Former NFL player Kevin Turner died last year of what the doctor who performed his autopsy termed an ALS-type of motor neuron disease caused by CTE. Turner and his doctors blamed head trauma suffered on the football field for his long, painful and early death.
And yet before he died, Turner not only allowed his son to play football but cheered him on. As he died, Turner allowed HBO’s Real Sports to chronicle his life, and he explained in an interview that he continued to go to his son’s high school football games because he believed football has made strides in recognizing concussions and giving players immediate treatment.
“I figured that with the knowledge that I have now, I feel like he is as safe as he can be,” Turner said of his son. “If I see him get a big hit or he’s wobbling or something like that -- whereas you know, I would’ve been told to suck it up, get back in there -- I’ll be yanking his butt off the field.”
Turner’s son, Nolan Turner, got a scholarship to Clemson and was a redshirt freshman on the team that won the national championship last season. Kevin Turner did not live to see that.
