2 Ex-Steelers To Donate Brains To Pitt's National Sports Brain Bank

PITTSBURGH, PA — The University of Pittsburgh on Thursday announced the launch of a National Sports Brain Bank, and NFL Hall of Famer Jerome Bettis and former Steelers running back Merril Hoge plan to eventually make a deposit there.

The bank will study the of long-term effects of contact sports on the brains of athletes. Exposure to concussions or mild or traumatic brain injury has been found to increase the chances of developing cognitive and psychiatric syndromes, as well as the neurodegenerative disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy, later in life.

“The NSBB will provide an invaluable resource for researchers nationally who are seeking to answer major, remaining questions about the links between contact sports and neurodegenerative disorders,” said Anantha Shekhar, the University of Pittsburgh’s senior vice chancellor for the health sciences and the John and Gertrude Petersen Dean of Pitt’s School of Medicine.

“By recruiting from a broad base of former athletes who played various sports either as students, amateurs or professionals, and also collecting longitudinal clinical information to correlate with later neuropathologic findings, this approach will gather robust datasets not previously available from such a diverse cohort of sports participants.”

Bettis and Hoge appeared at a news conference at Pitt Thursday to say they would be among the athletes who will participate in the brain bank.

Bettis said he made the decision out of concern over his children, who are student athletes. He said the he hopes the program's research will help them and others later in life.

"I'm a father and my son plays high school football and my daughter plays high school basketball," Bettis Told KDKA-TV. "It's important I be that role model. We have job as a parent to help protect our children."

The brain bank will annually evaluate participants during their lives and perform detailed neuropathological examinations of their brains after death, looking for evidence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, Alzheimer’s disease, ALS and other neurodegenerative diseases.