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NFL Players Association president Eric Winston has decided to donate his own brain for NFL concussion research after he dies. The 32-year-old Winston has played 10 NFL seasons with four NFL teams and is currently a member of the Cincinnati Bengals.
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"It's an 'if I don't need it and can do some good for somebody else, then I'm all for it' kind of thing," Winston recently told reporters. "I wouldn't say that I was thinking about it for a long time. I thought about it and just thought, 'This could be a good idea. This is something that could help.'"
Concussion research efforts have increased in recent years as doctors try to understand CTE, which stands for chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
The effects of repeated blows to the head are believed to be the major cause. Among the notable football players diagnosed posthumously with CTE is Hall of Famer Junior Seau, who shot himself to death in 2012.
Winston emphasized he isn't experiencing symptoms. He just feels donating his brain for study is the right thing to do in regards of future players.
"There's a host of reasons that it's good for a lot of guys, even if you're not showing symptoms, to donate your brain because there's guys who think they're healthy or are healthy, and obviously there's guys that aren't and we've been getting a lot of those," Winston said. "Knowing what we all know now, you can't help but think, 'Gosh, I wonder if that's going to be me in 20 years or 30 years.'"
