As a new NFL season begins this Wednesday, the danger of America’s most-watched sport has never been more clear.
A new and widely circulated study published in the British Medical Journal examined the donated brains of former NFL players who died between 2016 and 2021 and compared them with the overall number of players who died during that period.
More...Of the 235 donated brains in that period, 215 had evidence of the degenerative brain condition chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). That group of 215 comprised 24.5% of the former players who died during that period in total. Given the finding, the study’s authors estimate that the prevalence of CTE among players who died in that period was at minimum 24.5% to a maximum of 97.7%, with the actual rate likely somewhere in between.
The implication of that finding cannot be overstated: it suggests that CTE is a disease that may affect a substantial share of those who spend their careers in the NFL. The players taking the field this season are being exposed to the same fundamental risk: the repeated blows to the head that have been linked to the disease. When we watch players deliver and receive those devastaMore...ting if also thrilling hits, when we watch the lines collide on every play, we are watching the repetitive head trauma that puts players at risk of developing CTE. We are watching lives being permanently altered in ways that will in the end result in heartbreak.