Gary Bettman Quotes

All the NFL players I have examined pathologically, I have not seen one that did not have changes in their brain system with brain damage.

I wish my memory weren't so bad. They tell me it's from all the football and boxing and the concussions that I got.

My brain is - essentially, you take any college football player in the country, because I have had multiple, multiple concussions. I had 10 documented concussions, four post-concussion seizures and so, but, with that said, my brain is no worse than your average college football player's brain, right?

I've been wrestling since I was 18 years old. And within the first five months of my wrestling career, I'd already had three concussions. And for years after that, I would get a concussion here and there, and it gets to the point that when you've been wrestling for 16 years, that adds up to a lot of concussions.

I think, a lot of guys, when they get, you know, those hits or those concussions, they think, 'OK, well, I'm just going to kind of play through it here for the short term, and it's going to get better.' I would venture to say probably 100 percent of the guys that played my sport in the NFL have been there.

I had six or seven documented concussions, so I had a lot more than that. But I feel fine.

I understand the seriousness of concussions.

Concussions happen. If not on every play, then they happen like every other, every third play, you know.

It's simple to get a concussion, you know. I don't know how many I've had over my career, you know, but I've definitely had my fair share.

Over the course of my 13-year career, I've had a lot of concussions, and yet, because I'm no longer competing or suffering from concussion symptoms, I felt like I was in the clear. The reality, though, is that I get concussions far more easily, and my symptoms last far longer than ever before.

I've had hundreds and hundreds of concussions, but I don't think that I have any permanent damage. A lot of my peers do.

Is a concussion going to lead to CTE? No, probably not in most cases. But if you have enough concussions over a certain amount of time, yes, then I think you can lead to CTE.

The overwhelming evidence is that trauma is a major factor in CTE.

In boxing, you've got CTE from head trauma constantly.

I had concussions as a kid playing football and basketball, and know what it feels like and to have someone say 'Just rub some dirt on it, and get back in there.'

The more studies that come out that talk about concussions and so forth, it makes me wonder. I wonder, more importantly than the stroke, the impact that concussions have had on my life, particularly as I get older.

Concussions are still kind of a mysterious thing.

It's just a matter of sometimes the CTE in your brain affects what happens in your life... and sometimes... it does not.

We, as a league, we have not in any way changed our desire to do everything we can to make it safe, make it safe as to head injury. We hope and will support any data that would give us more insight into any short- and long-term consequences. We would support that.

I'm learning how to prevent my brain from getting worse than it is after suffering a career worth of concussions playing football.

I know if I don't look after myself, I will be talking to you in a couple of years' time mumbling my words and slurring. It won't be because I am drunk: it will be the fighting, taking blow after blow to the brain. That scares me. I don't worry about being killed in the ring; it's losing my mind that I fear.

My father was an NFL running back, so I feel like I might be more susceptible, genetically, to CTE.

Certainly, our work has identified CTE in many professional football players, but we're also seeing it in a very high percentage of college players.

CTE can be caused by smaller hits to the head over time.

If I have another concussion and I don't feel like I can play anymore, then I won't.