Ann McKee

“I can't say I love football anymore.”

“Football has a future. I don't know what that future is. I'm a physician.”

“Nothing good happens without a penalty.”

“I think you have to be creative to make a difference in science.”

“I feel like Dr. Death.”

“It makes common sense that children, whose brains are rapidly developing, should not be hitting their heads hundreds of times per season.”

“Dave Duerson had classic pathology of CTE and no evidence of any other disease.”

“Is there a way that we would actually recognize the game of football with fewer tackles and fewer collisions? I'm not sure. But I think that's the direction we're going to have to go. Bigger fields? Fewer players on the field? I think we are ultimately going to have to change some of the major rules of the game.”

“Football is an extraordinarily popular sport, and the whole game is played around this issue. The whole makeup of the game involves these subconcussive hits. I don't know how they're going to solve that problem. I don't think they know how they're going to solve that problem.”

“I love sports, OK? But I think we really need to take it on ourselves to not be so crazy about sports, not to risk someone's future just because we think they might be the next star.”

“I'm concerned about the future of football, because we have paid a lot of attention to concussions. We are more aware of concussions. But it's really the repetitive minor injuries, the ones that are asymptomatic that occur on almost every play of the game, the sub-concussive hits: that's the big problem for football.”

“Every one of them is different. In fact, brains are like faces in that no two are ever alike.”

“Certainly, our work has identified CTE in many professional football players, but we're also seeing it in a very high percentage of college players.”

“I just want to make sports safe for our kids.”

“This is what I do. I look at brains. I'm fascinated by it. I can spend hours doing it. In fact, if I want to relax, that's one way I can relax.”

“Football is an American sport. Everyone loves it. I certainly would never want to ban football.”

“My greatest hope is that we learn how trauma induces neurodegeneration in susceptible individuals.”

“I do have a son. He's out of school now. He never played football. And it had nothing to do with me. I was actually crushed that he didn't play football. I thought, 'Oh my God, this is awful.' My brothers all played football. My dad played football.”

“We're hoping that there is large-scale recognition that CTE is a risk when playing football.”

“Is a concussion going to lead to CTE? No, probably not in most cases. But if you have enough concussions over a certain amount of time, yes, then I think you can lead to CTE.”