Football on the brink

The evidence is now overwhelming: Football, the most powerful, popular and profitable sport in America, is hazardous to the health of those who play it. A neuropathologist examined the brains of 111 deceased National Football League players. All but one turned out to have chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the neurological disease that causes depression, memory loss and dementia.

This was, it’s important to note, not a random sample. The brains were donated to science because players’ families suspected something was wrong.

But so high were the numbers, incidence of CTE would remain well above the norm even if every other dead onetime NFL player turned out to have a perfectly healthy brain.

We can’t unlearn this, not even with preseason enthusiasm bubbling. A lifetime of playing football correlates strongly with lasting harm to the human brain. Barring major changes to the game, it’ll be hard to ever cheer the same way again.