And 87% of football players from any level.
Study: CTE diagnosed in 99% of former NFL players, 87% of ex-players at all levels
There better be a strong rebuttal, and quickly, or this is the death knell of football as a mainstream sport.
Football drives the train? Not anymore.
I'm shocked that parents of young kids let their kids play football. I've heard anecdotally that participation in my football-centric small town is way down at a youth level. I do know a few parents that plan on letting their boys play when they get to high school. I can see that changing.
For those that feel that college and the NFL will continue to thrive, it's a slow drip of interest level that will hurt the sport. Boxing is a side show with a couple events per year between a handful of stars. It's participants are generally warriors from rough backrounds that are literally fighting their way out of a tough situation. It makes for a compelling story, but not one that can produce thousands of superior participants. Will football get to that point? Not to that extreme, but I can easily see the numbers dwindling to the point where there is only Division 1 football with significantly less talent depth. DII and DIII won't have enough athletes to fill teams.
That being said, as a parent of kids that play a decent amount of organized sports, I'd want to see two other data points: i) percentage of CTE in other athletes in sports that have contact including soccer, lacrosse, even basketball; and ii) percentage of CTE in non-athletes.
Without that information, it's hard to know what is football's fault vs. what is biologically the norm.
My kids both play soccer. US Soccer banned heading by kids until U12. I've seen the kids get very adept at playing with other parts of their body. I plan on encouraging my kids to continue that practice now that they are allowed to head. Not only can I see heading the ball causing minor, but frequent, damage, but I believe that most head injuries come from attempting to head a ball. Neither one of my kids' teams have had a head injury in soccer in the 4 years they've been playing travel soccer (knock on wood) and I have to believe that the inability to head the ball is a reason.