Here's a suggestion for Cam Skattebo: Donate your brain.
Skattebo, the throwbackNew York Giantsrunning back, certainly did the right thing inposting an apology on social media for his silly responseto a question about chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) on a recent podcast.
Then again, he should never have put his foot in his mouth. Asked during a segment on the "Bringing the Juice" podcast whether CTE is real, Skattebo replied: "No. It's an excuse."
Just mindless. With or without the jerk move of digging at sufferers of asthma.
On top of apologizing for what he called a "tasteless joke," Skattebo, 24, should go a step further and donate his brain to science. Now that would add some weight to the apology.
Skattebo's brain – and hopefully we're talking many, many years down the road – could serve a purpose. Maybe someday it can aid in research about the degenerative brain disease most closely linked to head trauma sustained by football players, yet also afflicts hockey players, boxers and those in other sports or situations, like combat veterans.
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Researchers on the frontline are optimistic that we're much closer to the development of a test that diagnoses CTE in the living. But it hasn't happened yet – CTE can only be confirmed posthumously – and even with such a test, brain tissue likely will always be essential to study of the disease.
There are some things that, as a decent human being, you just don't joke about.
No excuse. That Skattebo would even allow words to come out of his mouth that minimize CTE, though, didn't just show a complete disrespect and lack of empathy for the families of loved ones whose lives were shattered or lost to CTE. It also illustrated the need for more education – especially for someone like Skattebo, who has the look of a fearless player prone to inflict as much punishment as he absorbs with his physical, hard-charging style, and who makes me wonder whether he is more at risk for developing CTE.
"Each offseason, I'm hopeful that I'll get calls from current NFL players, asking for the latest research," Chris Nowinski, founder of the Concussion and CTE Foundation, told USA TODAY Sports on Monday. "And I just don't. I get one or two a year that reach out and ask questions. And when I meet current NFL players, it's apparent to me that they're not up to speed on what we understand about CTE.
"And the small tragedy is that their future is not yet set. They still have a chance to make choices, including just adjusting how they play to reduce their future risk to CTE. Or the future severity of CTE. And personally, I don't think it's on anyone's mind."
Skattebo, I'm thinking, can wear that shoe.
Nowinski didn't slam Skattebo, who ended his rookie season in 2025 on injured reserve with a dislocated ankle. Instead, he showed empathy.
"He was put on the spot," Nowinski said. "It tends to be a light-hearted podcast. But the response he gave is representative of the fact that I don't think most current NFL players have really educated themselves about CTE."
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To that end, Nowinski reached out to the management firm listed on a social media profile for Skattebo and extended an invitation for the running back to visit the Brain Bank at Boston University, which collects and studies donated brains.
"He can see what it's all about," Nowinski said.
Of the 15,000 pledges for donated brains, Nowinski said there are hundreds of former NFL players who have signed up with his foundation. Of organs currently collected for study, Nowinski estimated that the bank has about 500 brains from former NFL players who are deceased.
It has been nearly a decade since Dr. Ann McKee, director of Boston University's CTE Center, co-authored a study that revealed CTE was found in 99% of deceased former NFL players (110 of 111) studied. A more recent study of athletes from a wide range of sports that included exposure to contact determined that CTE was found in over 40% of subjects who died before the age of 30.
It's no wonder that McKee, who has researched the disease for more than 18 years, sees the development of a CTE test in the living as an ultimate gamechanger. She would get no argument on that point from Dr. Allen Sills, the NFL's chief medical adviser, who told USA TODAY Sports recently that a blood test based on biomarkers could be most practical for large-scale screening.
"That is the No. 1 goal, finding a way that we can detect this during life. Or detect when a player is going downhill," McKee said. "And that needs to be applied to youth players, too. We need to make it a sensitive test that can pick up these changes very early on.
"Because once you get full-blown CTE, that's never going to be reversed. This is a progressive disease that starts out with minimal damage. If we can detect that and arrest it in its tracks, you can make a tremendous difference."
It's ironic that while Skattebo ignited discussion about CTE, Nowinski's organization is in the midst of a nationwide fundraising and awareness campaign,dubbed "The Race to End CTE,"with road races of varying lengths in multiple locations this month. And the foundation is also recruiting subjects for two studies.
One study,with details posted on BankCTE.org, seeks anyone over 40 who has played contact sports to donate blood and pledge brain donations. The other study,posted at DiagnoseCTE.org, seeks former college and NFL players for a two-day visit to one of five study sites across the country.
Even now, more than two decades since Dr. Bennet Omalu discovered CTE while performing an autopsy on Hall of Fame center Mike Webster in 2002, increased awareness ranks right alongside the need for a test.
Especially when there are some prone to dismiss the risk – or perhaps unwittingly help by attracting attention to a cause.
"We also need the public to be crying for this," McKee said. "We understand that sports are incredibly important – not just to people, but to communities. But we need to understand that this is a preventable disease. If we can identify it early on, we can prevent this terrible trajectory. It's more important and probably much more common than we think."
Which is anything but a laughing matter.
Contact Bell atjbell@usatoday.comor follow on X: @JarrettBell
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:CTE is no joke: NFL RB Cam Skattebo's apology should go a step further