The new football season is well underway, and with it comes the longstanding debate about the role football plays in long-term brain disease. Now, researchers report having found evidence of brain disease in 95% of brains tested belonging to former NFL players.

Share on Pinterest The study supports past research that found repeated minor head trauma is the biggest risk to neurological health for footballers.

Researchers with the Department of Veterans Affairs and Boston University, MA, identified chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in 87 of 91 deceased NFL players, indicating that there is a link between football and long-term brain disease.

The findings were first reported by PBS and published on the website of the Concussion Legacy Foundation, whose brain bank received a $1 million research grant from the NFL in 2010.

“People think that we’re blowing this out of proportion, that this is a very rare disease and that we’re sensationalizing it,” says Dr. Ann McKee, chief of neuropathology at the Department of Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System. “My response is that where I sit, this is a very real disease. We have had no problem identifying it in hundreds of players.”

The team has previously identified CTE in the brains of football players who have donated their brains to science. So far, they have identified CTE in 96% of NFL players and 79% of football players examined to date – a total of 131 out of 165 individuals.

CTE occurs when an individual receives blows to the head over a period of time, causing progressive damage to nerve cells in the brain. The condition can impair cognitive functioning, causing difficulties with thinking and emotions and leading to problems such as depression and dementia.

The injuries that result in CTE cause the abnormal accumulation of proteins, interference in cell-to-cell communication and alter the white matter in the brain.

Previous research has suggested that repetitive minor head trauma represents a bigger risk to players than rare but violent collisions. The researchers found that 40% of the footballers who had CTE had played as offensive and defensive linemen – positions that experience physical contact on every play of a game – supporting past studies.