Study: CTE Found In Nearly All Donated NFL Player Brains

[DonViejo]

Source: NPR




July 25, 201711:00 AM ET

TOM GOLDMAN

As the country starts to get back into its most popular professional team sport, there's a reminder of how dangerous football can be.

An updated study published Tuesday by the Journal of the American Medical Association on football players and the degenerative brain disease Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) reveals a striking result among NFL players.

The study examined the brains of deceased former football players (CTE can only be diagnosed after death) and found that 110 out of 111 brains of those who played in the NFL had CTE. CTE has been linked to repeated blows to the head – the 2015 movie Concussion chronicled the discovery of CTE's tie to football.

In the study, researchers examined the brains of 202 deceased former football players at all levels. Nearly 88 percent of all the brains, 177, had CTE. Three of 14 who'd played only in high school had CTE; 48 of 53 college players; 9 of 14 semiprofessional players; 7 of 8 Canadian Football League players.


Read more: http://www.npr.org/2017/07/25/539198429/study-cte-found-in-nearly-all-donated-nfl-player-brains

[TreasonousBastard]

1. But, and it's a big one, those bodies were donated by families who believed the players had CTE.

[camelfan]

6. And yet...

the story also mentions that if you take the total number of players who have died and assume that none of them - which surely can't be right - had CTE, the percentage that those 110 make up is nearly 9 percent, vastly higher than the public at large. For me, watching that Frontline episode with Dr. Omalu cemented it. I will never watch football again. And that's coming from someone who has rooted for the Niners since the days of John Brodie, Gene Washington, Cedrick Hardman and Ted Kwalick.

[TreasonousBastard]

21. I don't disagree with that, it's just the lopsided sample that makes it look even worse...

Although, it's entirely possible that it is even worse.

All contact sports cause damage (remember how Ali didn't know where he was at times...) but pro football now has defense players damn near twice the size of when I was a kid. That's gotta hurt.

There's billions at stake, though. Lots of billions.

[AwakeAtLast]

23. Mike Ditka does not want his grandchildren to play football

That says A LOT.

I have stopped watching football, too.

[LanternWaste]

13. However, and this is a big however...

However, and this is a big however...


A CTE study several years ago by McKee and her colleagues included football players and athletes from other collision sports such as hockey, soccer and rugby. It also examined the brains of military veterans who had suffered head injuries.

The study released Tuesday is the continuation of a study that began eight years ago. In 2015, McKee and fellow researchers at the Department of Veterans Affairs and Boston University published study results revealing 87 of 91 former NFL players had CTE.

[TreasonousBastard]

20. I think it's obvious that contact sports cause CTE, among other things..

it's just that work like this comes out lopsided.

[Botany]

2. I love football but it is only a matter of time before public schools have to ban football.

I love watching and it is a great game to play too but I don't see
how public schools and unversities will still be able to back a sport
that causes brain damage.

[onit2day]

10. We have to go back to rugby

[melm00se]

17. Rugby players have CTE too

google rugby and CTE

[BarbD]

3. It's all about the money.

The owners make tons of money. TV makes money. The universities make money. It gives players the opportunity to make big money. The fans scream "Hit 'em again, harder, harder". And, let's not forget the betting.

[HAB911]

4. And we get to buy them new stadiums

[procon]

5. Maybe they need to rethink how football is played.

No one should suffer life changing injuries over a sport. The audience wants to have a blood sport, which is twisted enough, but the root of the problem is money. Vast sums of money that flow into the hands of a few of the richest people on earth and their corporate partners who profit off of exploiting inexperienced young men. These guys are often people of color and come from very humble and impoverished backgrounds, but they pay a terrible price with this type of injury.

[Botany]

7. Money and race have little to do with it .....

Force = mass x acceleration

You have really strong and fast people hitting each other.

A big time college football linebacker is 6'2", 235 lbs, he can run a
4.7 40, and can bench press 300 lbs. The person he hits or even
himself is a risk w/every collision.

[procon]

8. Huh?

Beyond the physicality of the sport, the common denominator is always going to point to the tantalizing lure of money. No one would risk life and limb for a friendly game in the park, but without the promise of unimagined wealth, professional sports wouldn't exist.

Even without hard numerical data, the demographics are clear, 70% of NFL rosters are comprised of African-American men. Sorry, but I don't find your assertion relative to what I wrote.

[Botany]

9. The % of A. A. in the NFL has a lot to do w/their ratio of fast twitch to slow twitch muscle

They tend to be bigger, faster, and stronger then white people. NFL players and big time college
players (black, white, & hispanic) are the lucky winners in the genetic lottery as per their
bodies' physical make up.

CTE is the result of your brain being "sloshed around"* inside the your skull. I have no
doubt that even in high school and small college football we will find many examples of
CTE.

And yes money, fame, and social standing has something to do with why people want
to play a violent and dangerous game.

* http://www.nationalgeographic.com/healing-soldiers/blast-force.html

[Igel]

15. Most teachers in high schools with active football aspirations

have a number of kids with concussions each year.

These days we're told about them because of all the special provisions to be made for their cognitive impairment.

The worst last year was a girl who got hurt doing a very much non-team sport.

As an aside, most concussion studies look at men. Women show effects later. There are other differences, and they've just started looking.

I can't help but wonder if one of the male/female brain differences will come into play. Women tend to have smaller brains, but the neural connections are usually more dense.

[Igel]

14. Much has to do with money.

But most of the kids get into it for the game, competition, prestige, and the girls they get (or fantasize they'll get).

For some, the biggest day of their lives is when they get a college scholarship to play football and sign with their school.


If there was some racial or ethnic preferences pushing NFL football rosters to "look like America," there'd be sufficient non-AA candidates to fill them. Reduce the money by an order of magnitude (with a floor of, say, $100k) and there'd still be a line.

[metalbot]

22. I'm going to guess that you've never done sports at an elite level

In a survey of NCAA athletes, most of whom would have _NO_ professional prospects in their sports, many indicated that they'd be willing to take a drug that took 20 years off their life in exchange for a championship level performance. My brother, who was a track and field runner in the Big 10, laughed when I told him this and said "if you offered me something that would drop me dead minutes after I crossed the finish line in exchange for a world championship time, I'd probably take it".

High school players don't bust their ass through football practice because they are hoping to make it to the college level. Most know by junior year that they'll never play in college.

College players don't bust their ass through four years of NCAA football because they are expecting to go pro - most probably know by sophomore year whether they are even contenders, and the ones that aren't are still on the field.

I completely reject your notion that "No one would risk life and limb for a friendly game in the park, but without the promise of unimagined wealth, professional sports wouldn't exist." Players are paid well not because "if you don't pay them well, they wouldn't do it", but because "if you don't pay them well, some other team will pay them well and then you'll have a crappy team". Also, we had professional sports long before salaries were "unimaginable".

[Yavin4]

11. If the NFL were smart, they'd switch to Soccer (European Football)

They should just buy out MLS and re-brand themselves.

[obamanut2012]

12. Time to ban youth tackle football

It has been for a very long time, and maybe this will finally do it. Which will, thank goodness, also change how the NFL minor leagues are run aka college ball.

[Doug the Dem]

16. 110 out of 111?

Well, that one guy obviously wasn't committed to the game plan, had no sticktoitiveness, and wasn't giving 110%!

The above is sarcasm, of course. But below is my hypocrisy.

I love NFL football, and will keep watching.

[Dawson Leery]

18. Football/Rugby/Wrestling/Boxing,

why still be involved in such dark age nonsense?

[Dreamer Tatum]

19. Their bodies, their choice nt