Julian Bailes, M.D., chair of the West Virginia University Department of Neurosurgery, is scheduled to appear in a feature on ESPN’s “Sunday NFL Countdown” this weekend to talk about head injuries and football.

Dr. Bailes is co-director of the Brain Injury Research Institute (BIRI) at WVU. He and his colleagues have studied the brains of more than 25 athletes whose lives took disastrous and baffling turns – all ending in violent deaths at a very young age. Their brains were found to have serious damage that Bailes believes was most likely caused by repeated head injuries.

This spring, Bailes announced that BIRI experts had found evidence of tissue damage in the brain of Chris Henry, a young, active NFL player at the time of his death. Similar damage was found in the brains of deceased football players Andre Waters, Terry Long, Mike Webster, and Justin Strzelczyk, and in professional wrestler Chris Benoit, who killed his family and himself in 2007.

ESPN’s “Sunday NFL Countdown” featuring Dr. Bailes will air from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 24.

-WVU-

CONTACT: Amy Johns, HSC News Service
304-293-7087; johnsa@wvuh.com