The Many Lives of Nick Buoniconti

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a degenerative brain disease linked to repeated head impacts. It has been found in 345 of 376 deceased former National Football League (NFL) players whose brains were donated for study, according to a 2023 report by the Boston University CTE Center — a self-selected group whose families often suspected symptoms before death. Among all former players who died between 2016 and 2021, at least one in four had CTE, though the true rate may be much higher. In comparison, a 2018 BU study of the general population found one CTE case in 164 autopsies, and the one person with CTE had played college football. The NFL acknowledged a link between playing American football and being diagnosed with CTE in 2016, after denying such a link for over a decade and arguing that players’ symptoms had other causes. While much attention in the NFL has focused on limiting or treating concussions, the latest medical research indicates that the brain damage in CTE is caused by the cumulative impact of all collisions involving a player's head, which confirms what was generally known nearly a century ago but was then largely forgotten. The NFL has implemented rule changes to reduce collisions to the head and has sought to improve football helmet design. Critics respond that significant head trauma is inevitable for bigger, faster players in tackle football and that helmets are of limited use in preventing a player's brain from crashing into their skull, which is the cause of the brain damage that leads to CTE. As more parents (including some NFL players) decide not to let their children play football, it remains to be seen whether football will eventually face a significant decline in popularity like boxing, which fell from prominence as the brain damage suffered by ex-boxers drew more public attention. As of 2023 football is the most-watched sport in the U.S. by a substantial margin while basketball is the most-played sport.