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There’s more alarming evidence that suggests it’s common for professional football players to suffer from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, also known as CTE, a degenerative brain disease.
At least one in four NFL players who died between 2016 and 2021 had CTE, according to a new study from researchers at Mass General Brigham. The findings were published on Tuesday in theBritish Medical Journal.
Of the 878 former NFL players who died during those six years, 235 donated their brains for study and 215 were found to have CTE, according to the researchers. CTE can be diagnosed only after death, which makes research dependent on donated brains by players or their families.
“This study is a sobering reminder that football carries real risks, and those risks can have lasting consequences for players and their families,” the NFLPA said in a statement. “It also reinforces one of the NFLPA’s core priorities: improving player safety and supporting players throughout their lives, both during and after their careers.
“The NFLPA has made major investments in brain health research, player care, and support services. That includes leading institutions such as the American Brain Foundation and the Football Players Health Study at Harvard University, as well as resources available to former players through The Trust, the Professional Athletes Foundation, and our Former Players Department.
“The findings should serve as a call to action across the entire football ecosystem. We all share a responsibility to advance research, improve access to care, develop better treatments, and support those affected by the long-term impacts of the game. While we have learned a great deal over the past two decades, there is more work to do, and the NFLPA remains committed to being part of that effort.”
An NFL spokesperson said: “The NFL continuously strives to make the game of football safer, including by implementing strategies to reduce concussions and head impacts.
“The NFL remains committed to ensuring that the NFL community has access to a robust—and expanding—set of resources to enhance their physical and mental well-being.”
Here are a few questions and answers regarding CTE, a prevalent issue in the NFL that likely won’t go away any time soon.
What is CTE?
CTE is associated with repeated blows to the head, including concussions. The symptoms include difficulty with attention, memory, mood disorders and headaches. It’s frequently diagnosed among military veterans and athletes in contact sports such as football, hockey and boxing.
This latest study on CTE also found that dementia was common among the brain donors, especially those diagnosed with the most advanced stage of CTE, Stage IV.
49ers legendary running back Roger Craig recently revealed in his Pro Football Hall of Fame speech that he was diagnosed with vascular dementia and mentioned that his doctors believe he got it from the concussions he sustained during his 11 seasons in the NFL.
What is the true rate of CTE among former NFL players?
The study’s lead author, Dr. Daniel Daneshvar, referred to the estimated 25% of former NFL players whose brains were diagnosed with CTE as more of a “low end” number and believes it would be a lot higher if researchers had a larger sample size to study.
The researchers also mentioned that they analyzed death certificates of football players who did not donate their brains and found that 215 of those certificates had neurodegenerative disease listed as the cause of death. Neurodegenerative disease is a group of conditions that cause nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord to get damaged and die over time progressively. Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and ALS are types of neurodegenerative disease. Former Titans running backChris Johnson recently announced his battle with ALS.
In the extreme upper end, researchers believe the number of former NFL players with CTE at death could be as high as 97%.
“We’ve known that this disease process can be caused by, in part, repeated traumatic brain injury,” Daneshvar said. “But we didn’t know how common it was.”
What do we know about Daneshvar?
Daneshvar is the chair of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Mass General Brigham and Harvard Medical School. He’s also the director of the HealthSpan Lab, which investigates the biological, behavioral and environmental factors that influence lifelong health and long-term brain function.
His research interests are in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, brain concussions, chronic traumatic encephalopathy and traumatic brain injury.
What can be done to reduce brain injuries in football?
Daneshvar suggested reducing practice time in the NFL and at lower levels of football to reduce the number of brain injuries. He also said that most of the head impacts that these former NFL players experienced didn’t occur at the NFL level.
“They occurred at the collegiate level, and at the high school level and in many cases the youth level,” Daneshvar said. “And all of those cumulative hits to the head added up to result in an increased risk.”
What has the NFL done to limit hits to the brain?
The NFL has promoted flag football heavily in recent years, partly because it gives concerned parents a safer alternative for introducing the sport to their children.
The NFL has also drastically reduced practice time for players over the past two decades, for several reasons, including a compromise between players and owners after the league expanded to a 17-game schedule in 2021. The league is also discussing expanding to an 18-game schedule in the near future.
But perhaps the league’s most influential decision to reduce head injuries camewhen it allowed players to wear Guardian Caps in games two seasons ago. However, few players have opted to wear the over-sized helmets with extra cushion during games. Still, many players wear guardian caps in practice.
Who are notable players who have suffered from CTE?
Mike Webster, a longtime center in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, is believed to be the first football player diagnosed with CTE. It was discovered in an autopsy after he died from a heart attack at the age of 50 in 2002.
Since then, there have been several notable NFL stars who were found to have CTE after their deaths, including Junior Seau, Ken Stabler, Aaron Hernandez, Demaryius Thomas, Dave Duerson and Vincent Jackson.
Many families of players, including Seau’s, have filed lawsuits against the NFL due to the brain injuries sustained while playing for the league.
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GILBERTO MANZANO
Gilberto Manzano is a staff writer covering the NFL for Sports Illustrated. After starting off as a breaking news writer at NFL.com in 2014, he worked as the Raiders beat reporter for the Las Vegas Review-Journal and covered the Chargers and Rams for the Orange County Register and Los Angeles Daily News. During his time as a combat sports reporter, he was awarded best sports spot story of 2018 by the Nevada Press Association for his coverage of the Conor McGregor-Khabib Nurmagomedov post-fight brawl. Manzano, a first-generation Mexican-American with parents from Nayarit, Mexico, is the cohost of Compas on the Beat, a sports and culture show featuring Mexican-American journalists. He has been a member of the Pro Football Writers of America since 2017.
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