I wouldn't read too much into what a doc who hasn't seen or examined Tua in the past or presently has to say. I wouldn't completely ignore it, but this doc seems to be following some sort of personal beliefs rather than what science has shown so far regarding concussions and CTE. His comment on the hit Tua took is also off base. I doubt there's another neurosurgeon out there that would say the hits that he's taken are "relatively minor". It has also not been "medically proven" that concussions cause CTE, as the doctor suggested. "Doctors and advanced researchers have long thought that the number of concussions suffered by athletes increased their likelihood of being diagnosed with the degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy,or CTE, a disease only officially diagnosed after death. The brain disease has been discovered in the brains of more than 370 former NFL players, including some of the game’s greats. But a new Harvard study says concussions are not the biggest factor when it comes to developing CTE; instead, it can occur with repeated hits to the head, whether concussive or not." "The problem is, when we're talking about CTE risk with the NFL players, their exposure didn't all happen at the NFL level," said Dr. Dan Daneshvar. "Their exposure happened throughout their entire lives in the decade or more before they ended up participating in the NFL." "He says the majority of forceful head hits—suffered by football players—aren't evenhappening during the game. "Over two-thirds of head impacts for a football player occur in practice typically," said Daneshvar. "And so, if we eliminate half of the head impacts that occur in practices based on just eliminating those practices, no change to the game at all, we could decrease the risk of CTE for an average, say, offensive lineman by about 50% over eight years." https://www.scrippsnews.com/sports/...t-concussions-drive-football-related-cte-risk
