Study: 87 of 91 deceased NFL players tested positive for CTE

SI ^ | September 18, 2015 | Staff

[C19fan]

New figures show that 87 of 91 deceased former NFL players have tested positive for CTE.

Figures from the Department of Veterans Affairs and Boston University have identified the degenerative brain disease in 96% of NFL players and 79% of all football players they have examined. The brain bank is the nation's largest focused on the study of head injury and trauma, and shared its numbers with PBS's Frontline.

[C19fan]

I think there is a self-selection problem. Ex-NFL players who are experiencing symptoms during their life are much more likely to donate their brain for this study. Would be interesting to see a truly random sample.

[wideawake]

Only 91 NFL players have ever died?

[cherry]

have they done a sample of truck drivers?...cops?....farmers?.....none of these people make millions for running after an oval ball so maybe they just aren’t important.

[Sgt_Schultze]

If Sports Illustrated succeeds in getting football eliminated, who will read the crappy magazine.

[oh8eleven]

Only 91 NFL players have ever died?
Only 91 have died since the investigation into CTE began.

[b4its2late]

They tested all 91?

[HamiltonJay]

Sorry, but you will find, a far higher than the general population in this group no matter how you slice it. You can’t bash your head against the ground, or against another persons head for years and years, and not think you are going to have a higher rate of issues related to bashing your skull into things than the general population who doesn’t do that.

[dfwgator]

I think there is a self-selection problem. Ex-NFL players who are experiencing symptoms during their life are much more likely to donate their brain for this study. Would be interesting to see a truly random sample.

[madison10]

Telling us what CTE was in the title would have been a nice touch. What is it? (Not aimed at the poster)

[C19fan]

CTE = Chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Basically your brain cells die.

[Lockbox]

Please do not take this the wrong way, I am concerned about football players health, but why was the Department of Veterans Affairs spending money and time to investigate this when they cannot even preform their main job of caring for our veterans!

[huldah1776]

Only 25% of research can be replicated.

“There are indications that bad practice – particularly at the less serious end of the scale – is rife. In 2009, Daniele Fanelli of the University of Edinburgh carried out a meta-analysis that pooled the results of 21 surveys of researchers who were asked whether they or their colleagues had fabricated or falsified research.

Publishing his results in the journal PLoS One, he found that an average of 1.97% of scientists admitted to having “fabricated, falsified or modified data or results at least once – a serious form of misconduct by any standard – and up to 33.7% admitted other questionable research practices. In surveys asking about the behaviour of colleagues, admission rates were 14.12% for falsification, and up to 72% for other questionable research practices.””

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/sep/13/scientific-research-fraud-bad-practice

[JennysCool]

These obvious efforts of the Left to get rid of football (it is full of male-dominated micro- and macro-aggressions, don’tcha know!) are increasingly ridiculous. A bunch of hikers were just killed by a flash flood in Utah. Think we’ll be hearing the Left warning against the effects of hiking anytime soon?

Some people like doing potentially dangerous things, but it’s only the things that offend the Left that get the attention of the sobbing media.

[Starstruck]

Have they checked boxers? And speaking of Boxer maybe they ought to run this test on liberals too.

[rey]

But brain damage is nearly 100% in the fan base.

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

...why was the Department of Veterans Affairs spending money and time to investigate this…

Something like 10% to 20% of the injured vets from Iraq and Afghanistan are suffering from chronic problems that are the result of traumatic brain injury. The doctor who has been studying this for the VA is the basically the top brain injury expert in the world, Ann McKee. She also works for Boston University, running their brain injury research center. It's natural that she would also look at brain injuries from other causes to learn about their nature and effects.

[fruser1]

I thought smoking was the only thing bad for you.

[Lockbox]

Thanks for the info, hope the Department of Veterans Affairs will use any finding to help the veterans.

[KSCITYBOY]

All that money and you get to live forever. They might have a sample size problem.

[xp38]

Here is my finding. If you are worried about CTE don’t play tackle football.