87 out of 91 former NFL players who donated their brains to be studied have tested positive for a brain disease associated with concussions called chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), according to researchers.
Researchers from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Boston University examined these players’ brains postmortem (CTE can only be definitively identified in the brain after death) as part of a larger study that included other football players who played in high school or at a higher level. Overall, they found that 79 percent (131 out of 165) of all the former players and 96 percent of the NFL players had CTE.
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Now, this doesn’t mean that 96 percent of NFL players have the disease—most of the subjects donated their brains because they suspected they had concussion-related brain damage after playing football. Even while this could skew the data, the results are still “remarkably consistent” with the center’s past research about football and its relation to long-term brain damage, said Dr. Ann McKee, the center’s director.
Interestingly, the data showed that 40 percent of players with CTE were linemen. This could suggest that the repetitive, moderate trauma that linemen are subject to could be more damaging than the less-frequent big hits that cause concussions.
In response to the study, the NFL said, “We are dedicated to making football safer and continue to take steps to protect players, including rule changes, advanced sideline technology and expanded medical resources. We continue to make significant investments in independent research though our gifts to Boston University, the NIH [National Institutions of Health] and other efforts to accelerate the science and understanding of these issues.”
But no amount of sideline technology or donated money will be able to completely mask the NFL’s association with head injuries and brain damage. This study surely puts the league in yet another tight position.