I finally finished A Delicate Game: Power, Corruption and Brain Injury by Hana Walker-Brown.
It took me a while to get through this book because sometimes I simply didn’t feel like reading about brain injuries before bed. It was a depressing read, to be frank, yet I was motivated to read this book because of the sports my children play.
The scientific research points to the association between concussive head trauma, common in so many contact sports like boxing, rugby and football, and the degenerative brain disease Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) the symptoms of which present much like dementia.
Walker-Brown is shining a light into a dark tunnel. So much resistance by powerful sporting bodies exists around acknowledging any association between head trauma and CTE, even in the face of mounting evidence. The resistance stems from the colossal amounts of money involved in some professional sports. As Walker-Brown demonstrates, many people that benefit from the current structure don’t want their best player off the pitch for a second longer than necessary after head trauma so expend energies to deny or cast doubt on the associations. She bravely calls this out.
The more awareness about the link between head injuries in sport and long term brain injuries, the more chance of making appropriate changes or enabling people to make choices about which sports they play.
