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76 of 79 Deceased NFL Players Found to Have Brain Disease

As the NFL nears an end to its long-running legal battle over concussions, new data from the nation's largest brain bank focused on traumatic brain injury has found evidence of a degenerative brain disease in 76 of the 79 former players it's examined.

The findings represent a more than twofold increase in the number of cases of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, that have been reported by the Department of Veterans Affairs' brain repository in Bedford, Mass.

Researchers there have now examined the brain tissue of 128 football players who, before their deaths, played the game professionally, semi-professionally, in college or in high school. Of that sample, 101 players, or just under 80 percent, tested positive for CTE.

To be sure, players represented in the data represent a skewed population. CTE can only be definitively identified posthumously, and many of the players who have donated their brains for research suspected that they may have had the disease while still alive. For example, former Chicago Bears star Dave Duerson committed suicide in 2011 by shooting himself in the chest, reportedly to preserve his brain for examination.

Nonetheless, Dr. Ann McKee, the director of the brain bank, believes the findings suggest a clear link between football and traumatic brain injury.

"Obviously this high percentage of living individuals is not suffering from CTE," said McKee, a neuropathologist who directs the brain bank as part of a collaboration between the VA and Boston University's CTE Center. But "playing football, and the higher the level you play football and the longer you play football, the higher your risk."