Dr. Ann McKee, a prominent researcher of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), recently warned that all football players in the National Football League (NFL) have a real risk to their brain health due to the repeated impacts to the head, whether or not they ever suffered a concussion. Hence, she stresses the cumulative effects of repeated helmet-to-helmet contact increase a player’s risk for developing CTE, not necessarily concussions.
CTE is a progressive degenerative disease found in people who have suffered repetitive brain trauma. Individuals with CTE may show symptoms of dementia, such as memory loss, aggression, confusion and depression, which may appear years or many decades after the trauma.
In an article published in The British Medical Journal in August of 2026, Dr. McKee and her team analyzed data from 878 former NFL players who passed away between 2016 and 2021. They found evidence of CTE in at least 24.5 percent of those players’ brains — which is almost one out of four players. After learning of the results, the NFL Player’s Association sent copies of the study to each active and retired NFL player, and also to the agents representing each player.
N.B: And the risk of serious injury isn’t limited to NFL participants. Researchers have identified CTE in donated brain tissue from amateur athletes, including those who played football at the youth, high school, and college levels. These selected brain donors do not represent all athletes, so the findings cannot establish the percentage of college players who develop CTE.
WARNING: Long-term potential issues related to CTE
There are many documented cases where individuals suffering from CTE have experienced problems such as memory loss, depression, anxiety, and personality changes. However, because CTE can only be confirmed through autopsy, research into the relationship between brain damage and symptomology continues to evolve.
What makes head shots in football different from boxing?
As someone who participated in football (5th – 12th grade) and boxing (age 18-25), the shots to the head are different in both sports. In some ways, helmet-to-helmet contact hurt more yet was less likely to produce a knockout than a punch.
As a varsity linebacker, I’d often suffer nasty headaches due to head-to-head collisions during summer training camps but was never worried because they’d always seem to come and go quickly and then stop. So, aside from a concussion I suffered at 15, I don’t remember getting light-headed or terribly woozy in football but vividly recall the stinging migraines that would last several days during the opening weeks of training.
Dr. McKee’s findings, at least from this layman’s experiences, make sense.
In boxing, I don’t remember having any headaches after sparring.
Most head shots land on the face, whereas the hardest helmet-to-helmet impacts in football are often absorbed by the top or sides of the head, potentially transmitting force closer to the brain. Also, the impact from a helmet-to-helmet collision covers more area of the head than that of a boxing glove which is smaller (and softer) than a football helmet.
Perhaps those who participate in American football are, in fact, more likely to develop long term debilitating head injuries than boxers or mixed martial artists?
…. Time will tell.
Thus far, organized football has headed the warnings
The NFL introduced its modern, explicit helmet-to-helmet contact rules in 2009 and strengthened them in 2010, largely in response to growing concerns about CTE and concussions, and the overall danger of players using their helmets as weapons, whether intentionally or not.
