sport news The Old Man and the CTE? Did the disease that haunts NFL lead Ernest Hemingway ... trends now
Heavy drinking, depression and PTSD from serving in World War I have all been linked as factors in Ernest Hemingway's suicide at 61, over 60 years ago.
The author of classics such as The Sun Also Rises, The Old Man and the Sea and For Whom the Bell Tolls shot himself in the head in his kitchen in Idaho, 19 days before his birthday. His family were planning a visit with him to celebrate.
Hemingway struggled with an array of health issues across his life but another might have gone undetected, according to his granddaughter Mariel, in an interview with The Spectator. CTE, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the degenerative brain disease that catches up with all kinds of elite sportsmen - boxers, footballers, soccer players - might also have got Hemingway too.
Repeated blows to the head cause CTE and sports stars, specifically in the NFL, have been victims of the disease. In 2017, a study by the Journal of the American Medical Association found CTE in 110 out of 111 brains from footballers who had played in the NFL and donated their brains to science after their death.
So, back to Hemingway. There is a long list of theories around his death, on top of those previously mentioned - several family members of his also took their own life including his brother, sister and later, his granddaughter. He also had hemochromatosis, a genetic disorder involving iron metabolism that eventually causes memory loss.
Ernest Hemingway's suicide at the age of 61, in 1961, has been debated extensively since
Hemingway loved boxing and he was known to back himself with his fists against most people
Hemingway served as a soldier in World War 1 and was knocked unconscious by a mortar shell
But Hemingway loved sport and loved a fight. In his school days in Illinois, he was a lineman for his football team. At 18, he fought in World War I and was blown off his feet and knocked unconscious by a mortar shell in an explosion that killed two soldiers.
A car accident in London once left Hemingway concussed and needing over 50 stitches to repair a head injury. Another time, a skylight collapsed on top of him, leaving him with the famed scar on his forehead.
According to Dr Andrew Farah, who has studied Hemingway's head injuries, in The Spectator: 'That was one of nine or ten major concussions we know of. There were many more subconcussive hits to his head, and we’ve now learned that multiple subconcussive blows can have the same effect as concussions.'
Compare that to the case of Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, who last season was technically in concussion protocol twice but before those two officially diagnosed incidents, appeared to be worryingly unsteady on his feet after a high hit in a game against the Bills.
Four days later, he went off on a stretcher in a neck brace after another heavy tackle in a game against the Cincinnati Brown - his first official
