Tony Dorsett on CTE diagnosis: 'It’s very frustrating at times for me'

Hall of Fame running back Tony Dorsett was diagnosed in 2013 with CTE, a degenerative brain disease linked to head trauma, and spoke about how it affects his life in a radio interview Sunday. 

"I got diagnosed with CTE and it’s very frustrating at times for me," Dorsett told Dallas radio station 1310 The Ticket, according to the Dallas Morning News. "I’ve got a good team of people around me, my wife and kids, who work with me. When you’ve been in this town for so long and I have to go to some place I’ve been going to for many, many, many years, and then all of a sudden I forget how to get there."

"I signed up for this when, I guess, I started playing football so many years ago," Dorsett added. "But, obviously, not knowing that the end was going to be like this. But I love the game. The game was good to me. It’s just unfortunate that I’m going through what I’m going through. I’m in the fight, man. I’m not just laying around letting this overtake me. I’m fighting. I’m in the battle. I’m hoping we can reverse this thing somehow."

Dorsett played in the NFL from 1977 to 1988. In 1994, he was inducted into both the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the College Football Hall of Fame. 

CTE can only be diagnosed with absolute certainty by examining a person's brain after they have died. Dorsett and several other former NFL players took part in a UCLA study that attempted to find signs of the disease in living patients. 

The disease is characterized by memory loss, aggression and depression. It has been found in the brains of dozens of deceased former NFL players, including Junior Seau and Dave Duerson, who both committed suicide. 

- Dan Gartland