To Puka Nacua and Cam Skattebo CTE, Concussions are Fake
Cam Skattebo said CTE is fake recently and backtracked, while Puka Nacua said concussions aren't real. These are dangerous, dumb claims from young NFL stars.
Cam Skattebo thinks CTE and asthma are fake, while Puke Nacua said concussions are "all in your head" while practicing an antisemitic "covetous Jew" touchdown celebration on a podcast.
In the hypermasculine NFL, only pussies get concussions or can't breathe due to asthma.
Sack up, headbutt someone, play through the pain. Inhalers are woke now, apparently.
Cam Skattebo Says CTE is Fake, and so is Asthma
Skattebo gets paid around a million dollars a year to hit people with his head.
But he'd probably do it for free.
Cam "Scatterbrain" headbutts walls for fun. Even his tough teammates think the dude it nuts.
You might look at this ridiculous video and think, "Yeah, but he's not even headbutting the wall very hard." Sure. Yes.
But even small hits like those lead to CTE, as evidence shows. It's not just the giant hits that knock guys out, but the hundreds—or in "Scatterbrain's" case, thousands—of small hits that all add up to a debilitating brain disease that leads many sufferers to committing domestic violence against their loved ones or even dying by suicide.
There's also an increased risk for confusion, depression, and dementia.
Even Denver Broncos legend Demaryius Thomas' brain showed signs of CTE when it was studied after he passed away.
CTE is a very serious thing.
It's not only dangerous for a current player—who a lot of young kids look up to—to say CTE is fake, it's also a slap in the face of all those players who've died, at least in part to the degenerative disease.
The fact that the NFL hid CTE from its players is enough to show how severe a problem it is.
PBS Frontline made the documentary "League of Denial: The NFL's Concussion Crisis" in 2013, and then Will Smith made "Concussion" in 2015 to tell the story in a digestible way for audiences to understand.
Skattebo's comments—which included that asthma is "fake" and people should just "breathe air"—come only three months after Puka Nacua said concussions "aren't real."
While Skattebo is a mere circuslike sideshow who will likely be out of the NFL in the next few years, Nacua is a legitimate superstar.
On the same podcast with Adin Ross—a host who has platformed neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes—Nacua did the "covetous Jew" celebration, and also said NFL officials call penalties so they can be on TV.
Nacua was fined $25,000 for disparaging the officials, and the NFL even put out a statement against antisemitism because of his idiotic antics on the podcast.
“The NFL strongly condemns all forms of discrimination and derogatory behavior directed towards any group or individual,” the league said in a statement. “The continuing rise of antisemitism must be addressed across the world, and the NFL will continue to stand with our partners in this fight. Hatred has no place in our sport or society.”
Nacua played dumb and said he didn't know what he was doing was antisemitic.
"At the time, I had no idea this act was antisemitic in nature and perpetuated harmful stereotypes against Jewish people," Nacua said. "I deeply apologize to anyone who was offended by my actions, as I do not stand for any form of racism, bigotry or hate of another group of people.”
Nacua had to backtrack because of all the pushback he received.
The same is true for Skattebo, who saw this story blow up this weekend and promptly issued an apology.
“I recently did an interview and had a lapse in judgment,” Skattebo said, “which resulted in making a tasteless joke about CTE and asthma. It was never my intention to downplay the seriousness of head trauma or asthma. I sincerely apologize to anyone that was offended by my remarks, and I assure you that I’ll be more mindful and respectful going forward.”
Which begs the question: Can a man who bashes his brain for fun be more mindful?
Skattebo and Nacua are Just Scared
The biggest irony of all of this is that tough, gritty football players are just scared little babies.
They cannot think about concussions or admit CTE is real or they'd have to come to grips that they will likely get CTE one day.
Both of them play in the NFL, which again has proven it doesn't care about the health of its players.
The reason why the NFL hid the devastating impact of concussions from players for so long is the NFL was also scared. Scared that players would stop playing. That moms would stop signing their kids up to play peewee football. That's why we've seen the rise of USA Football Youth Coach Certification, which is really just a show to placate worries.
Hell, Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart was being evaluated for a concussion when head coach Brian Daboll entered the blue medical tent in an attempt to get the kid back on the field. That happened last year! Daboll was fined $315,000, which is pennies compared to winning a game and keeping his job. Which, he didn't; Daboll was canned in November.
Daboll should have his players' best interests in mind. But he didn't care if Dart had a concussion or not, the dude needed to be on the field.
This is the same Giants team that employs Skattebo.
Someone on Bluesky asked if Skattebo ever talked to his quarterback Dart during the season. I replied that Dart probably thinks CTE is fake, too.
If anyone is going to get CTE, it's Skattebo. He's a running back. They take more hits to the head than other players and it's legal to hit them in the head because they are basically never deemed "defenseless." Plus, he literally hits his head on a brick wall for fun!
It brought back memories of Gus Ferotte running in a touchdown and headbutting a padded wall, then becoming wobbly immediately.
Nacua as a receiver—the players that are deemed defenseless when they reach out to grab a ball—is also at great risk to get concussions. Receivers are a lot of the time the ones who are knocked completely unconscious on the football field when two players go up for a football. Or they jump for a ball and fall backwards and their head bounces off the turf.
Crazily, through three years in the NFL, there's no evidence that Nacua has sustained a head injury.
Unfortunately, that's unlikely to remain true if he stays in the league for an extended amount of time.
As Nacua said, "I also believe that concussions are all in your head. You just can't think about it.”
Which is how you know he's scared.
It's an old trope in the NFL to just say, "Hey, you have to put injuries out of your mind" because the NFL isn't a contact sport, it's a collision sport.
If guys like Skattebo and Nacua admit that concussions and CTE are real, they'd have to come to grips with the fact that they will likely get CTE one day.
Even being a celebrity and millionaire now, in their 20s, won't be able to afford them a valuable life into their 50s if they get CTE.
It's a similar thinking as people saying COVID was fake, or that climate change isn't real; scared people can't fix the problem, so they deny it's even happening in the first place.
And if you think Skattebo and Nacua are the only ones who don't believe in CTE, you're naive too.
The NFL is built on toughness. It's hypermasculinity.
Play through the pain, chump. Sack up. Man up.
Concussions? Psh.
Meanwhile, watching players get knocked out in 4k every Sunday—their arms tensing up and eyes rolling back in their head—makes it more and more difficult for the average fan to keep tuning in.
On those same Giants, Gunner Olszewski was hit to hard in the helmet this season that part of his helmet chipped off. He was knocked out cold.
That's scary!
But you can't play football scared. If you play scared, you hesitate. And hesitating will get you hurt.
At least, that's what old school coaches used to say.
So, for NFL players if the option is to be scared or deny science, the choice is simple.
Deny til you die.
Rich Kurtzman
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Rich Kurtzman was born and raised in Denver Colorado and attended Colorado State University in Fort Collins in the aughts. He's been a professional writer since 2011, covering Colorado State football and men's basketball, as well as the Denver Broncos, for many outlets. Current Denver Broncos work can be found on Mile High Sports. Previous credits include CBS Denver and The USA TODAY Sports Media Group.
Pro Football Reference Links
Cam Skattebo, Jaxson Dart, Puka Nacua, Gunner Olszewski
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