The NFL has many negative headlines over the past several years. The most recent is the muder/suicide Kansas City Chiefs’ Linebacker Jovan Belcher (see How the Kansas City Chiefs, and the NFL, Are Coping with Tragedy from Time). The New York Times OP-ED columnist Frank Bruni offers a broad view of the violent nature of football and the NFL culture in his piece Pro Football’s Violent Toll (December 3, 2012).
In the past, I have written some of the head injury problems faced by football players (see Young Football Players Take Big-League Hits to Head).
Recently, a new study has been released focusing on head trauma and the NFL. Here is a PBS News Hour piece about it.
New Study Links Athletes’ Repetitive Head Injuries to Degenerative Brain Disease
SUMMARY: A newly-published four-year study at Boston University, which examined the brains of deceased athletes, links repetitive head injuries to a degenerative brain disease called Chronic Traumatic Encephalopaty. Jeffrey Brown talks to Dr. Ann McKee, one of the lead researchers, and ESPN’s Mark Fainaru-Wada about the current evidence.