Sports

Study: 75% of NFL Players Who Died Since 2008 Had CTE

Is this a call for better treatment and safer rules or proof the sport is too dangerous to keep?

2 hours ago·Updated 1 hour ago

Study: 75% of NFL Players Who Died Since 2008 Had CTE

Story

Above: Matthew Stafford is tackled during a Rams versus Lions game in Detroit, Mich., on Sept. 8, 2024. Image credit: Steven King/Icon Sportswire/Getty Images

The Facts

A study published Wednesday in JAMA Network Open estimated that about 75% of former NFL players who died over the 15-year span from 2008 through 2023 had chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the highest such estimate to date.
The Guardian
NBC News
The analysis covered 2,362 deceased former NFL players, including 396 whose brains were donated and 1,966 who were not donors. Among 387 donors with a neuropathological evaluation, 362, or 93.5%, were found to have CTE.
The New York Times
JAMA Network
Researchers calculated that players with clear cognitive symptoms were roughly five times likelier to have their brains donated, then used that selection ratio to adjust the donor figure to 74.5%, with a lower-bound analysis estimating 63.7%.
JAMA Network
CBS News
Signs of CTE in the brain do not always lead to cognitive decline, and some people never develop symptoms. The study estimated that 27% of the former players examined had a history of all-cause dementia during life.
FOX Sports Radio
NBC News
By comparison, the study authors said fewer than 1% of brains donated to community brain banks in the U.S., Austria and Brazil show signs of CTE, a condition that can currently be diagnosed only through examination after death.
The Guardian
The New York Times
The NFL said it "continuously strives to make the game of football safer," pointing to equipment such as Guardian Caps and rule changes. The NFL Players Association called the study one of many that are critical to understanding football's long-term effects.
The New York Times
CBS News

Sources Split

LEFT

CENTER

RIGHT

ESTAB
CRIT

CENTER

PRO
ESTAB

The Spin

Narrative A

Knowing the true scope of brain disease in football is a reason for hope and better care. Many symptoms tied to CTE — memory loss, mood swings and sleep trouble — respond to treatment from doctors who specialize in neurodegenerative disease. Fear without treatment carries a death toll of its own, including suicide, which is why research, care and safer rules deliver more than panic ever will.

USA Today

The New York Times

Narrative B

No rule tweak can fix a game built on hitting heads. While the NFL is a game played by consenting adults, countless kids playing in tax-funded school leagues are enduring the same injuries at the youth level, causing depression, dementia and Parkinson's — a price no one, let alone a child, should pay for a school tradition. Medicine and research should be prescribed at the adult and private level, but public schools shouldn't be funding this dangerous pastime.