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BOSTON -- Dozens of times since beginning their work on the brains of former football players, boxers and military members who suffered repeated blows to the head, researchers have announced their findings with slides of damaged tissue, strong words about the danger of concussions and perhaps a call for sports officials to take the issue more seriously.At a Boston University medical conference on Thursday, doctors put a human touch on the often clinical diagnoses, announcing to a room stocked with family members of CTE casualties that former Patriots and Eagles fullback Kevin Turner -- the lead plaintiff in the NFLs concussion lawsuit -- also was a victim of the disease.Theres people there, not just brains, Tamara Alan, executive director of the Kevin Turner Foundation, said as she choked back tears to thank the researchers for their work.With Turners parents in the crowd, neuropathologist Ann McKee said the former Alabama and NFL star had the most severe form of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a traumatic brain disease linked to repeated hits to the head. CTE likely caused the Lou Gehrigs disease that killed Turner in March at the age of 46, according to McKee.The severity of Mr. Turners CTE was extraordinary and unprecedented for an athlete who died in his 40s, she said.CTE has been linked to repeated brain trauma and diagnosed in hundreds of former football players. It can also cause symptoms of Lou Gehrigs disease, also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS.Showing slides with evidence of both CTE and ALS in Turners brain, McKee said that its not possible to establish that the CTE caused Lou Gehrigs disease through an autopsy, but this is the best circumstantial evidence we will ever get.After helping Alabama to the national championship in 1992, Turner played eight years in the NFL for New England and Philadelphia. He was diagnosed with ALS in 2010 and pledged his brain to the Concussion Legacy Foundation that year.McKee said Turner had several symptoms associated with CTE, including cognitive and impulse control difficulties. She said it also appears that the disease damaged the motor cortex of his brain when he was young, likely leading to his ALS symptoms.What Kevin Turners case shows is that when you start playing football at 5 years old, and youre successful, it destroys your brain, said Chris Nowinski, a founder of the Concussion Legacy Foundation.Nowinski said children whose brains are still developing shouldnt be playing tackle football, pointing to medical research -- and even football coaches -- who say there would be benefits from playing non-contact football until ninth grade.This is a totally preventable disease, McKee said. Lets start preventing it.Raymond Turner, Kevins father, said Kevins son stopped playing tackle football before resuming when he reached high school. Raymond Turner said he didnt regret that Kevin played football, but he wouldnt have started him on tackle football so early if hed known the risks.Wed probably do it again, Raymond Turner said, just in a safer way.Turner was one of the named plaintiffs from as many as 6,000 potential players who reached a $1 billion settlement with the NFL to monitor more than 20,000 NFL retirees over 65 years old and compensate those with dementia, Alzheimers disease and other serious neurological conditions.Turner also created and served as president of the Kevin Turner Foundation, which seeks to show the potential connections between repeated brain trauma and Lou Gehrigs disease, which causes muscle weakness, paralysis and eventually respiratory failure.In the documentary American Man featured on the foundations website, Turner said he wants to help convince old-school coaches to take concussions seriously.I believe this is the most important thing Ill ever do in my life, other than raising my kids, he said. This is by far bigger than any game or practice or tryout or whatever.---AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and http://twitter.com/AP-NFL Scottie Upshall Jersey . PETERSBURG, Fla. Kyle Brodziak Jersey . PETERSBURG, Fla. http://www.wholesalebluesjerseys.com/?tag=cheap-joe-mullen-jersey . The Hall of Fame defenceman told Landsberg that he believes fighting still has a place in todays game, but thinks staged fighting needs be outlawed. Cheap Blues Jerseys Online . PAUL, Minn. Oskar Sundqvist Jersey .5 million, one-year contract on Friday. Hawkins, who turns 41 in December, will compete with Rex Brothers for the closers role at spring training. Go to: Starters | ReservesHow will John Wall, Bradley Beal, Otto Porter and the Magic do in 2016-17?Here are our player scouting reports and analyssis.dddddddddddd ' ' '