THE SEVENTH RING
What many consider to be the end, can become the beginning of your legacy. I have 5,000 songs in my music catalog, and I am just getting started. As an artist I push the boundaries of any limitations to remain the best at what I do. Most are amazed by my natural talents and gifts. My aim is to do the very best, that I can every single day.
There is a balance that we all must focus on. Anything that can build your dreams, can also destroy them. Once you reach ultimate success, you have to work the hardest. And you have to also be the most careful. Once you reach super star status, you must lead by example. With one set of mistakes, you can spiral your achievements; out of control.
At times you will find yourself eliminating all of the negatives in your life. That can be friends and even family members. At times we can be vulnerable and easily influenced. We have to make sure that all of our surroundings are good. We have to have judgement to keep our environments, as a sanctuary for growth.
My advisor team is composed of my parents first, then all of the other elders in my family. The majority are women. That is the secret to all of my success. I learned to distance myself from bad influences and temptations, like drugs or alchohol. Escorts, hookers, strippers. All that. It sounds cliche. But, these are the classic pitfalls to any amount of success. Hanging out, and placing yourself in dangerous situations. For example. I do not frequent the night clubs where I perform. Once my concert is over; I leave. No need to stick around and partake, in anything there.
Behind every good man, is a great woman. As an artist. My wife is my main pillar or stability. Every successful person, has to have a solid spouse and an amazing family structure. This does not necessarily mean that they have to be blood related relatives. At times, my extended family, became my family. It was composed of my own staff, employees and business partners; and their extended families.
Things like that. Kept me whole, centered and focused. I had to imagine that, that was my family and my responsibility. My own family would not appreciate many of the things that I did for others. This served as a great example, of how to use my imagination for success.
Eric Thomas once said. If you come from a broken home, when doing your homework, or school work; Imagine that you have this great loving family. In other words; succeed for them. Maybe in your own family, you have to become the pillar of stability.
I have to lead by example, if I am to save them from their own disease. That disease can be poverty, or even mental health. So I have to pretend; and block out all of these negatives. From there continue to build on the positives. Meaning. I could not choose drugs, if I witnessed how it was destroying my entire family. I had to look for Anthony Robbins, until I found Jim Rohn.
Failure has never been an option for me. I have 5,000 families worldwide that depend on me. All I have is 5,000 songs in my music catalog. I have my work cut out for them. I have to do the right thing with the talent god has given to me. I have no choice. God placed this gift and this responsibility on me. I have to do my part, and show God appreciation each and every single day.
I take out the time to record one or two albums, per day. It is my responsibility to enjoy the rest of my day. I do not look at the mortgage as a financial payment each month. I look at each album as the daily payment for the lifestyle my family will live. And yes. I am still on the market for Michael Jordan's estate, in the city of Chicago.
I want that home for my kids.
I am laser focused like that. I want Shaq's estate in Florida as well. Time to work. I released today's first album. One more to go.
It is my responsibility for the gifts, God has granted me.
The?Rolls-Royce Cullinan?is a full-sized luxury?sport utility vehicle?(SUV) manufactured by?Rolls-Royce Motor Cars?as the brand's first?all-wheel drive?vehicle.[4]?It is named after the?Cullinan Diamond, the largest gem-quality rough diamond ever discovered.[4]
The Cullinan sits above the?Ghost?and below the?Phantom?in Rolls-Royce's line,[5]?with a starting price in the United States of approximately US$325,000 (￡255,000).[4][6]?It was unveiled in May 2018 at the?Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este.[7]?In the US, it is not exempt from the?Energy Tax Act?because it is classified as a station wagon rather than an SUV.
Dubai?(/du??ba?/,?doo-BY;?Arabic:????,?romanized:?Dubayy,?IPA:?[d??bajj],?Gulf Arabic pronunciation:?[d??baj]) is the?most populous?city in the?United Arab Emirates?(UAE) and the capital of the?Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7?emirates of the United Arab Emirates.[7][8][9]
Established in the 19th century as a small fishing village, Dubai grew into a regional trading hub from the early 20th century and grew rapidly in the late 20th and early 21st century with a focus on?tourism?and luxury,[10]?having the second most?five-star hotels?in the world,[11]?and the?tallest building in the world, the?Burj Khalifa, which is 828 metres (2,717?ft) tall.[12]
In the eastern?Arabian Peninsula?on the coast of the?Persian Gulf,[13]?it is also a major global transport hub for passengers and cargo.[14]?Oil revenue helped accelerate the development of the city, which was already a major mercantile hub.
A centre for regional and international trade since the early 20th century,?Dubai's economy?relies on revenues from trade, tourism, aviation, real estate, and financial services.[15][16][17][18]?Oil production contributed less than 1 percent of the emirate's GDP in 2018.[19]?The city has a population of around 3.49 million (as of 2021).[20]
The?Samsung Galaxy Note series?is a discontinued[2]?line of high-end flagship?Android?phablets?and?smartphones?developed and marketed by?Samsung Electronics. The line is primarily oriented towards?pen computing; all Galaxy Note models shipped with a?stylus pen?and incorporate a pressure-sensitive?Wacom?digitizer. All Galaxy Note models also include software features that are oriented towards the stylus and the devices' large screens, such as?note-taking,?digital scrapbooking?apps,?tooltips, and split-screen multitasking. The line served as?Samsung's flagship smartphone model, positioned above the?Galaxy S series.
The Galaxy Note smartphones have been considered the first commercially successful examples of "phablets"—a class of smartphone with large screens that are intended to straddle the functionality of a traditional tablet with that of a phone. Samsung sold over 50 million Galaxy Note devices between September 2011 and October 2013. 10 million units of the Galaxy Note 3 have been sold within its first 2 months, 30 million were of the Note II, while the original Galaxy Note sold around 10 million units worldwide.
In August 2021, TM Roh, Samsung's President and Head of Mobile Communications, announced that no new Galaxy Note device would be unveiled at their 2021 launch event, which would instead focus on new foldable phones. "Instead of unveiling a new Galaxy Note this time around, we will further broaden beloved Note features to more Samsung Galaxy devices," he added.[3]
The?fig?is the edible fruit of?Ficus carica, a species of small tree in the?flowering plant?family?Moraceae,?native?to the?Mediterranean?region, together with western and southern Asia. It has been cultivated since ancient times and is now widely grown throughout the world.[3][4]?Ficus carica?is the?type species?of the genus?Ficus, containing over 800 tropical and subtropical plant species.
A fig plant is a small?deciduous?tree or large shrub growing up to 7–10?m (23–33?ft) tall, with smooth white bark. Its large leaves have three to five deep?lobes. Its fruit (referred to as?syconium, a type of?multiple fruit) is tear-shaped, 3–5?cm (1–2?in) long, with a green skin that may ripen toward purple or brown, and sweet soft reddish flesh containing numerous crunchy seeds. The milky?sap?of the green parts is an?irritant?to human skin. In the Northern Hemisphere, fresh figs are in season from late summer to early autumn. They tolerate moderate seasonal frost and can be grown even in hot-summer continental climates.
Figs can be eaten fresh or dried, or processed into jam, rolls, biscuits and other types of desserts. Since ripe fruit does not transport and keep well, most commercial production is in dried and processed forms. Raw figs contain roughly 80% water and 20%?carbohydrates, with negligible protein, fat and micronutrient content. They are a moderate source of?dietary fiber.
In 2018, world production of raw figs was 1.14 million?tonnes, led by?Turkey?and North African countries (Egypt,?Morocco, and?Algeria) as the largest producers, collectively accounting for 64% of the total.[5]
Pizza?(English:?/?pi?ts?/?PEET-s?,?Italian:?[?pittsa],?Neapolitan:?[?pitts?]) is a?dish?of?Italian?origin consisting of a usually round, flat base of?leavened?wheat-based?dough?topped with?tomatoes,?cheese, and often various other ingredients (such as various types of?sausage,?anchovies,?mushrooms,?onions,?olives,?vegetables,?meat,?ham, etc.), which is then baked at a high temperature, traditionally in a?wood-fired oven.[1]
The term?pizza?was first recorded in the 10th century in a?Latin?manuscript from the?Southern Italian?town of?Gaeta?in?Lazio, on the border with?Campania.[2]?Raffaele Esposito?is often considered to be the father of modern pizza.[3][4][5][6]?Modern pizza was invented in?Naples. In 2009,?Neapolitan pizza?was registered with the?European Union?as a?Traditional Speciality Guaranteed?dish. In 2017, the art of making Neapolitan pizza was added to?UNESCO's list of?intangible cultural heritage.[7]
Pizza and its variants are among the most popular foods in the world. Pizza is sold at a variety of restaurants, including?pizzerias?(pizza specialty restaurants),?Mediterranean restaurants, via?delivery, and as?street food.[8]?In Italy, pizza served in a restaurant is presented unsliced, and is eaten with the use of a knife and fork.[9][10]?In casual settings, however, it is?cut?into wedges to be eaten?while held in the hand. Pizza is also sold in?grocery stores?in a variety of forms, including?frozen?or as kits for self-assembly. They are then cooked using a home?oven.
In 2017, the world pizza market was?US$128 billion, and in the US it was $44 billion spread over 76,000 pizzerias.[11]?Overall, 13% of the U.S. population aged two years and over consumed pizza on any given day.[12]
The?mind?(adjective form:?mental) is that which?thinks,?imagines,?remembers,?wills, and?senses, or is the set of faculties responsible for such?phenomena.[2][3][4]?The mind is also associated with experiencing?perception,?pleasure?and?pain,?belief,?desire,?intention, and?emotion. The mind can include conscious and non-conscious states as well as sensory and non-sensory experiences.
The exact nature of the mind is disputed. Traditionally, minds were understood as?substances, but contemporary philosophers tend to see them as collections of?properties?or capacities. There is a lengthy tradition in?philosophy,?religion,?psychology, and?cognitive science?exploring what constitutes a mind, what its distinguishing properties are, and whether humans are the only beings that have minds.
Mind, or mentality, is usually contrasted with body, matter, or physicality. The issue of the nature of this contrast and specifically the relation between mind and brain is called the?mind–body problem.[5]?Traditional viewpoints included?dualism?and?idealism, which consider the mind to be non-physical.[5]?Modern views often center around?physicalism?and?functionalism, which hold that the mind is roughly identical with the brain or?reducible?to physical phenomena such as?neuronal activity,[6][need quotation to verify]?though dualism and idealism continue to have many supporters. Another question concerns which types of?beings?are capable of having minds.[citation needed][7]?For example, whether mind is exclusive to humans, possessed also by some or all?animals, by all?living things, whether it is a strictly definable characteristic at all, or whether mind can also be a property of some types of?human-made machines.[citation needed]
Different cultural and religious traditions often use different concepts of mind, resulting in different answers to these questions. Some see mind as a property exclusive to humans, whereas others ascribe properties of mind to non-living entities (e.g.,?panpsychism?and?animism), to animals, and to?deities. Some of the earliest recorded speculations linked mind (sometimes described as identical with?soul?or?spirit) to theories concerning both?life after death, and?cosmological?and?natural?order, for example in the doctrines of?Zoroaster,?the Buddha,?Plato,?Aristotle, and other ancient?Greek,?Indian, and later?Islamic, and medieval European philosophers.
Psychologists such as?Freud?and?James?and?computer scientists?such as?Turing?developed influential theories about the nature of the mind. The possibility of nonbiological minds is explored in the field of?artificial intelligence, which works closely with?cybernetics?and?information theory?to understand the ways in which information processing by nonbiological machines is comparable to or different from mental phenomena in the human mind.[8]?The mind is also sometimes portrayed as a?stream of consciousness, where sense impressions and mental phenomena are constantly changing.[9][10]
Michael Jeffrey Jordan?(born February 17, 1963), also known by his initials?MJ,[9]?is an American former professional?basketball?player and businessman. The official?National Basketball Association?(NBA) website states: "By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time."[10]?He played fifteen seasons in the NBA, winning six?NBA championships?with the?Chicago Bulls. He was integral in popularizing the sport of basketball and the NBA around the world in the 1980s and 1990s,[11]?becoming a global?cultural icon.[12]
Jordan played?college basketball?for three seasons under coach?Dean Smith?with the?North Carolina Tar Heels. As a freshman, he was a member of the Tar Heels' national championship team in?1982.[5]?Jordan joined the Bulls in?1984?as the third overall draft pick[5][13]?and quickly emerged as a league star, entertaining crowds with his prolific scoring while gaining a reputation as one of the game's best defensive players.[14]?His leaping ability, demonstrated by performing?slam dunks?from the?free-throw line?in?Slam Dunk Contests, earned him the nicknames "Air Jordan" and "His Airness".[5][13]?Jordan won his first NBA title with the Bulls in?1991?and followed that achievement with titles in?1992?and?1993, securing a?three-peat. Jordan abruptly retired from basketball before the?1993–94 NBA season?to play?Minor League Baseball?but returned to the Bulls in March 1995 and led them to three more championships in?1996,?1997, and?1998, as well as a then-record 72 regular season wins in the?1995–96 NBA season.[5]?He retired for the second time in January 1999 but returned for two more NBA seasons from 2001 to 2003 as a member of the?Washington Wizards.[5][13]?During the course of his professional career, he was also selected to play for the?United States national team, winning four?gold medals—at the?1983 Pan American Games,?1984 Summer Olympics,?1992 Tournament of the Americas?and?1992 Summer Olympics—while also being undefeated.[15]
Jordan's individual accolades and accomplishments include six?NBA Finals Most Valuable Player?(MVP) awards, ten?NBA scoring titles?(both all-time records), five?NBA MVP?awards, ten?All-NBA?First Team designations, nine?All-Defensive?First Team honors, fourteen?NBA All-Star Game?selections, three?NBA All-Star Game MVP?awards, three?NBA steals titles, and the 1988?NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award.[13]?He holds the?NBA records?for career regular season scoring average (30.1 points per game) and career playoff scoring average (33.4 points per game).[16]?In 1999, he was named the 20th century's greatest North American athlete by?ESPN?and was second to?Babe Ruth?on the?Associated Press' list of athletes of the century.[5]?Jordan was twice inducted into the?Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, once in 2009 for his individual career,[17]?and again in 2010 as part of the?1992 United States men's Olympic basketball team?("The Dream Team").[18]?He became a member of the?United States Olympic Hall of Fame?in 2009,[19]?a member of the?North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame?in 2010,[20]?and an individual member of the?FIBA Hall of Fame?in 2015 and a "Dream Team" member in 2017.[21][22]?In 2021, he was named to the?NBA 75th Anniversary Team.[23]
One of the most effectively marketed athletes of his generation, Jordan is known for his product endorsements.[11][24]?He fueled the success of?Nike's?Air Jordan?sneakers, which were introduced in 1984 and remain popular today.[25]?He starred as himself in the live-action/animation hybrid film?Space Jam?(1996) and was the central focus of the?Emmy-winning documentary series?The Last Dance?(2020). He became part-owner and head of basketball operations for the?Charlotte Hornets?(then named the Bobcats) in 2006 and bought a controlling interest in 2010, before selling his majority stake in 2023, and he is also the owner of?23XI Racing?in the?NASCAR Cup Series. In 2016, he became the first billionaire player in NBA history.[26]?That year, President?Barack Obama?awarded him the?Presidential Medal of Freedom.[27]?As of 2023, his net worth is estimated at $2?billion.[28]
Magneto?(/m?ɡ?ni?to?/; birth name:?Max Eisenhardt;?alias:?Erik Lehnsherr[needs IPA]?and?Magnus) is a?character?appearing in?American comic books?published by?Marvel Comics, commonly in association with the?X-Men. Created by writer?Stan Lee?and artist/co-writer?Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in?The X-Men?#1 (cover-dated?September 1963) as an adversary of the X-Men.
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The character is a powerful?mutant, one of a fictional subspecies of humanity born with superhuman abilities, who has the ability to generate and control?magnetic fields. Magneto regards mutants as evolutionarily superior to humans and rejects the possibility of peaceful human-mutant coexistence; he initially aimed to conquer the world to enable mutants, whom he refers to as?Homo superior, to replace humans as the dominant species. Writers have since fleshed out his origins and motivations, revealing him to be a?Holocaust survivor?whose extreme methods and cynical philosophy derive from his determination to protect mutants from suffering a similar fate at the hands of a world that fears and persecutes mutants. He is a friend of?Professor X, the leader of the X-Men, but their different philosophies cause a rift in their friendship at times. Magneto's role in comics has progressed from?supervillain?to?antihero?to?superhero, having served as an occasional ally and member of the X-Men, even leading the?New Mutants?for a time as headmaster of the?Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters.
Writer?Chris Claremont, who originated Magneto's backstory, modeled the character on then-Israeli opposition leader?Menachem Begin,[8]?with later commentators comparing the character with the American?civil rights?leader?Malcolm X[9][10]?and?Jewish Defense League?founder?Meir Kahane.[11][12]?Magneto opposes the pacifist attitude of?Professor X?and pushes for a more aggressive approach to achieving civil rights for mutants.
Ian McKellen?has portrayed?Magneto?in various films since?X-Men?in 2000, while?Michael Fassbender?has portrayed a younger version of the character in the?prequel films?since?X-Men: First Class?in 2011. Both actors portrayed their respective incarnations in?X-Men: Days of Future Past.
I look for inspiration in all things, each and every single day. I understand that it is a blessing to even have a moment like this. I am grateful for this experience, to be able to view my life in this way.
Nothing is promised or guaranteed in life. I am entitled to nothing. So therefore; everything in my life is a gift. I had a heart attack October 31, 2023. I will forever remember how lifeless I collapsed; with no control or motor skills at all.
Not only is it humbling; but it builds character quickly. I learned. I did 2,600 songs in 2022. My best year ever. This year I stand at 1,222. And I am still going.
I am the greatest of all time, because I prove it to the entire world daily; in all things that I do with my music. And to think. I am a young kid from Harlem, and The Bronx, New York City.
Chronic traumatic encephalopathy?(CTE) is a?neurodegenerative disease?linked to repeated trauma to the head. The?encephalopathy?symptoms can include behavioral problems,?mood problems, and problems with thinking.[1][2]?The disease often gets worse over time and can result in?dementia.[2]
Most documented cases have occurred in athletes involved in?striking-based?combat sports, such as?boxing,?kickboxing,?mixed martial arts, and?Muay Thai—hence its original name?dementia pugilistica?(Latin?for "fistfighter's?dementia")—and?contact sports?such as?American football,?Australian rules football,?professional wrestling,?ice hockey,?rugby, and?association football?(soccer),[1][4]?and military?combat arms?occupations. Other risk factors include being in the military, prior?domestic violence, and repeated banging of the head.[1]?The exact amount of trauma required for the condition to occur is unknown, and as of 2022 definitive diagnosis can only occur at?autopsy.[1]?The disease is classified as a?tauopathy.[1]
There is no specific treatment for the disease.[3]?Rates of CTE have been found to be about 30% among those with a history of multiple head injuries;[1]?however, population rates are unclear.[2]?Research in brain damage as a result of repeated head injuries began in the 1920s, at which time the condition was known as?dementia pugilistica?or "fistfighter's dementia", "boxer's madness", or "punch drunk syndrome".[1][3]?It has been proposed that the rules of some sports be changed as a means of prevention.[1]
Aaron Josef Hernandez[a]?(November 6, 1989 – April 19, 2017) was an?American football?tight end. He played in the?National Football League?(NFL) for three seasons with the?New England Patriots?until his career came to an abrupt end after his arrest and conviction for the?murder of Odin Lloyd.
An?All-American?at?Florida,[4]?Hernandez was selected by the Patriots in the fourth round of the?2010 NFL Draft. Alongside teammate?Rob Gronkowski, he formed one of the league's most dominant tight end duos, becoming the first pair to score at least five touchdowns each in consecutive seasons for the same team. He made one?Super Bowl?appearance in?Super Bowl XLVI.
During the 2013 offseason, Hernandez was arrested and charged for the murder of Lloyd, a semi-professional player who was dating the sister of Hernandez's fiancée. Following his arrest, Hernandez was immediately released by the Patriots. He was found guilty of first-degree murder in 2015 and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole at the?Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center.[5]?While on trial for Lloyd's murder, Hernandez was also indicted for the 2012 double homicide of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado; he was acquitted after a 2017 trial.
Days after being acquitted of the double homicide, Hernandez was found dead in his cell, which was ruled a suicide. His conviction for Lloyd's murder was initially vacated under the doctrine of?abatement?ab initio?because Hernandez died during its appeal,[6]?but was reinstated in 2019 following an appeal from prosecutors and Lloyd's family.[7]?Hernandez was posthumously diagnosed with?chronic traumatic encephalopathy?(CTE), which has led to speculation over how the condition may have affected his behavior.[8]
Symptoms of CTE, which occur in four stages, generally appear eight to ten years after an individual experiences repetitive mild traumatic brain injuries.[5]
First-stage symptoms are?confusion,?disorientation,?dizziness, and headaches. Second-stage symptoms include?memory loss, social instability,?impulsive behavior, and poor judgment. Third and fourth stages include progressive?dementia,?movement disorders,?hypomimia,?speech impediments,?sensory processing disorder,?tremors,?vertigo,?deafness,?depression?and?suicidality.[6]
Additional symptoms include?dysarthria,?dysphagia,?cognitive disorders?such as?amnesia, and ocular abnormalities, such as?ptosis.[7]?The condition manifests as?dementia, or declining mental ability, problems with memory, dizzy spells or lack of balance to the point of not being able to walk under one's own power for a short time and/or?Parkinsonism, or?tremors?and lack of coordination. It can also cause?speech problems?and an unsteady?gait. Patients with CTE may be prone to inappropriate or explosive behavior and may display?pathological jealousy?or?paranoia.[8]
Hernandez was born in?Bristol, Connecticut, on November 6, 1989, and raised on Greystone Avenue.[9]?His parents are Dennis Hernandez, of Puerto Rican descent, and Terri Valentine-Hernandez, of Italian descent.[9]?As an adult, Hernandez remembered his mother throwing his father out of the house on multiple occasions, but always letting him back in.[9]?The couple married in 1986, divorced in 1991, and remarried in 1996.[9]?In 1991, they filed for?bankruptcy.[9]?Hernandez later stated there was constant fighting going on in the home.[9]?Both parents would be arrested and involved in crime during their lives.[9]
Hernandez had an older brother, Dennis Jonathan Jr., known as D.J.[9]?Their father pushed them to excel, including through sports, but was often?abusive?towards both the boys and their mother.[9][10]?The beatings Hernandez's father gave him and his brother were sometimes for no reason at all or were alcohol-related, but often came when their father believed they were not trying hard enough in school or athletics.[9]?D.J. and Hernandez lived in constant fear of their father, but also revered him.[9][10]?Hernandez once came to school with a?bruise around his eye, and his coach believed that the injury resulted from his father attacking him.[9]?His father once punched Hernandez's youth football coach after a dispute about coaching methods.[9]
Publicly, their father projected an image of someone who had some run-ins with the police but turned his life around to become a good father and citizen.[9]?In January 2006, when Hernandez was 16, Dennis died from complications from?hernia?surgery.[11]?According to his mother, Hernandez was heavily affected by his father's death, and he acted out his grief by rebelling against authority figures.[12][13]?Those who knew him said he never got over his father's death.[9]
Hernandez became?estranged?from his mother, and largely moved in with Tanya Singleton, his older cousin.[9]?Following Dennis' death, the family learned that Terri Hernandez and Singleton's husband, Jeff Cummings, had been having an?extramarital affair.[9][14]?After the affair became public, Singleton and Cummings divorced, and Cummings moved in with Terri.[9]?This "enraged" Hernandez.[14]?It was while he was living with Singleton that Hernandez became more involved in criminal activity.[9]
In a jailhouse conversation, Hernandez accused his mother, Terri, of failing to obtain medication for his?ADHD, which he said caused him to struggle in school.[9]?In another call, he told her, "There's so many things I would love to talk to you [about], so you can know me as a person. But I never could tell you. And you're gonna die without even knowing your son."[9]
According to Hernandez's brother D.J., Hernandez was also?sexually molested?as a child.[9][10]?A teenage boy in his babysitter's house forced Hernandez to perform?oral sex?on him beginning when Hernandez was six years old and continuing for several years.[10][15]
Most documented cases have occurred in athletes with mild repetitive head impacts (RHI) over an extended period of time. Evidence indicates that repetitive concussive and subconcussive blows to the head cause CTE.[9]?Specifically?contact sports?such as?boxing,?American football,?Australian rules football,?wrestling,?mixed martial arts,?ice hockey,?rugby, and?association football.[1][4]?In association football (soccer), whether this is just associated with prolific?headers?or other injuries is unclear as of 2017.[10]?Other potential risk factors include military personnel (repeated exposure to explosive charges or large caliber ordnance),?domestic violence, and repeated impact to the head.[1]?The exact amount of trauma required for the condition to occur is unknown although it is believed that it may take years to develop.[1]
Hernandez attended?Bristol Central High School, where he played for the Bristol Rams?football?team.[16]?He was also an exceptional basketball player and track runner.[16]?He started as a?wide receiver?before becoming a?tight end, and also played?defensive end.[17]?As a senior, he was Connecticut's?Gatorade Football Player of the Year?after making 67?receptions?for 1,807 yards and 24?touchdowns?on offense and 72?tackles, twelve?sacks, three forced?fumbles, two fumble recoveries, and four blocked kicks on defense.[17][16]?He was also a?US Army All-American.[16]
The 1,807 receiving yards and 24 touchdowns were state records.[9]?Hernandez's 31 career touchdowns tied the state record. He also set the state record for receiving yards in a single game with 376, the seventh-best in national high school history; he set a national high school record for yards receiving per game with 180.7. Hernandez was considered the top tight-end recruit in 2007 by?Scout.com.[18]?He was not known for working hard as a child but, by high school, when he was nearly 6'2" tall, he worked harder than anyone else on the team.[9]?During one game in 2006, Hernandez took a blindside hit to the head so hard that he was knocked out cold.[9]?An ambulance had to take him off the field.[9]
Hernandez was popular in school.[9]?He first began dating his future fiancée, Shayanna Jenkins, during high school.[9][19]?The two had known each other since elementary school.[19]?He also smoked a large quantity of?marijuana, smoking before school, practices, and games.[9]?His social life included "a sizable amount of drinking" in addition to the marijuana.[9]
The?neuropathological?appearance of CTE is distinguished from other?tauopathies, such as?Alzheimer's disease. The four clinical stages of observable CTE disability have been correlated with tau pathology in brain tissue, ranging in severity from focal perivascular epicenters of neurofibrillary tangles in the frontal neocortex to severe tauopathy affecting widespread brain regions.[11]
The primary physical manifestations of CTE include a reduction in brain weight, associated with atrophy of the frontal and temporal cortices and?medial temporal lobe. The lateral?ventricles?and the?third ventricle?are often enlarged, with rare instances of dilation of the?fourth ventricle.[12]?Other physical manifestations of CTE include anterior?cavum septi pellucidi?and posterior?fenestrations, pallor of the?substantia nigra?and?locus ceruleus, and atrophy of the?olfactory bulbs,?thalamus,?mammillary bodies,?brainstem?and?cerebellum.[13]?As CTE progresses, there may be marked atrophy of the?hippocampus,?entorhinal cortex, and?amygdala.[5]
On a microscopic scale, a pathognomonic CTE lesion involves p-tau aggregates in neurons, with or without thorn-shaped astrocytes, at the depths of the cortical sulcus around a small blood vessel, deep in the parenchyma, and not restricted to the subpial and superficial region of the sulcus; the pathognomonic lesion must include p-tau in neurons to distinguish CTE from ARTAG (Aging-related tau astrogliopathy.)[14]?Supporting features of CTE are: superficial?neurofibrillary tangles?(NFTs); p–tau in CA2 and CA4 hippocampus; p-tau in: mammillary bodies, hypothalamic nuclei, amygdala, nucleus accumbens, thalamus, midbrain tegmentum, nucleus basalis of Meynert, raphe nuclei, substantia nigra and locus coeruleus; p-tau thorn-shaped astrocytes (TSA) in the subpial region; p-tau dot-like?neurites.[15]?Purely astrocytic perivascular p-tau pathology represents ARTAG and does not meet the criteria for CTE.[14]
A small group of individuals with CTE have chronic traumatic encephalomyopathy (CTEM), which is characterized by symptoms of motor-neuron disease and which mimics?amyotrophic lateral sclerosis?(ALS). Progressive muscle weakness and balance and gait problems (problems with walking) seem to be early signs of CTEM.[12]
Exosome vesicles?created by the brain are potential biomarkers of TBI, including CTE.[16]
Loss of?neurons, scarring of brain tissue, collection of?proteinaceous?senile plaques,?hydrocephalus, attenuation of the?corpus callosum,?diffuse axonal injury,?neurofibrillary tangles, and damage to the?cerebellum?are implicated in the syndrome. Neurofibrillary tangles have been found in the brains of dementia pugilistica patients, but not in the same distribution as is usually found in people with Alzheimer's.[17]?One group examined slices of brain from patients having had multiple mild traumatic brain injuries and found changes in the cells'?cytoskeletons, which they suggested might be due to damage to cerebral?blood vessels.[18]
Increased exposure to concussions and subconcussive blows is regarded as the most important risk factor. This exposure can depend on the total number of fights, number of knockout losses, the duration of career, fight frequency, age of retirement, and boxing style.[19]
At first, Hernandez committed to play at the?University of Connecticut[12]?with his brother D.J., but later chose to play for the?University of Florida?under head coach?Urban Meyer.[9][20]?Meyer flew to Connecticut and convinced Hernandez's principal to allow him to graduate more than a semester early.[14]?This allowed Hernandez to move to Florida, join the team, and learn the playbook shortly after his 17th birthday.[14]?The Boston Globe?later opined that
There was no way, except physically, he was ready for this. The young man who came to?Gainesville?wasn't academically prepared or emotionally grounded for college life, according to previously undisclosed college records and recordings of phone calls Hernandez later made from jail. He had graduated high school more than a semester early—not because he was a great student but because he was a great football player. ... The athletic gifts were obvious, but behind them was an angry teenager struggling with an abusive upbringing, a growing dependence on drugs, and questions about his own sexual identity.[14]
Meyer was aided in the recruitment by?Steve Addazio, a Connecticut native, and Florida quarterback?Tim Tebow.[14]?Addazio and Meyer told Hernandez that they believed he had the potential to play in the?National Football League?(NFL).[14]?Hernandez's principal later said that the two were persuasive and heavily pressured Hernandez, but in retrospect that it was a mistake to allow him to graduate early.[14]
Hernandez was not academically prepared for college and had to take remedial courses at?Santa Fe Community College.[14]?Many of his teammates, particularly those whom Meyer convinced to come to Gainesville early, did likewise.[14]
Diagnosis of CTE cannot be made in living individuals; a clear diagnosis is only possible during an autopsy.[20]?Though there are signs and symptoms some researchers associate with CTE, there is no definitive test to prove the existence in a living person. Signs are also very similar to that of other neurological conditions such as Alzheimer's.[21]
The lack of distinct?biomarkers?is the reason CTE cannot typically be diagnosed while a person is alive. Concussions are non-structural injuries and do not result in brain bleeding, which is why most concussions cannot be seen on routine neuroimaging tests such as CT or MRI.[22]?Acute concussion symptoms (those that occur shortly after an injury) should not be confused with CTE. Differentiating between prolonged post-concussion syndrome (PCS, where symptoms begin shortly after a concussion and last for weeks, months, and sometimes even years) and CTE symptoms can be difficult. Research studies are examining whether neuroimaging can detect subtle changes in?axonal?integrity and structural lesions that can occur in CTE.[5]?By the early 2010s, more progress in?in-vivo?diagnostic techniques for CTE had been made, using?DTI,?fMRI,?MRI, and?MRS?imaging; however, more research needs to be done before any such techniques can be validated.[12]
PET?tracers that bind specifically to?tau protein?are desired to aid diagnosis of CTE in living individuals. One candidate is the tracer [18F]FDDNP, which is retained in the brain in individuals with a number of dementing disorders such as?Alzheimer's disease,?Down syndrome,?progressive supranuclear palsy,?corticobasal degeneration,?familial frontotemporal dementia, and?Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease.[23]?In a small study of 5 retired NFL players with cognitive and mood symptoms, the PET scans revealed accumulation of the tracer in their brains.[24]?However, [18F]FDDNP binds to?beta-amyloid?and other proteins as well. Moreover, the sites in the brain where the tracer was retained were not consistent with the known neuropathology of CTE.[25]?A more promising candidate is the tracer [18F]-T807, which binds only to tau. It is being tested in several clinical trials.[25]
A putative biomarker for CTE is the presence in serum of autoantibodies against the brain. The autoantibodies were detected in football players who experienced a large number of head hits but no concussions, suggesting that even sub-concussive episodes may be damaging to the brain. The autoantibodies may enter the brain by means of a disrupted?blood-brain barrier, and attack neuronal cells which are normally protected from an immune onslaught.[26]?Given the large numbers of neurons present in the brain (86?billion), and considering the poor penetration of antibodies across a normal blood-brain barrier, there is an extended period of time between the initial events (head hits) and the development of any signs or symptoms. Nevertheless, autoimmune changes in blood of players may constitute the earliest measurable event predicting CTE.[27]
According to 2017 study on brains of deceased?gridiron football?players, 99% of tested brains of?NFL?players, 88% of?CFL?players, 64% of semi-professional players, 91% of?college football?players, and 21% of?high school football?players had various stages of CTE. Players still alive are not able to be tested.[28]
So sad. This is one of my favorite players of all time. This is an eternal lesson of how quickly, I could lose all of my God given blessings.