The NFL may not be interested in doing business with the New York Times, after all.
As the league and The Athletic (owned and operated by the Times) reportedly discuss a content partnership that would create a clear conflict of interest for the Times, the Times has exercised its uncompromised-for-now independence by publishing and heavily promoting multiple articles that further underscore the long-term health risks of playing pro football.
Via John Branch of the Times, a new study from The BMJ finds that at least 24.5 percent of all former NFL players who died between 2016 and 2021 had CTE.
Of the 878 who died during that period, at least 215 had CTE. Of the remaining 663, 643 of the players’ brains were not studied for the presence of CTE. Which means that the real percentage could be much higher.
In a separate article, Branch raises a specific question: Why hasn’t the Occupational Safety and Health Administration gotten involved?
“I don’t think that this would be abided in any industry,” former OSHA chief Doug Parker told Branch.
Another former head of OSHA, David Michaels, called the CTE rate “astoundingly high.” Another former OSHA official called it “apocalyptically high,” adding, “We never see things that are this dire.”
Current OSHA management said this, in a statement: “In most cases, OSHA does not take enforcement action with regard to professional athletes.”
The article presenting the results of the study includes comments from the NFL and the NFL Players Association.
“The NFL continuously strives to make the game of football safer, including by implementing strategies to reduce concussions and head impacts,” the league said in a statement. “The NFL remains committed to ensuring that the NFL community has access to a robust — and expanding — set of resources to enhance their physical and mental well being.”
The NFLPA said the new study “is a sobering reminder that football carries real risks, and those risks can have lasting consequences for players and their families,” and that “[t]he findings should serve as a call to action across the entire football ecosystem.”
It’s still not clear what it means to have CTE. But it’s obviously better to not have it than to have it.
For now, the only way to diagnose CTE is after death. Looming over the sport is the inevitability that someone will develop a reliable test for diagnosing CTE in living patients. Patients who are still playing football. Patients who may abruptly decide, learning that they have the early stage of the disease, to walk away from the game.
If that ever happens, it would have the impact of Chris Borland’s early retirement, perhaps times 100. Or 1,000. It will potentially reduce participation rates at the lower levels of the sport. Which will necessarily remove from the pool of young football players some of those who would eventually develop and display NFL-caliber talent.
While the latest study won’t have that impact, it’s a reminder of the potential tsunami that could be coming for the sport. If/when players have a way of knowing that they already have CTE, the supply of high-level performers — which currently far exceeds the demand — eventually may not meet it.
