Study Finds High Rates of Brain Disease in Deceased NFL Players

A recent study shows that up to 97.7% of NFL players who died between 2016 and 2021 might have suffered brain disease related to repeated head trauma.

Researchers examined 878 former players who died in that period, with 235 donating their brains for analysis. Among those, 215 were diagnosed postmortem with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain condition.

The British Medical Journal published the study, which also found dementia was common among the brain donors. Daniel Daneshvar, associate professor at Harvard Medical School and lead author, stated, "We and others have shown that in NFL players, specifically, there is about a four times higher rate of death from neurodegenerative disease than the general population."

Daneshvar added, "These findings indicate that NFL players have a higher prevalence of CTE at death than has been previously shown in multiple community based studies." Researchers estimated a conservative minimum CTE prevalence at 24.5%, with a maximum reaching 97.7% among those who died during the six-year span.

The study urged the NFL to implement prevention strategies to reduce repeated head impacts across all sport levels. Daneshvar explained, "The bulk of the head impacts that these former NFL players experienced didn't occur at the NFL level."

He continued, "They occurred at the collegiate level and at the high school level and in many cases the youth level. And all of those cumulative hits to the head added up to result in an increased risk."

An NFL spokesperson responded, "The NFL continuously strives to make the game of football safer, including by implementing strategies to reduce concussions and head impacts."

The spokesperson also said, "The NFL remains committed to ensuring that the NFL community has access to a robust - and expanding - set of resources to enhance their physical and mental well being."

They encouraged former players to use these resources to identify and seek treatment when concerned about their health. Efforts to address CTE have increased in recent years, including limits on contact practices set by the 2011 Collective Bargaining Agreement.