I’ve interviewed Chris Nowinski on a couple of occasions.
Once was when former Flyer Keith Primeau donated his brain — post-death, of course — to science; namely, the pursuit of the long-term debilitating effects of traumatic brain injuries, like the one I suffered when via hit-and-run.
The other time was when Nowinski, Harvard grad/Ivy League football player/former pro wrestler keynoted a TBI conference at Jefferson.
Attached is a clip from this month’s HBO Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel in which Nowinski’s work opened the door for research that found concussions/TBIs can, in fact, bring about conditions similar to ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s Disease including how Lou Gehrig came down with it himself.
I texted Nowinski the other day to tell him he’s the type of person who keeps my faith in good people out in the world alive. I mean that (and not just because the feeding tubes and alphabet charts in the segment nearly brought me to could’ve-been-could-be-me tears). I mean that because it’s true.
Related: The Journal of Neuropathology and Experimental Neurology website.