It’s not looking great for ex-football players:
A new study from The BMJ finds that at least 24.5 percent of all former NFL players who died between 2016 and 2021 had CTE. Of the 878 who died during that period, at least 215 had CTE. Of the remaining 663, 643 of the players’ brains were not studied for the presence of CTE. Which means that the real percentage could be much higher.
It almost certainly is. A friend of mine married, and eventually divorced, a former college football player whose personality and behavior changed drastically over time. She suspects that he’s got CTE, but of course there is no way of knowing for sure until he dies. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it turns out that more than half of the former NFL players had it.
It’s a violent game. And the players should be given every opportunity to know what they’re getting into.