Share to ClassroomStudy Finds Brain Disease in NFL Players
A new study looked at former National Football League (NFL) players who died between 2016 and 2021. At least one in four of them had a brain disease called CTE. CTE means chronic traumatic encephalopathy, and it is caused by many blows to the head. Scientists in the United States studied 878 men who had played in at least one NFL game and later died. Then 235 of them gave their brains to science. Of those brains, 215 had the disease.
Doctors can only find CTE after someone dies, which makes the real number hard to know. The scientists said that between 24.5 and 97.7 percent of the 878 men may have had it. The lead scientist, Daniel Daneshvar, said the true number is probably in the middle. Fewer than one in a hundred ordinary people have CTE. Many players with the disease also had memory problems.
The NFL says it is always working to make the game safer. The players' union says the study is a serious reminder of the risks. Doctors now worry about young players. Daneshvar wants children to stop playing tackle football. He also wants teams to remove hard contact from practice. Small hits matter too, doctors say, especially when the brain is still growing.
