Oh, Henry!

Researchers are suggesting that repeated injuries from jousting and other athletic activities may have caused Henry VIII to become erratic and violent.

The king whose erratic behavior (he executed two wives, one more than O.J. Simpson allegedly managed) is the subject of such works as “The Six Wives of Henry VIII” and “Wolf Hall” may have suffered from traumatic brain injury similar to CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy), the same brain injury Dr. Bennet Omalu discovered in the cadaver of Webster, a Hall of Famer, in 2002.

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy can happen when there have been repeated hits to the head and the symptoms gradually become worse over time. Obviously we can't be certain if this was the cause of Henry's behavior, or, at least, one of the causes, since we can't go back in time and do an MRI to check out his brain, but it is an interesting theory.