NFL Concussion Suit Lead Plaintiff Kevin Turner Diagnosed with CTE

Former NFL running back Kevin Turner, who died in March, was diagnosed Thursday with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a neurodegenerative disease at the forefront of the league's concussion crisis. 

Nadia Kounang of CNN reported Thursday the findings were confirmed by Dr. Ann McKee of Boston University and the Concussion Legacy Foundation. The Boston Herald noted the findings showed an "extraordinary and unprecedented" level of CTE in Turner's brain.

Turner died in March after living with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), which is also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, for six years. The former Alabama standout and 1992 third-round pick of the New England Patriots was 46.

As of now, CTE can only be confirmed through an autopsy following a person's death. The progressive brain disease is believed to develop following repeated head trauma, which has brought the issue of player safety from head injuries to the forefront.

Turner, who was one of the lead plaintiffs in a lawsuit brought against the NFL by former players, had his brain donated for research into the subject. The Boston Herald report included comments from Dr. Robert Cantu of the Concussion Legacy Foundation.

"We believe the extreme severity of Kevin Turner's disease is related to his 25-season career, and the fact he began playing tackle football at age five, while his brain was still rapidly developing and more vulnerable," Cantu said.

McKee, who serves as the director of the BU CTE Center and has examined the results from 228 former football players, agreed with the assessment, according to the Boston Herald:

"

The severity of Mr. Turner's CTE was extraordinary and unprecedented for an athlete who died in his 40s. While he had typical cognitive symptoms and problems with impulse control associated with CTE, it also appears that CTE decimated the motor cortex of his brain at a young age, likely leading to his ALS symptoms.

"

Michael O'Keeffe of the New York Daily News noted Turner's family is slated to get around $5 million from the concussion lawsuit once the appeal process is completed. Turner had previously lamented the damage done to his body while playing football in a conversation with Rick Maese of the Washington Post.

"If you look back to the punishment that we were doing to our own brains, it's ridiculous and doesn't make sense for a man to bang in his own head against a wall," Turner said.

He created the Kevin Turner Foundation to "bring attention to ALS and the need for a cure; to raise awareness about the seriousness of brain trauma in athletes at every level of competition and its connection to motor neuron diseases like ALS; and to financially support efforts to study, treat, prevent and ultimately cure this disease," as listed on its official website.

Meanwhile, the issue of CTE and concussion awareness has engulfed the NFL.

In September 2015, Jason M. Breslow of PBS reported a staggering 96 percent of players tested (87 of 91) who competed at the sport's highest level tested positive for the disease after their death in research conducted by the Department of Veterans Affairs and Boston University.

When expanded to include athletes who played football at any level from high school or higher, the results showed a 79 percent CTE rate, per PBS.