Bay Area Soccer Superstar Brandi Chastain to Donate Brain for Concussion Research

Retired soccer player Brandi Chastain, who became a legend when she scored the winning goal in the 1999 World Cup final and famously ripped off her jersey in celebration, says she will donate her brain for concussion research.

Chastain, 47, a former Santa Clara University soccer star, who now lives in San Jose, has made concussion research a mission. In 2014, she joined with the Santa Clara Institute of Sports Law and Ethics and the Concussion Legacy Foundation to launch the Safer Soccer campaign to reduce the use of headers in youth soccer.

She announced her donation to the Massachusetts-based Concussion Legacy Foundation. Researchers there are focused on studying chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, a degenerative condition caused by repeated blows to the head. CTE can only be definitively diagnosed by examining the brain after a person's death.

In an interview with USA Today, Chastain said, "Hopefully, what can be learned is, can doctors and scientists and neuroscientists look at the brain of someone like me, who has been playing soccer a majority of my life, and really dissect the brain and say, ‘Here’s where we see it beginning?’ Could we then use that information to help say that before the age of 14, it’s not a good idea to head the ball?’ "

The concussion foundation's research team last month announced that it had found signs of CTE in the brain of former Oakland Raiders quarterback and NFL MVP Ken Stabler. But of the 307 brains in the bank, just seven are from women and none has been found to have CTE.

“A question I have is, do men’s and women’s brains look and respond differently?” Chastain said. “I’m a recovering two-time ACL reconstruction athlete. Why are ACL injuries more common in girls and women than boys and men? Could that also be true with concussions? And if true, what can we do differently?”

While football is responsible for the most concussions, girls soccer is second, according to one major analysis. Concussions have become a major issue for elite women's soccer players. One of Chastain's teammates on the 1999 World Cup championship team, Cindy Parlow Cone, was forced to retire from soccer in 2006. She had suffered numerous concussions during her career and finally a mini-stroke contributed to ending her career..

Chastain spoke at a press conference in San Jose yesterday. The New York Times reported Chastain's concerns for youth soccer. Only one percent of soccer players will become elite players, Chastain said.  The Times summarized Chastain's comments further:

The rest of them will go on to have lives doing something else. You don’t ever want to look back on a kid and say that their life was adversely changed by playing sports — and soccer specifically. I don’t want that. I don’t want that for them; I don’t want that for soccer.

I love playing sports. Injuries and accidents are somewhat inherent in sports. But if you can protect your kids, you should. That’s your responsibility as a coach.

The NCAA estimates the probability of high school athletes going on to play Division I, II, or III college sports. With the exception of ice hockey and lacrosse, the odds are less than 10 percent. For women's soccer, the odds are seven percent.