As if there hasn’t been enough research that equates playing football to degenerative brain diseases, a study by Dr. Francis Conidi at the Florida Center for Headache and Sports Neurology has added more fuel to the fire.
The lead researcher on the study, Conidi scanned the brains of 40 ex-NFL players—they were all relatively fresh out of the league, with an average age of 36. The researchers found that 43 percent of these players studied had significantly more damage to their brain’s white matter than healthy adults of the same age.
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White matter impacts how the brain learns and functions, and this variety of damage to it is classified as traumatic brain injury, which has an approximately 33 percent rate of turning into a neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s or CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy).
However, Conidi did say that there was no apparent link between the numbers of concussions and damage to white matter. The damage comes from repetitive hits, not always to the head, which build up over time.
This explains the fact that lineman are the most prone to traumatic brain injury, as they suffer tough hits on every down, leading to an increased likelihood of consistent mild head trauma.
This study is just another cog in the machine that may be leading to the NFL’s eventual demise. The NFL has appeared to be heavily concerned about this issue, seeing as they are not only losing $1 billion in settlements, but their player’s livelihoods are at stake.
They have invested a considerable amount of money into the Head Health Challenge, which aimed at solving the issue with diagnostic, equipment and treatment solutions by challenging researchers and companies to invent new technological solutions.
But the NFL has not been particularly fast acting on this issue, with no plans to integrate any of this new technology anytime soon. Additionally, many of the innovations presented were able to reduce the effect of concussions and traumatic brain injury, but none offered a final solution to the problem. So, this begs the question of whether technology or rule changes can actually solve the traumatic brain injury crisis.
If the NFL turns to rule changes to help combat this issue, will it still look like the same sport? Maybe, a couple of decades from now, the game of football will just cease to exist. Traumatic brain injury seems inescapable for any professional football player.
For the game to continue, and as more becomes known about these degenerative brain diseases with relation to football, players will have to weigh the benefits of playing in the league or possibly dealing with a lifetime of brain trauma.