Good article on the Paul Oliver Network

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A week later, Georgia football coach Mark Richt huddled with some 40 or so former Georgia players after Oliver’s funeral at Burnt Hickory Baptist Church in Powder Springs. Richt vowed to make good on a promise he made to them when he recruited them, that he would take care of them while they were in Athens and afterwards.

“Coach Richt said that was kind of the straw that broke the camel’s back,” said Des Williams, who played fullback for the Bulldogs. “He was really going to put some effort into helping us as former players.”

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Chelsea Oliver started The Oliver Tree Foundation in Paul’s name.

It is focused on supporting youth, healthy living and supporting awareness and support research of CTE.

On a video on the website, Chelsea said her husband “did unfortunately have CTE” — Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, a progressive degenerative disease of the brain that has been found in players with repetitive brain trauma. She mentions in the video that it’s caused by multiple concussions.

“When I talked to him, I never knew anything about that,” Ware said. “I knew he had went out and seen some doctors but I didn’t know as far as what it was for.”

CTE is associated with, among other things, depression, impaired judgment and impulse control problems, according to Boston University’s CTE Center.

Oliver is among 96 — including 48 former pro football payers — listed as brain tissue donors at the Sports Legacy Institute, a Boston-based non-profit founded in 2007 by former pro wrestler Chris Nowinski and Dr. Robert Cantu, a concussion expert.

Among those players is former Chicago safety Dave Duerson, former Atlanta safety Ray Easterling, former Philadelphia safety Andre Waters and former Denver receiver Kenny McKinley, all of whom committed suicide.

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