Experts react to new findings on CTE in former NFL players

A new study from Boston University looks at the rate of the brain disease CTE in former NFL players who died between 2008 and 2023.

A new study from Boston University estimating that nearly 75% of NFL players who died over a 15-year period had signs of CTE in their brains is raising concern, and experts say it demonstrates the need to collect more data on the condition. CTE, or chronic traumatic encephalopathy, is a degenerative brain disease found in people who have suffered repeated blows to the head. It can only be definitively diagnosed after death. It has also been found in the brains of other athletes, first responders and military members, but is rarely seen in the general population.The Boston University research builds on data published in The British Medical Journal in August.

That data estimated that anywhere from 25% to 98% of ex-NFL players who died between 2016 and 2021 had CTE. The broad estimate reflected uncertainty about how representative brain donors studied were of the overall NFL population, since brain donors are more likely to have symptoms believed to be related to CTE.The Boston researchers looked for signs of the condition in brains donated by 387 players who died between 2008 and 2023 — a subset of the 2,362 former NFL players who died during that period. Ninety-four percent of the donors had some form of CTE. The researchers estimated that former NFL players with cognitive symptoms were 5 times more