KD’s Burnett Reveals Suspected CTE

STILL GOT THAT SPUNK: Jon Burnett clowns around in his Tennessee Volunteers helmet from his college football days during his recent KDKA-TV interview.

For almost four decades, he was welcomed into Pittsburgh’s hearts and homes via KDKA-TV. The tall, blond, good ole boy with the Tennessee accent and impish grin didn’t take long to endear himself to almost two generations of Pittsburghers.

While more than a few hearts were broken when Jon Burnett signed off for the last time five years ago, his former colleagues stayed in touch with him since then.

Now Burnett has returned briefly to his career home to share his story with Pittsburgh. After years of memory-related issues, Burnett, 70, revealed yesterday in a KDKA interview that he has been diagnosed with suspected Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, also known as CTE.

“Suspected” because like most neurological disorders, confirmed diagnoses can only be made post-mortem.

According to Burnett, the issues began even before his retirement plans from KDKA were finalized.

“It’s slight but I notice it, and I don’t want to get to the point where it’s obvious on the air,” Burnett told the Tribune-Review shortly before his 2019 retirement. “I don’t want to put people through that.”

Since then, Burnett and his family struggled through repeated health exams, trying to find an answer. UPMC cognitive neurologist Dr. Joseph Malone finally gave the Burnetts a plausible answer…CTE.

“The main risk factor is something we call repetitive head injuries, or RHI, and this reflects multiple bonks to the head essentially,” said Dr. Malone.

Burnett, who had been playing football since the age of ten, suffered a series of concussions while holding offense and defense positions in high school and college. One major concussion that knocked him unconscious was during a practice session at the Gator Bowl, where his helmet split in two.

“Ultimately, I paid the price with the concussions that I had over the years, several of them,” said Burnett. But he also says he doesn’t regret the time he spent on the gridiron.

“I was kind of proud because it meant that I had been doing my job. Head first, chin up, face mask here, right into his head or his stomach or whatever,” said Burnett. “Would I do it all over again? Absolutely. Would I try to protect my head a little bit more? I’d try, but I don’t know if it would have helped or not.”

CTE is no stranger to Pittsburgh sports fans. “Iron Mike” Webster, former Pittsburgh Steelers center during the famed “Steel Curtain” era of the late 1970’s, was diagnosed with it during an autopsy shortly after his death at age 50 from a heart attack in 2002.

Burnett hopes his journey will help others better understand CTE and how to treat it.

“If I can help anybody on this road, who is on this road or will be on this road in the years ahead, I feel better about being able to do that and being able to learn from my experiences,” he said.

Burnett is part of research at the National Sports Brain Bank at the University of Pittsburgh, where scientists are working to learn about CTE. They need any athlete who played a sport with a higher risk of head injury to participate in their study so they can learn more about why some people get it, some don’t and what can be done to prevent and treat it.

The study involves an annual online questionnaire and agreeing to donate your brain upon death. The brain can be removed without any change to the rest of the body and can still allow for a traditional funeral and open casket.

“This is totally Jon Burnett,” said Burnett’s son Eric. “Looking at the positive in every situation and thinking about the good that you can do for others.”


KDKA-TV and the Tribune-Review contributed to this report.