Second Thoughts

Sapp says he'll donate his brain

Hall of Famer Warren Sapp said he will donate his brain upon his death to study the effects of his 12 years in the NFL.
Hall of Famer Warren Sapp said he will donate his brain upon his death to study the effects of his 12 years in the NFL.

Warren Sapp, a 44-year-old football Hall of Famer who played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Oakland Raiders, has decided to donate his brain for research into chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disease that can stem from serious or repeated hits to the head.

"I've also started to feel the effects of the hits that I took in my career. My memory ain't what it used to be," he said on the Players' Tribune website. "And yeah, it's scary to think that my brain could be deteriorating, and that maybe things like forgetting a grocery list, or how to get to a friend's house I've been to a thousand times are just the tip of the iceberg. So when it comes to concussions, CTE and how we can make our game safer for future generations, I wanted to put my two cents in -- to help leave the game better off than it was when I started playing."

Sapp's plan involves donating his brain to Boston's Concussion Legacy Foundation when he dies. Even as he admitted to playing "in a macho league," he was critical of owners and others who have refused to acknowledge the link between degenerative brain disease and playing football. Even as he sees the game moving in a safer direction and hopes that it continues to evolve, Sapp knows what his 12-year career has done to him.

"I mean, it was just bad," Sapp said. "It was Neanderthals. We were dinosaurs. We were doing Oklahoma drill [where players run at one another until one is on the ground], bull in the ring [players circle a player and throw themselves at him], all this crazy stuff that was just about a tough guy. It wasn't about how much skills you had. It was just the bare bones of bone-on-bone and that's not what this game should be. It's about skills."

What's in a name?

Chicago Cubs fans have used the past year as an opportunity to name their kids all sorts of things that have to do with the reigning World Series champs. There's a kid named Zobrist out there. There are kids named Addison and Addyson (both for the street and for shortstop Addison Russell).

This one, however, is new to us: A couple that birthed a child on Father's Day decided to name it Waveland.

That's a reference to Waveland Avenue, which is the street to the south of Wrigley Field. Out of the four streets around Wrigley, it sounds the least like a child's name -- there's Clark, Addison and Sheffield -- but that was the point.

Parents Stephen and Bronwyn Case told the Chicago Tribune they wanted something a little different.

"We're originally from Texas and Tennessee," Bronwyn Case said to The Tribune. "We don't have family here. We feel like this is our special place. We wanted something unique to Chicago [as a baby name]."

According to the Chicago Tribune, the young girl could have a very rare name. The paper found only five births since 1916 where a child was named Waveland.

"The main reaction we've gotten is a double take," said Stephen Case, who attends Wheaton College as a graduate student. "At least on Twitter it's been 99 percent positive. One guy did ask if I was going to name my kids Old Style and Rooftop."

Sports quiz

How many interceptions did Warren Sapp have in his NFL career?

Sports answer

Four.

Sports on 06/21/2017

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