# Study finds roughly 75% of deceased NFL players had at least some degree of CTE brain disease

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/study-finds-roughly-75-of-deceased-nfl-players-had-at-least-some-degree-of-cte-brain-disease/
- Published: 2026-10-29T17:34:50+00:00
- Updated: 2026-10-30T03:49:51+00:00
- Original publisher: Fox News (publisher lean: Far right)
- Original article: https://www.foxnews.com/outkick-sports/study-finds-roughly-75-percent-deceased-nfl-players-had-least-some-degree-cte-brain-disease
- Topics: Football, Health, Medicine, Research, Science, Sport, World

## Key points

- About 75% of the deceased former players studied had CTE.
- 93.5% of brain donors were diagnosed.
- The donation group may not represent all former players.

## Summary

A Boston University study found that about 75% of more than 2,300 deceased former NFL players aged 80 or older had some degree of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a progressive brain disease associated with repeated head impacts. The estimate highlights the potential long-term health effects of football, while the researchers caution that the findings do not establish how common CTE is among all former players.

Among the 396 players who donated their brains, 93.5% were diagnosed with CTE. Researchers said donors with clear cognitive symptoms were about five times more likely to donate than those without them, and donors died younger on average: 67 compared with nearly 75. CTE can only be confirmed after death; the study also found a history of dementia in 27.2% of players but did not determine whether it was caused by CTE.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.