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Former NFL safety T.J. Ward has seen plenty of his predecessors and former colleagues lose their lives to CTE, so he’s not a huge fan of comedian Druski mocking the disease in a recent skit.
Ward, a second-round pick in the 2010 NFL Draft out of Oregon, played 10 seasons in the league and made three Pro Bowl appearances for the Cleveland Browns and Denver Broncos. He also helped Denver to victory over the Carolina Panthers in Super Bowl 50.
Now, the 39-year-old is a co-host of the “Speakeasy” podcast, where he recently voiced his concerns with the skit, and explained why he believes that the comedian took things a step too far.
T.J. Ward Has Issues With Druski Mocking CTE Sufferers
The skit, which came out earlier this week, shows Druski acting as a football player who suffers a serious head injury and then goes on to exhibit erratic behavior that is attributed to chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).
According to Ward, Druski’s skit undermines the severity of the disease and how it affects former players and their families.
“When something is funny, it’s funny. Some of the situations in that skit, there were a couple of funny moments,” Ward began. “But overall, I’m going to put my sensitivity cap on like everyone else seems to do when affecting them.
“…These are life-and-death situations, and at the end of the day, it’s a life-taking disease. And I think CTE, universally, is the only disease that’s allowed to be made fun of, which is crazy. You wouldn’t make fun of somebody with cancer, you wouldn’t make fun of somebody with dementia, you wouldn’t make fun of somebody with AIDS.
“You wouldn’t make fun of anyone with these diseases that are taking lives. But for some reason, across the universal platform … football players, people that have effects of collisions and CTE symptoms are the only people who are allowed to be made fun of.”
Now, there are two sides to this. The idea that no other disease gets mocked is simply untrue. All it takes is watching one episode of South Park to know that.
However, Ward is correct about the severity of the disease. It played a role in the early deaths of several former NFL players. So you can understand his sensitivity to the matter.