer field. That potential mitigating factor was rejected by the judge.
Most experts say it’s difficult to say for sure what drives someone to commit a crime, but the symptoms that CTE causes can all contribute. More research is ongoing into the causes of CTE and the factors that make some people more susceptible to CTE.
Sky News has been granted access to the National Sports Brain Bank in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where former professional and amateur American football players are being encouraged to donate their brains for research.
In the histology lab, Dr. Julia Koffler cuts open the brain with a knife and shows us the cross-section.
Since it’s impossible to diagnose CTE with the naked eye, she took a small sample of brain tissue and loaded it onto a slide so it could be analyzed under a microscope.
I asked her if she thought there was a link between CTE and violent crime. “It’s very difficult to draw conclusions about what drives people to commit crimes based on pathology alone,” she says. So she could certainly have contributed. ”
“We watched him lose himself.”
Karen Kinsle Zegel is one of those fighting for more research. Her son, Patrick Richa, suffered from her CTE and died by suicide at age 32. He continued to play American football from childhood until college.
“We watched him sadly lose himself and lose his dignity for 10 years,” she says. “He was paranoid and argumentative.
“One time he had an incident where he said a homeless guy attacked him in Pittsburgh and he hit the guy and broke his hand. His anger was definitely scary.”
Through her organization Stop CTE, Karen is campaigning for the brains of people who commit mass violence to be analyzed for traumatic injuries.
“Every time we see symptoms like, ‘They lost their job, they broke up with their girlfriend.’
“Everyone wants to know why. Why would someone take another person’s life? But if you’ve ever interacted with someone whose brain is wired incorrectly, you’ll find that they lack empathy. I get it, sadly they don’t care about others.
“We’re not going to go back to the root cause, which could be brain damage.”
Concerns about brain injuries have contributed to the growth of flag football, a low-contact sport, so there are fewer big hits and no obvious dangers.
But the NFL’s popularity as a spectator sport remains strong. Last week’s Super Bowl final was the most-watched television event in American history.
But for the star, the damage may have already been done. The human cost of the world’s richest sports league is too difficult to count.
Sky News has asked the NFL for comment on our reporting. In response, the NFL provided details on the funding it is giving to CTE-related research, mental health support and physical safety measures it says it takes in the sport.