NFL Announces Decline in Diagnosed Concussions in 2016 Compared to 2015

The National Football League announced Thursday there was an across-the-board decline in diagnosed concussions during the 2016 season compared to 2015. The overall number dropped from 275 to 244.

Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk noted there was a decrease in every category: preseason practices, preseason games, regular-season practices and regular-season games.

San Francisco 49ers co-chairman John York said on a conference call the league also saw more players coming forward to acknowledge their own concussion symptoms, per Pro Football Talk.

"We've seen an increased number in self-reported concussions this year over last year," he said.

In September, Ken Belson of the New York Times passed along details after the NFL announced its intention to spend an additional $100 million to develop new technology that could make football safer as well as fund more research on the impact of head injuries.

"We know there is skepticism about our work in this area," NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said at the time. "That's why both the process and the results of our work will be shared with the medical community and the public at large."

In December, the Supreme Court rejected challenges concerning how much the NFL knew about the dangers of head trauma. The resulting settlement allowed for payments in the $1 billion deal to begin, according to CBS News.

One key question that remains is the potential link between playing football and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). The degenerative brain disease has been connected to repeated strikes to the head often suffered by players, especially linemen.

In September 2015, Jason M. Breslow of PBS relayed research results from Department of Veterans Affairs and Boston University that showed 96 percent of the 91 former NFL players studied tested positive for CTE after death. An autopsy is currently the only way to identify the disease.

A total of 165 former football players of any level, from high school to professional, were studied, and 79 percent of them were found to have CTE. In addition, 40 percent of all the players positively identified to have the disease played either offensive or defensive line.

Meanwhile, the decrease in diagnosed concussions for the 2016 season came after a major one-year uptick reported the previous year. Kevin Seifert of ESPN.com pointed out the number of head injuries had jumped nearly 32 percent in 2015 after falling to 206 in 2014.