A new study showed alarming results about just how many former football players have CTE. At least one in four NFL players who died between 2016 and 2021 had the degenerative brain disease, a new study published Tuesday by the British Medical Journal revealed. The study found that of the 878 players who appeared in at least one NFL game and died in that six-year period, at least 25% had CTE. During that time, 235 of the 878 players donated their brains to research, and 215 of those 235 were found to have CTE. CTE can only be diagnosed after death, so the research is only possible if brains are donated by players or their families. Dr. Daniel Daneshvar, the study’s lead author, said the estimate of 25% is on the “low end.” More than 90% of brains donated for the study had CTE, but Daneshvar said the true rate is likely “somewhere in the middle.” NFL Aug 12 CTE can only be diagnosed after death. Living football players are trying to change that NFL Aug 24 These are the biggest NFL preseason injuries that will impact the regular season “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.” Daneshvar said that cumulative force of hits to the head are the biggest predictor of CTE. Eliminating hits during practices and limiting youth participation in tackle football will help mitigate risk, he argued. “If the changes that have been implemented at the NFL level, including reducing the amount of contact in sports practices to less than one per week, were propagated at the collegiate, high school, and youth levels, athletes would be better off,” Daneshvar said. “We know that nearly 70% of head impacts are occurring in practice. So without changing a single minute of game time at any of those levels, we can be substantially reducing the cumulative head impact burden that these individuals are experiencing throughout their lives.” ...read more read less