Study Reveals 40 Percent of Living NFL Veterans Show Signs of Brain Injury

A new study of recently retired NFL players revealed a potential link between playing football and suffering from traumatic brain injury, or TBI, according to data released Monday. 

There was evidence of TBI in more than 40 percent of the 40 retired NFL veterans examined as part of the study, according to Frank Conidi, director of the Florida Center for Headache and Sports Neurology, per Alice Park of Time.

The 40 players involved played for an average of seven years apiece in the NFL, and all have been retired for less than five years. According to Conidi's data, 45 percent of the players had issues with learning and memory, while 43 percent suffered damage to their brain's white matter.

Conidi conceded the results don't definitively prove playing football causes brain injury, but he does believe continued collisions are a contributing factor, per Park: "It's not the big hits, the one big concussion but more likely the repetitive banging that causes problems."

Conidi's findings come on the heels of several significant happenings on the concussion front with regard to the NFL.

In March, Jeff Miller, NFL senior vice president for health and safety, acknowledged a link between football and brain injuries, according to ESPN.com's Steve Fainaru.

Commissioner Roger Goodell stood behind Miller's statement and discussed the importance of continuing concussion research in the NFL, per ESPN.com's Kevin Seifert:

"

The most important thing for us is to support the medicine and scientists who determine what those connections are. We think that the statements that have been made by [Miller] and others have [been] consistent with our position over the years. We've actually funded those studies. So we're not only aware of those and recognize them but we support those studies. A lot of the research is still in its infancy, but we're trying to find ways to accelerate that.

"

That was followed by a New York Times report from Alan Schwarz, Walt Bogdanich and Jacqueline Williams that found the NFL omitted a large number of concussions suffered from 1996 to 2001 in research data it had presented.

Former Detroit Lions defensive end Tracy Scroggins then filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of former players who have been preliminarily diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, according to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk.

Conidi's research represents another blow to the league, but it is only the start of his study, as he continues to examine former players.

Should his efforts yield similar results moving forward, the NFL may very well find itself with even more courtroom battles on its hands.

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