TSC Interviews: Sports Legacy Institute Founder Chris Nowinski

TSC's Fred Richani and Christian Albury interview former WWE superstar, Harvard football standout, and Sports Legacy Institute founder Chris Nowinski on his athletic career and bringing awareness to brain injuries.

Chris Nowinski was once a superstar for Vince McMahon's World wrestling Entertainment in the early-2000s. Prior to that, he was a the true definition of a student athlete at Harvard, having superb grades and enough athletic ability to have potentially gone pro in football.

Unfortunately for Chris, that bright WWE future was cut short due to a string of concussions and the after effects known as Post-Concussion Syndrome in 2003, which infamously ended Bret "Hitman" Hart's career back in 2000.

Nowinski could have been like other wrestlers that fell out of the limelight. He could have gone on to a path of self destruction after going from fame and glory to an early retired, but he didn't. Nowinski is a Harvard graduated for a reason. He's on HBO, ESPN, and just about every major sports related program you've ever seen through the years for a good reason.

Nowinski founded The Sports Legacy Institute (SLI) a few years later to raise awareness on concussions and head injuries. First, he studied the NFL and football's physicality, in conjunction with the effects it has on the brain. Nowinski even wrote a book titled Head Games: Football’s Concussion Crisis about the growing epidemic that the NFL seemingly turned a blind eye on for so long.

Let's not forget Nowinski's past profession—pro wrestling.

Between the chair shots, suplexes, and high-risk maneuvers, it's no wonder some wrestlers suffered from depression, stress, and in Chris Benoit's case, random acts of violence that ultimately took his life and his family's.