Brain Disease Pervasive in N.F.L. According to New Estimate

NY Times - This summer, a scientific study sent reverberations through the football world, making headlines and deeply worrying players and families. At least 25 percent of retired N.F.L. players who died over a recent six-year period, the study found, had C.T.E., or chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the neurodegenerative brain disease associated with repeated hits to the head.

But most of the other 75 percent of deceased players were never tested. That left a complex, high-stakes question — the actual prevalence of C.T.E. among deceased ex-N.F.L. players — open for analysis.

Now, the same research team has deployed statistical techniques to home in on a more precise number. In a new study published Wednesday, they estimate that three out of four former N.F.L. players who died between 2008 and 2023 most likely had C.T.E. in their brains at death.