Christopher Nowinski was interviewed by the New York Times and he believes that Benoit snapped because of brain damage relating to multiple concussions.
Christopher Nowinski, a former wrestler who worked with Benoit, and who was forced to quit because of head injuries, said he believed that repeated, untreated concussions might have caused his friend to snap. “He was one of the only guys who would take a chair shot to the back of the head,” Mr. Nowinski said, “which is stupid.” Mr. Nowinski has written a book called “Head Games: Football’s Concussion Crisis”, about chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a condition that can cause memory loss, depression and “bizarre, paranoid behavior.”
Mr. Nowinski said that he had been trying to persuade the coroner examining Mr. Benoit to allow a brain exam to look for the telltale neurofibrillary tangles in the brain’s cortex, but that he had thus far been rebuffed. Nowinski has previously been able to link the suicide of former NFL defensive back Andre Waters to concussion induced depression based on forensic work done on Waters’ brain matter. “Part of me hopes there was something wrong with his brain,” Mr. Nowinski said. “The Chris Benoit I knew was always more concerned about everybody else’s well-being than his own.”
