NFL Hall of Famer Nick Buoniconti dies at 78

[pwaldo]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-symptoms.html

Pro Football Hall of Fame middle linebacker Nick Buoniconti, an undersized overachiever who helped lead the Miami Dolphins to the NFL's only perfect season, has died at the age of 78.

Bruce Bobbins, a spokesman for the Buoniconti family, said he died Tuesday in Bridgehampton, New York. A cause of death was not immediately known.

In recent years Buoniconti struggled with symptoms of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease associated with repeated blows to the head. He was diagnosed with dementia in 2016.

In 2017, Buoniconti said he wouldn't have played football if he had known about the risks it posed to his brain health. At the time he estimated that he took 520,000 hits to the head during the 14 years he played professionally.

In retirement, Buoniconti became critical of the NFL's treatment of former players who were dealing from CTE symptoms.

'We're the players who built the game, but have been forgotten,' he told Sports Illustrated in 2017.

He also called the NFL's $1 billion concussion settlement with former players 'a joke,' because he felt the agreement failed to provide help for suffering players.

'They are waiting for us to die,' he said of the NFL.

[bakemeister52]

He will be missed and RIP! They do need to do more for CTE!