Okay, so a new study just dropped, and it hit like a Kam Chancellor tackle: at least 25% of NFL players who passed away between 2016 and 2021, guys who played even a single down, had CTE. Seriously? One in four? That number should send shivers down the spine of every fan, coach, and player across the league, especially those of us who bleed blue and green watching our Hawks. This isn’t just some abstract medical finding, it’s a stark reality check on the game we all love.
The Brutal Truth About The Game We Love
This isn’t a new conversation, but this study, from Mass General Brigham and published in The British Medical Journal, absolutely deepens the link between those bone-jarring head impacts NFL players endure and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, aka CTE. Dr. Daniel Daneshvar, the lead author, put it plainly to NPR: “We’ve known that this disease process can be caused by, in part, repeated traumatic brain injury. But we didn’t know how common it was.” And now we do. The researchers went deep, testing brain samples from 235 of the 878 players who died in that 2016-2021 window, pulled from the UNITE Brain Bank at Boston University. The result? A shocking 215 of them had the disease. We’re talking mood swings, memory loss, confusion, all these devastating symptoms, and a quarter of these guys, probably more, were living with it. The study authors themselves said that 25% estimate is probably even low because it doesn’t count all the players whose brains weren’t tested. It makes you really think about the toll the game takes.
The League vs. The Players: A Tale of Two Statements
When these kinds of numbers drop, everyone scrambles for a response, right? The NFL, in their statement to NPR, said they “continuously strives to make the game of football safer,” and they’re “committed to ensuring that the NFL community has access to a robust , and expanding , set of resources.” They even encouraged former players to use these resources. That’s all good, sounds proactive. But then you hear from the NFL Players Association, and it feels like a different kind of urgency. According to Mike Florio at Pro Football Talk, the NFLPA sent an email to its members calling these findings “a call to action across the entire football ecosystem.” They said, “We all share a responsibility to advance research, improve access to care, develop better treatments, and support those affected by the long-term impacts of the game.” They acknowledged “more work to do.” It’s a noticeable difference in tone, isn’t it? The players’ union recognizes this as an ongoing fight, not just a matter of “striving” and offering resources.
This is a serious issue that impacts every player on every team, from our own Seahawks battling it out on Lumen Field to every locker room across the league. It’s a reminder that beneath the helmets and highlights, there’s a human cost. As fans, we watch the games with passion, but we also have to demand better for the players. For our Seahawks, it was a tough weekend on the field, falling to the Tennessee Titans 19-16. We know Mike Macdonald and Brian Fleury are pushing our guys to bounce back hard. The season is young, and there’s a long road ahead. But off the field, the conversation about player safety, what this study tells us, that’s going to stick with us far longer than any single game result. We need everyone in the league to keep fighting for these players, past and present.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Yahoo Sports.
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