ICYMI: 3 in 4 NFL Players May Have Died With CTE in 15-Year Period, Study Suggests

©Joe Calomeni via Canva.com

Like many contact sports, playing football is known for taking a toll on the body. In recent years, researchers and players’ families have been sounding the alarm over chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a devastating neurodegenerative disease linked to repeated head trauma which can only be diagnosed after death. A new analysis involving the medical records and donated brains of former NFL players projected that 3 in 4 of those people died with the condition.

A group of Boston-based researchers analyzed the health records of nearly 2,000 former players, along with to nearly 400 players who donated their brains. All players died between 2008 and 2023 and played in the NFL for an average of five years. Of the people who donated their brains, 93.5% had CTE, the research group found. But the scientists noted people who demonstrate potential symptoms of CTE — including behavioral or cognitive changes — are more likely to choose to donate their brains. After analyzing the medical records of players who were both donors and non-donors, they estimated almost 75% of all players had CTE at the time of death.
 
Big Picture: Among other symptoms, CTE is linked to mood swings, memory loss, and dementia — the protein tau can accumulate in the brains of people with the condition, a phenomenon which also occurs in Alzheimer’s patients. These findings aren’t definitive — it’s not clear whether each person with signs of CTE had symptoms, and the researchers don’t know what the brains of non-donor players look like. But the research contributes another piece to the emerging picture of CTE across sports and the brain health risks players face.

Read More: New study suggests 3 in 4 former NFL players who died from 2008 to 2023 had CTE. CNN

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About the Author

Bella Isaacs-Thomas

Bella is the Staff Writer and Editor for BrainFacts. She previously worked as a digital science reporter at PBS NewsHour, where she was named a fellow in the 2022-2023 class of the National Science-Health-Environment Reporting Fellowships (SHERF) and earned a 2021 D.C. Science Writers Association Newsbrief Award for writing. She graduated from the University of Michigan with a bachelor's degree in 2018.