A Pigskin Killer: Why Kids and Football Can Be A Deadly Combination
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Joseph Chernach, 25, just couldn’t take it anymore and took his own life in 2012. A year later, brain tests revealed that he had a condition called chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. He played youth and high school football for all of eight years, but he is one of very few football players to develop the degenerative brain disease without competing at the college or pro levels.
His parents, Debra Pyka and Jeffrey Chernach, told their story to Joseph Stromberg writing for Vox.com:
Debra Pyka: I first noticed that something was wrong in 2009. Joseph was off at college, living with his brother Seth. And when he came home, things were strange. He’d be happy sometimes, and very different other times. If you asked him about school, he’d get bothered. And then I found out from Seth that he wasn’t going to classes or doing his homework. And eventually his dad called me and said he wasn’t in school anymore.
When he left school for good, I started noticing he was very withdrawn — from his friends, from everyone. That Christmas of 2009 was actually the last one he came to. And it just got worse and worse.
He was bouncing back and forth. Sometimes he’d live with his brother; then he’d come down here to Wisconsin and live with me; then he’d get into a depressive mood and go back up to Michigan and stay with his dad, or with a friend. He had a job here in Wisconsin as a school custodian, but he could hardly get up to go to it, and eventually he lost it.
Jeffrey Chernach: He really changed completely. He went from being an honor student, a team captain, a class clown, to a total hermit. He became angry, and paranoid, and totally unmotivated.
He just couldn’t function, and never wanted to leave his room. By the end, he was a complete night owl. The only time he’d come out would be during the night, when he wouldn’t have to face anyone.
Debra Pyka: He thought people were talking about him, and said other things that just didn’t make sense.
I knew he was suffering. His depression was so severe that I couldn’t make him understand to go get help. I went to counselors, and I told them, “I’m scared my son is going to die, and I don’t know what to do.” I tried and tried, I even made appointments for him, and he wouldn’t go. I just couldn’t get through.
I’m not sure whether he had any idea that head injuries had anything to do with what was happening to him. But he did once tell me that he thought counseling and medication weren’t going to help him. Maybe that meant he had an inkling that there was a deeper problem.
I remember standing in his room one day, a few months before he died, and told him, “You’re not going to die before me.” I actually told him that.
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I know this happens but so does cancer, and strokes, and syphilis. Not everyone gets it, and not everyone gets a head injury, not even a majority, from playing with the “pigskin.”
My neighbor’s 12 year old son played football since he was little, and he was hit a lot. His parents finally took him out after he developed some sort of brain injury. Silly game.