Study Reveals That At Least 25% Of NFL Players In Sample Had CTE

A study from the British Medical Journal revealed that at least one in four NFL players who have died between 2016 and 2021 had the degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

The study examined how common CTE might be among NFL players. Inside the study, it was found that among 878 players who have appeared in at least one NFL game and died in those six years, 25% of those had CTE.

CTE is a disease that can only be found after death; research is dependent on brains donated by the families of players. The study relied on samples from those donations between 2008 and 2021. Of those samples, 93% were diagnosed with CTE; they then looked into demographic data and information from the death certificates of those samples.

The 25% estimate is on the “low end,” said Dr. Daniel Daneshvar, the study’s lead author. The study found that the maximum possible prevalence of CTE was around 97%, but the true rate “is somewhere in the middle,” Daneshvar said. 

“This study is a sobering reminder that football carries real risks, and those risks can have lasting consequences for players and their families,” the NFLPA said in a statement. “It also reinforces one of the NFLPA’s core priorities: improving player safety and supporting players throughout their lives, both during and after their careers. 

“The findings should serve as a call to action across the entire football ecosystem. We all share a responsibility to advance research, improve access to care, develop better treatments, and support those affected by the long-term impacts of the game.”

The NFL “continuously strives to make the game of football safer, including by implementing strategies to reduce concussions and head impacts,” the league said in a statement. “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.”

Houston Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair, entering his eighth NFL season, was asked whether he was worried about getting CTE.

“The reality of the game is that it’s aggressive. It’s violent,” he said. “We’re out here running at each other. These are the best athletes in the world playing on one field. You’re going full speed running into each other. That’s the type of stuff that can happen.”

When asked whether he worried about life after football, Al-Shaair said, “That’s the reality of the game. I think we all know what we sign up for. … You have to make sure that you’re taking care of your body, doing the things that you can off the field to give yourself the best chance to stay healthy.”

The study found links between CTE and dementia. They found that over 90% of samples of the most advanced stage of CTE, Stage 4, were also diagnosed with dementia.

Daneshvar stated that the biggest predictor of CTE is the cumulative force of hits to the head, and that risk can be lowered by eliminating hits during practices and having children not play tackle football.

The researchers hope to release a study in the upcoming months that will estimate the overall rate of CTE in all NFL players at the time of their death.