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.