A family is blaming youth football for the death of a 13-year-old boy who committed suicide a year after a particularly hard tackle.
In September 2015, James Ransom was playing offensive lineman for his middle school football team in Ladera Ranch, , when his helmet collided with that of a boy from the opposing team.
It wasn't until after the game that his father, Greg, noticed dried blood around his son's ear. James didn't complain about the incident and moved on.
But his family said his personality changed following that hit.
James suffered from short-term memory loss, mood swings, and erratic obsessive behavior, Greg told the .
The younG boy attempted suicide three months after the hit and spent months in a mental institution. Then, in November 2016, he took his own life.
'People love football [but] football killed my son,' he told the newspaper. 'I'll say it again. Football killed my son.'
Professional football has been plagued by controversy since the landmark study by Boston University in July 2017 that found chronic traumatic encephalopathy, known as CTE, in 99 percent of deceased NFL players' brains donated to scientific research.
The Ransom family did not have James's brain tested for CTE and, in fact, Greg said he barely knew anything about the disease.
However, scientists have uncovered more and more evidence in the last few years of how CTE can be brought on by youth football and show signs in pre-teen years.
Currently, the earliest evidence of CTE ever recorded was in an 18-year-old player, and prior to that it was in a 25-year-old.
-Dailymail