NHLer Bob Probert suffered from degenerative brain disease, scientists find

[CHIMO]

Six months before he died of a heart attack at age 45, former National Hockey League enforcer Bob Probert was flipping television channels when he stumbled upon a documentary about scientists analyzing the brains of dead professional football players.

Their findings so intrigued the former NHL tough guy that, when the researchers lamented how few hockey players had volunteered to help them understand the aftermath of multiple hits to the head, he vowed to do his part.

“It was just me looking at Bob, and saying, ‘Well, your brain would be a fine specimen,’ ” his wife of 17 years, Dani Probert, recalled in a phone interview from her home in Windsor, Ont.

On Thursday, Boston University researchers will release findings that show Mr. Probert had chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) when his heart gave out during a fishing trip last summer. The diagnosis makes him the second former professional hockey player to be found with the degenerative disease after Reggie Fleming, who died in 2009 at the age of 73 with dementia after three decades of worsening behavioural and cognitive problems.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/hockey/concussions/nhler-bob-probert-suffered-from-degenerative-brain-disease-scientists-find/article1927734/

[MrSlayer]

1. Being punched in the face 10,000 times may be detrimental.

I'll keep that in mind.

R.I.P. Probie.