Former Raiders Quarterback Ken Stabler had Brain Disease, Doctor Says

Ken Stabler, the former quarterback of the Oakland Raiders, had brain disease, researchers at Boston University said on Wednesday.

According to Dr. Ann McKee, Stabler, who died at the age of 69 this past summer, suffered from stage 3 chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). McKee added in her report to ESPN's Outside the Lines that the disease had spread throughout Stabler's brain and caused "quite severe" damage to areas that are linked to memory, learning and emotion regulation.

"He had very substantial lesions. They were widespread. They were very classic. There was no question about the diagnosis," McKee, who was able to analyze Stabler's brain after he had donated it along with his spinal cord to the BU's Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy Center, said in the interview. "And in some parts of the brain, they were very well established, meaning that he'd had it probably for quite some time."

CTE is a condition believed to be caused by repeated hits to head that can only be diagnosed post-mortem. Stabler's longtime partner, Kim Bush, recalled his deteriorating mental health. According to Bush, Stabler suffered from headaches frequently during his 60s.

"We talked at length about head injury," Bush said in her Outside the Lines interview. "And he ... he was certain that what he was suffering was the consequences of playing football. I asked him point-blank, 'What are your feelings about that in terms of donating your brain for research and the science?' And that's the night he told me that, 'Yeah, I definitely should do that, that's the right thing for me to do.'"

Stabler also reportedly had memory problems, disorientation and difficulty sleeping.

In his 15-year long career, Stabler threw for 27,938 yards and had a record of 96-49-1 as the starting quarterback. During his time with the Raiders, which was from 1970 to 1979, he won the NFL MVP once and earned four Pro Bowl honors.

"We've now found CTE in former NFL players who played every position except kicker," said McKee, who is a professor of neurology at Boston University. "While we know on average that certain positions experience more repetitive head impacts and are more likely at greater risk for CTE, no position is immune."

Over the past few years, research linking traumatic head injuries that occur frequently in the sport to brain disease has pushed the NFL to conduct more studies. In 2012, the NFL donated $30 million to the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health to fund research.