CTE Found in 91% of Studied Brains as NFL Season Opens
A new study of 235 donated NFL player brains found 215 showed signs of CTE, renewing debate over football's head-trauma risks as the new season begins.
A study published in the British Medical Journal has examined the brains of 235 former NFL players donated after death between 2016 and 2021. Of those, 215 showed evidence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the degenerative brain condition linked to repeated head trauma.
That is 91 per cent of the former NFL players who died in the period.
The NFL season begins this Wednesday. Every play in it — the collisions on the line, the hits fans tune in to see — each collision adds to the cumulative head trauma the study links to the disease.
The debate over what to do about it is not confined to medical journals. Former senator Ben Sasse wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, published Friday, arguing a position captured in its own title.
«America needs its boys to play football».
The Guardian's Sport section, in its response, called that argument a version of outdated gender politics dressed up as something closer to child endangerment.
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