Study finds signs of CTE in 99% of former NFLers’ donated brains

Researchers studying the link between football and chronic traumatic encephalopathy found 99 per cent of the brains donated by families of former NFL players showed signs of the neurodegenerative disease, according to a new study published Tuesday.

In all, researchers from the Boston University School of Medicine and the VA Boston Healthcare System examined 202 brains that belonged to men who played football at all levels, including the CFL, and were later donated for research. They found CTE in 177 of them — 87 per cent.

While they found evidence of the disease across all levels of play, the highest percentage was among those who competed at the highest level. All but one of the 111 brains belonging to ex-NFL players were diagnosed post-mortem with CTE.

“Obviously, this doesn’t represent the prevalence in the general population, but the fact that we’ve been able to gather this high a number of cases in such a short period of time says that this disease is not uncommon,” said neuropathologist Ann McKee, the researcher credited with some of the most high-profile CTE diagnoses.

“In fact, I think it’s much more common than we currently realize. And more importantly, this is a problem in football that we need to address and we need to address now in order to bring some hope and optimism to football players.”

McKee says the study has some limitations and doesn’t attempt to pinpoint a CTE rate. The brains studied were mostly donated by concerned families, which means they weren’t necessarily representative of all men who have played football. While the study isn’t focused on causality, McKee says it provides “overwhelming circumstantial evidence that CTE is linked to football.”