Amid Super Bowl weekend, an ex-NFL player, experts talk Black men's brain health

Before traumatic brain injuries such as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) became a forefront issue in football, some defenses in the NFL and college were taught to target offensive players' heads when tackling them, according to a former athlete.

Ray Ellis was a college and NFL defensive player in the '70s and '80s. In his day, it was common for coaches to ask defenses to make football plays that aren't allowed in today's game. He remembers where one coach, in particular, taught him to hit players.

"Not on the shoulder or around the waist," Ellis told ABC News. "Hit them in the face, and if you didn't hit him in the face, he criticized you for that."

Brain health is not just a concern for football players, but for everyday people. African Americans are 1.5 to 2 times more likely than their white counterparts to develop Alzheimer's Disease and related dementias, according to the National Institutes of Health. Black men are also four times more likely to die of suicide than Black women -- something that often happens because of mental illness, according to NIH.

The second annual Black Men's Brain Health Conference took place on Feb. 8-9 at Arizona State University, about 30 minutes away from State Farm Stadium, where Super Bowl LVII will be held on Sunday.

In addition to brain health, the conference addressed gaps in health care for African American men, cognitive aging, and initiatives for men of color to be more involved in research. African Americans are about twice as likely than white people to develop dementia, but they are 35% less likely than their white counterparts to be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and similar dementias, according to NIH. Dr. Robert W. Turner, assistant professor at the department of neurology at The George Washington University and a former NFL player, was one of the lead speakers.

"Black men are at risk with … the greatest health disparities of really any kind of population. We live shorter lives," Turner said in an interview with ABC News

Ellis said he had quadruple bypass heart surgery in 2021 and is also in the early stages of Parkinson's disease, which he said his doctors determined stemmed from multiple concussions playing football. One NIH study showed concussions were linked with an increased risk of diagnosis for Parkinson's disease.

Turner said that Black men often ignore symptoms that may impair their brain health.

"We [Black men] have to have that, you know, stiff upper lip, that strong chin," Turner said. "Don't talk about it. I can deal with it. It'd be okay. We ignore it until it kills us."

Ellis said he was part of the $1 billion NFL concussion lawsuit, which ended race-based adjustments in dementia testing through “race-norming” and included no admission of wrongdoing by the NFL. As a result of the research that was needed to file the lawsuit, Ellis said that he had to take several medical tests. It was during these tests that he learned he had Parkinson's disease, he said.

Turner said he believes that African Americans outside of the game of football are also at great risk of brain health issues that aren't related to trauma injuries, such as dementia, schizophrenia, addiction and bipolar disorders. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Black people who are 65 or older have the highest rates of Alzheimer's Disease and related dementia. He said a lot can be learned from former NFL players, who won the $1 billion settlement against the NFL, on how to advocate for healthier environments in Black communities.

The NFL has repeatedly dismissed the lawsuit as "entirely misguided," claiming that the use of any so-called demographic corrections to interpret test results is left entirely up to "the sound discretion of the independent clinicians administering the tests in any particular case."

"Did the NFL do that because of benevolence? No," Turner said. "But what we saw was guys saying, 'Hey, this is not right. We're not going to stand up for this anymore. We're not going to be victims. We're going to actively claim and demand what is ours.'"