Support NeoGAF

[alr1ght]

what kind of bullshit excuse is that? The man was scum, plain and simple.

it's not justification, but

The level of brain damage Benoit had can cause depression and irrational behavior, Cantu said.

Benoit's brain showed the same degenerative processes that doctors working for the institute found in the brains of three men who had played pro football and committed suicide, Cantu said. There were abnormal protein deposits caused by trauma to Benoit's brain, Cantu said.

 

[Grifter]

Sad, he was willing to take unprotected chairshots to the head and did way too many cage headbutt dives that he did really didn't have to. No excuse, but something for young wrestlers to learn from.

 

[Andokuky]

Don't really see why brain damage matters. If he's coherent enough to travel the country and stage choreographed fights he should have been stable enough to know not to choke his wife and kid to death. And didn't he put copies of the Bible next to them? So he wasn't out of his skull that much obviously. Sometimes people just snap.

 

[Cheebs]

If the man had severe head trauma, you don't think for one second it might have something to do with killing his wife and kid?

Head damage or not he is(was) a horrible human being who deserves to burn in hell for what he did.

 

[medrew]

This is the work and group that Chris Harvard is behind

From Wiki:

In October 2006, Nowinski released a book, Head Games: Football's Concussion Crisis, which details his career-ending injury and discusses the dangers of concussions in football and other contact sports. The book includes stories from NFL players as well as fellow wrestlers, with an introduction by Jesse Ventura. Later in the year, Nowinski initiated an inquiry into the suicide of Andre Waters, a 44-year old former NFL defensive back who shot himself on November 20, 2006. Waters had sustained several concussions over his career, and at Nowinski's behest, Waters' family agreed to send pieces of his brain to be tested. Dr. Bennet Omalu of the University of Pittsburgh announced that "the condition of Waters' brain tissue was what would be expected in an 85-year-old man, and there were characteristics of someone being in the early stages of Alzheimer's."[4][5]

Nowinski played an integral role in the discovery of the 4th case of CTE in a former NFL football player, former Pittsburgh Steelers offensive lineman Justin Strzelczyk, who was killed in a fiery automobile crash in 2004 at age 36 after a 37 mile police chase at speeds up to 100 miles per hour on the wrong side of the highway. Dr. Julian Bailes, the chairman of the department of neurosurgery at West Virginia University and the Steelers’ team neurosurgeon during Strzelczyk’s career, insisted to Nowinski over a phone conversation that he thought Strezelcyzk’s death, which was precipitated by strange behavior that some had labeled as “bipolar”, was worth looking into due to its similarities to the Andre Waters case. Nowinski contacted Dr. Bennet Omalu, who discovered the brain was still available, and Nowinski called Mary Strzelczyk, Justin’s mother, to ask for permission to Dr. Omalu to examine it for CTE. Omalu’s positive diagnosis was confirmed by two other neuropathologists.[6][7]

Nowinski alerted police and the coroner of Chris Benoit, asking them to do a brain exam on Benoit's brain to see if concussions had any part in his rage and/or depression at the time of the double-homicide of his family and his suicide.[8] In June of 2007, Nowinski co-founded the Sports Legacy Institute, an organization dedicated to furthering awareness of and research on sports-related head injuries, and increasing the safety of contact and collision sports worldwide. Nowinski's work was documented on ESPN's Outside the Lines on September 5, 2007.

 

[thefro]

This is the best story on this:

http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/Story?id=3560015

Guess it is going to be on Nightline tonight.

Damage is similar to what happens with Alzheimer's.

 

[Burai]

Head damage or not he is(was) a horrible human being who deserves to burn in hell for what he did.

If there's anything over the years that's depressed me most about GAF it's the complete and utter misunderstanding of exactly what having mental illness entails for the sufferer, their loved ones and how utterly powerless they are when it comes to coping with it.

It's like that comedian suicide thread where people just seem utterly baffled how someone can be affected by severe depression.

Your brain controls everything totally subconsciously. If it doesn't work properly, don't you think just maybe that perhaps this might cause someone to do something unusual?

This new evidence perfectly explains why Benoit did what he did, but people still have to dredge up some dark ages "He must have been evil otherwise he would have ignored his brain" bullshit.

When it comes to mental illness the world is still flat for so many GAFers.

The more evidence that comes to light, the more tragic this whole case becomes. How could so many people have let this poor man continue to live his life without help in the face of such overwhelming evidence that he was ill? It's a horrible, horrible tragedy and more people have blood on their hands than Chris Benoit.

 

[malek4980]

I see that dualism is still alive and well.

 

[Crayon Shinchan]

Head damage or not he is(was) a horrible human being who deserves to burn in hell for what he did.

Jesus. Do you republican shills always have to be this way? This ignorant I mean?

Everything for you jackasses has to be couched in terms of 'good person, bad person' isn't it?