New Report Concludes At Least 24.5% of NFL Players in Study Had CTE

A new study examining the brains of deceased former NFL players found that at least 24.5 percent of players in its cohort had CTE, a degenerative brain disease.

The study, published by The BMJ, examined the brains of 235 of the 878 former NFL players who died between 2016 and 2021. Researchers found 215 of the analyzed brains had chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), leading them to the conclusion that at least 24.5 percent of all players who died in that period had CTE.

According to ESPN: "The estimate of 25% 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."

More broadly, the study incorporated the 1,712 NFL players who died between 2008 and 2021. It found that of 338 former NFL players who donated their brains to be studied for neuropathological evaluation, 315 (93.2 percent) were found to have CTE. The study's main conclusions focused on 2016-2021 because brain donation was most frequent in that period.

Boston University wrote in 2023 that a study of 376 former NFL players showed 345 of them were found to have CTE.

The disease is likely caused by repeated head injuries, leading to the death of nerve cells in the brain. There is currently no way to definitively diagnose CTE in a living person.

Former NFL quarterback Matt Hasselbeck was part of a group that recently went through a series of tests and scans at Boston University that researchers hope will eventually help lead to the ability to diagnose CTE in a living person.