The autopsies are part of a joint study as information emerge about the punishing effects a brutal sport has on the human brain.
Overall, researchers say 131 out of 165 of the football players' brains they studied, which works out to 79%, showed signs of CTE.
The study looked at brains from players at all levels of the sport, not just professional football.
Many doctors and researchers believe CTE is caused by repeated blows to the head, which football players subject themselves to regularly.
The disease is believed to be linked to conditions such as depression, memory loss, aggression, lack of impulse control and more.
While the study results appear to be definitive and alarming, the Department of Veteran Affairs and Boston University researchers only autopsied brains of former players who agreed to donate their organs posthumously because, while alive, they or their families suspected they may have been suffering from CTE-related symptoms.
The disease can only be definitively diagnosed after death.
That means researchers are working with a skewed sample. Thus, the new study has no predictive value regarding how many current football players will get CTE, nor is it representative of football players as a whole.
Nonetheless, it does represent another important step in what is still a relatively new field of medical research.
After Hall of Fame linebacker Junior Seau committed suicide in 2012, telltale signs of CTE were found in his brain. The 2013 book "League of Denial" details research into CTE and its effects, as well as efforts by the NFL to minimize and obfuscate medical findings, including by paying for its own research that came to opposite conclusions from the Boston University-led group.CONTINUE READING
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