It's kind of long to post the whole thing. What surprised the researchers (and me):

Skill-position players had a neurodegenerative disease listed as a cause of death at nearly twice the rate of offensive and defensive linemen, "potentially related to greater cumulative g-force exposure, which [has] been associated with higher [neurodegenerative disease] risk," according to the study.

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/49317702/study-nfl-players-4-s-more-likely-die-neurodegenerative-disease

Considering that the risk of developing a neurodegenerative disease increases as a person ages, data showing the mortality rate of NFL players should be included (compared to everybody else) . A quick inquiry to ai produced this:

"Overall, NFL players have a lower all-cause mortality rate (about 30% lower) compared to the US general population, largely due to their initial physical fitness and access to healthcare. However, former players are nearly four times more likely to die from neurodegenerative diseases like dementia, ALS, and Parkinson's."

We should never dismiss any measurable data, but we shouldn't jump to conclusions because of an alarming title. The article itself states:

"Still, NFL players had lower death rates from other diseases than national averages. They were less likely to die from cancer, cardiovascular disease and suicide because the NFL population is "generally healthier," the researchers said in the statement."

But it never attempts to tie in the lower mortality rate that naturally increases the risk. They want the reader to jump to the conclusion that it's because of playing in the NFL. We already know a lot more about CTE than we did a few decades ago and that is a neurodegenerative disease.

Gotta wonder how things like this along with CTE, concussions and just general damage to the body (i.e., Landon Dickerson, etc) will impact the future of this sport. In this day and age, there tends to be a lot of "over-correction" to problems that get blown up by the media (including social media).

Either there will be pressure to reduce the hits significantly, transform to flag football, or the pipeline could dry up because parents don't let their kids play this "dangerous sport".

Of course, it could all just be ignored because....money. Players will risk it for the paydays and the owners will continue to rake in the dough.

4 minutes ago, EaglesAddict said:

Gotta wonder how things like this along with CTE, concussions and just general damage to the body (i.e., Landon Dickerson, etc) will impact the future of this sport. In this day and age, there tends to be a lot of "over-correction" to problems that get blown up by the media (including social media).

Either there will be pressure to reduce the hits significantly, transform to flag football, or the pipeline could dry up because parents don't let their kids play this "dangerous sport".

Of course, it could all just be ignored because....money. Players will risk it for the paydays and the owners will continue to rake in the dough.

Funny thing is, the sport is no where near as violent today as it used to be ... that process started quite some time ago.

8 minutes ago, time2rock said:

Funny thing is, the sport is no where near as violent today as it used to be ... that process started quite some time ago.

Yep. And with more and more things like this coming out in the form of "studies", have to wonder if they will continue to try and water things down. I just hate when they keep attempting to amend rules and penalize everything that involves contact. At some point, you just have say this is the sport, these are the long-term risks, and you either accept it or not...and that includes society at large as well.

Kids were good athletes and played youth football for a couple of years but got hit so hard sometimes that we bagged it in the end. Not worth the risk. Hard to watch them laying on the field though they got up and were okay afterwards.

So CTE and neurodegenerative disease are not my thing, but they are at least somewhat adjacent to it. The neuropathology of CTE is real. But the hype, fear-mongering, and coloring/narrative of CTE have vastly exceeded the clinical and scientific understanding at this point.

The correlation between tissue pathology and behavioral pathology and dementia syndromes is wildly overcalled at worst and extremely noisy at best.

There is a blanket shotgun approach to label ever former football player with psych issues, depression, substance issues, chronic pain, or cognition issues with a CTE diagnosis.

I'm not positioning myself in the CTE denial camp. Just pointing out that even Harvard based studies in peer reviewed journals are getting to that point largely because of the visibility and hype attached to them more so than the science.

I used to wonder how older generations never took the health risks of smoking seriously, especially when the evidence began mounting. After seeing how some fans react to studies like this, I'm starting to get it.

5 minutes ago, we_gotta_believe said:

I used to wonder how older generations never took the health risks of smoking seriously, especially when the evidence began mounting. After seeing how some fans react to studies like this, I'm starting to get it.

Do you know how to read a study?

I wonder if there'll be a movement to restricting contact sports to older kids. Yes flag football until what, college for tackle football? Certainly not until the last couple years of high school and probably not then. That would go a long way to encourage parents to permit younger kids to play football that now say No. And yes, the restriction/elimination of the Jack Tatum - Ronnie Lott "make the opposing player fear bodily injury if he ventures into my area" as much as that is loved by some. More finesse less violence.

3 minutes ago, eagle45 said:

Do you know how to read a study?

Depends on the subject matter.

4 minutes ago, eglz1 said:

I wonder if there'll be a movement to restricting contact sports to older kids. Yes flag football until what, college for tackle football? And yes, the restriction/elimination of the Brian Dawkins - Ronnie Lott "make the receiver fear bodily injury if he ventures into my area" as much as that is loved by some. More finesse less violence.

I think you could probably limit full contact to high school and older without losing too much developmental progress.

1990: Football is a hard hitting high contact sport that has dangers. Concussions are bad for you. If you don't like those dangers, don't play.

2026: Football is a hard hitting high contact sport that has dangers. Concussions are bad for you. If you don't like those dangers, don't play. We now have the technology to isolate the aggregation of certain proteins in brain tissue which tracks with a history of repeated head injuries.

I'm not sure why the ability to visualize a protein suddenly makes something so real and terrifying when the actual real life consequences of head injuries were no less apparent and only marginally less understood half a century ago.

20 hours ago, eagle45 said:

I'm not sure why the ability to visualize a protein suddenly makes something so real and terrifying when the actual real life consequences of head injuries were no less apparent and only marginally less understood half a century ago.

Bit of a hijack but I think relevant to the post. When the trials that cost the cigarette companies big time the plaintiffs were crying "But but but we didn't know smoking was harmful. They never told us it might be harmful!" I thought about this song released in 1947.

About 2.8 million kids play organized tackle football before high school. About 1 million of those kids go on to play in high school. About 80000 go on to play in college each year. About 2800 players participate on NFL rosters during training camp each year.

Again, we already know more about CTE today than we did 20 years ago. It is a neurodegenerative disease.This article kind of purposely excludes CTE from the discussion and pretends that we're talking more about dementia and Parkinson's. It claims that NFL players are 4 times more likely to die from a neurodegenerative disease without explaining that naturally developing a neurodegenerative disease is more likely the longer you live. NFL players have a 30% lower mortality rate (they live longer) than the average person.

So are we really scaring people to not play football in the NFL because they might live a longer life and therefore increase their chances of developing dementia at a ripe old age?

On 7/14/2026 at 10:08 AM, time2rock said:

Funny thing is, the sport is no where near as violent today as it used to be ... that process started quite some time ago.

The problem is that the injury/trauma is inherent in the sport and it may have more to do with change of momentum/acceleration than actual contact....over time causing microscopic tears to the cranial vasculature

a RB is running full speed in one direction, and a defender comes in from a different angle and tackles him. That is a LOT of force and sudden change of direction especially for the brain. That inertia has to be absorbed somewhere....and it's happening repeatedly over years...

much like a car accident. we can smash into a wall and not incur physical damage from the crash, but our brain smashes into the front of our skull and our organs smash into our rib cage.

As such, I don't think there would be a way to make the game truly harmless, short of switching to flag football!!🙂

OK - I'm going to be unpopular but honest.

1 - The players know the risk before they play.

2 - The accept the risk in order to be millionaires in their early 20's

3 - Their benefit plan, the NFL uncapped concussion settlement, and their own millions make them far more able to cope with the issue that the rst of us

Given all that - this is a non-issue to me.

On 7/24/2026 at 1:17 PM, Rob331 said:

OK - I'm going to be unpopular but honest.

1 - The players know the risk before they play.

2 - The accept the risk in order to be millionaires in their early 20's

3 - Their benefit plan, the NFL uncapped concussion settlement, and their own millions make them far more able to cope with the issue that the rst of us

Given all that - this is a non-issue to me.

For NFL players this is a reasonable take. People in College are taking the risk grasping for the NFL brass ring but the odds are against most college players making it to the NFL. They're still taking the risks.

I wouldn't even say we know the risks all that well though. We know much more than we did 20 years ago, but we know much less than we'll come to find out in the next 20 years. Brain injuries can manifest in so many different ways that it's not hard to understand why an increasing number of players have chosen to retire early.

We do a lot of things even as normal adults that are risky, sometimes just for fun or the thrill of it. Sometimes we regret it as we get older. That's part of life. If I could have played football professionally or even in college I would have certainly done that.

On 7/25/2026 at 12:51 PM, eglz1 said:

For NFL players this is a reasonable take. People in College are taking the risk grasping for the NFL brass ring but the odds are against most college players making it to the NFL. They're still taking the risks.

Most getting a free college education, and now compensation on top of that. The study doesn't suggest college players are taking any bigger risk.

From the article (and data): NFL players live longer on average than normal people. This isn't the big hit piece the title wants you to think it is.

1 hour ago, brkmsn said:

Most getting a free college education, and now compensation on top of that. The study doesn't suggest college players are taking any bigger risk.

From the article (and data): NFL players live longer on average than normal people. This isn't the big hit piece the title wants you to think it is.

True. Overall death rate is less than the population at large but occurrence of neurological problems are greater. At least that's what I got out of it. I wonder how many college players get NIL money? Sure the 'stars' do but how about the players that are not considered 'stars'?

9 hours ago, eglz1 said:

True. Overall death rate is less than the population at large but occurrence of neurological problems are greater. At least that's what I got out of it. I wonder how many college players get NIL money? Sure the 'stars' do but how about the players that are not considered 'stars'?

Keep in mind that no matter what your profession is, your chances of dying of a neurodegenerative disease are constantly increasing as you age. So if you live longer than the average person, you're naturally increasing your risk of dying because of a neurodegenerative disease. The article makes no attempt to factor that in.

It's one thing to continue to study football and data in regard to player safety and long-term health. That's smart. But it's ignorant to take this limited data and try to conclude that it can only be related to playing in the NFL and to also speculate why specifically football is "the cause" and to ignore the data from the hundreds of thousands US citizens that die from neurodegenerative disease each year (and the millions globally). There is still a lot to learn. Right now, there are several factors they believe contribute to developing a neurodegenerative disease beside environmental ones like playing in the NFL. I already mentioned age, but general health and genes are also accepted as contributors. I would like to add that long-term effects of pharmaceuticals can't automatically be ruled out either.

On 7/13/2026 at 7:31 PM, eglz1 said:

It's kind of long to post the whole thing. What surprised the researchers (and me):

Skill-position players had a neurodegenerative disease listed as a cause of death at nearly twice the rate of offensive and defensive linemen, "potentially related to greater cumulative g-force exposure, which [has] been associated with higher [neurodegenerative disease] risk," according to the study.

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/49317702/study-nfl-players-4-s-more-likely-die-neurodegenerative-disease

If the point of this article is that ESPN posts stupid topics, because their income is being generated from it... And the best way to get attention is scaring people with stupid crap...I agree. Public Media is a great source of Fake News. Not just ESPN.