WWE's Nowinski Coming to Andover to Talk Concussions

The kids are back in school this week, many starting school sports. And with safety, one thing often overlooked is the concussion, which is in fact a form of traumatic brain injury.

Every year, emergency rooms see about 173,000 sports-related traumatic brain injuries, including concussions, in youths and high school students, according to the Centers for Disease Control. And the number of those cases has increased by 60 percent in the past decade.

And that's why former World Wrestling Entertainment star Christopher Nowinski is heading to Andover. Nowinski, 34, played football at Harvard and went on to wrestle in the WWE -- the first Harvard alum to do so -- in 2002. A year later, he retired from wrestling due to his battle with post-concussion syndrome.

In 2006, Nowinski wrote Head Games: Football's Concussion Crisis, a book examining how concussions have impacted athletes. And he now educates about the seriousness of head injuries in sports, including school sports.
Nowinski will be at the Andover Country Club on Sept. 10 from 6 to 8 p.m. to share his experience with his career-ending condition and educate attendees about symptoms and prevention.

Requested donation: $100 (Advocates); $250 (Champions); $500 (Leaders). Attendees contributing at one of these levels ill receive a copy of Head Games, signed by Nowinski.

Proceeds from the event will go to the Sports Legacy Institute, a non-profit Nowinski co-founded with neurosurgeon Dr. Robert Cantu that supports research on and treatment of concussions in sports and the military.