It was back home, 1988. I stood stunned on the sidelines with the other cheerleaders, praying that he would wake up. It had been 20 minutes and he still wasn't moving. The crowd was silent as the ambulance drove away. He would be pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital. Keith, our star linebacker, was 17 and we were heartbroken. His family was religiously opposed to an autopsy, but we were told he likely died from a congenital brain aneurysm. 25 years later, almost to the day, I was sitting watching a discussion on ESPN about an Arizona high school football player who died after a game from a concussion, likely due to the syndrome of the second impact. Suddenly I found myself on the sidelines. “Keith,” I said out loud to no one in the room. This is how my thirst for knowledge about head injuries and the resulting pathologies, such as chronic traumatic encephalopathy, was born. a pattern of neurological sequelae observed in boxers (Martland, 1928). This disease would later become known as pugilistic dementia and then chronic progressive traumatic encephalopathy of boxers (Critchley, 1957; Millspaugh, 1937). Today, this disease is called chronic traumatic encephalopathy or CTE and includes a wide range of clinical manifestations, from mild cognitive, motor, and behavioral dysfunction to full-blown dementia with Parkinson's-like tremors (McKee et al., 2013 ). Those who struggle with CTE often struggle with aggression toward others and are at high risk for suicidal behavior. CTE occurs in patients with a history of blunt and closed head trauma. Although strongly associated with representation-inclined groups...... middle of paper ......, DA, Donoghue, N., ...Barrio, JR (2013). Brain tau PET in retired National Football League players: preliminary results. American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry. 21(144), 138.SPORTINGJIM. (September 14, 2013). William P. Meehan III, MD, guest on “5 Questions with CJSM.” [Web log comment]. Retrieved from http://cjsmblog.com/2013/09/14/william-p-meehean-iii-md-guest-on-5-questions-with-cjsm/Stoller, K.P. (2011). Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (1.5 ATA) in the treatment of sports-related TBI/CTE: two case reports. Medical Gas Research, 1(1), 17. Scrimgeour, AG and Condlin, ML (2014). Nutritional treatment of head injuries. Journal of Neurotrauma, 31, 12. Wetjen, N.M., Pichelmann, M.A., & Atkinson, J. (2010). Second Impact Syndrome: Complications of concussion and second brain injury. Journal of the American College of Surgeons, 211(4), 553-557