And yet, oddest among such oddities may be the sight of enormously burly NFL tough guys talking candidly about their feelings. Poyer says he “absolutely” buys into the idea that psychedelics can help heal the effects of repeated head trauma. Before that game, he recalls bouts of extreme anger and irritability, and cluster headaches: all symptoms of repeated trauma to the head. Concussions have been linked to both short- and long-term impairment, the most severe of which is chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a neurodegenerative disease believed to be caused by repeated head trauma. CTE affects memory, judgment, and executive function, and it occurs at an alarmingly high rate among former NFL players.