New CTE Study Delivers Sobering Reality Check on Long-Term Health Risks for NFL Players

· Yahoo Sports

As NFL teams close out the 2026 preseason and turn toward opening weekend, a new medical study is forcing a harder look at what football costs its players long after the final whistle. Dr. Daniel Daneshvar, a Harvard Medical School researcher, has spent years tracing the link between repeated head impacts and brain disease in retired players. His newest findings, released this week, carry numbers that football insiders did not expect.

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Landmark BMJ Study Reveals Alarming CTE Rates in Former NFL Players

The study, published this week in The BMJ, was led by researchers from Mass General Brigham, Boston University and the Concussion & CTE Foundation. Instead of relying only on brains donated by families who suspected symptoms, the team built a full accounting of every player who appeared in at least one NFL game and later died. Then layered in Centers for Disease Control and Prevention death records to reduce selection bias.

Researchers zeroed in on 878 former players who died between 2016 and 2021, the years when brain donations were most common. Of those, 235 families donated brains for examination, and 215 came back positive for CTE. That works out to a conservative floor of roughly 25% across the entire group, including players whose brains were never studied.

Oct 9, 2016; Denver, CO, USA; A general view of the NFL Breast Cancer Awareness logo in the first quarter of the game between the Denver Broncos and the Atlanta Falcons at Sports Authority Field at Mile High. The Falcons won 23-16. Mandatory Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports

CTE is not a new headline for football. Hall of Famers Junior Seau, Mike Webster and Frank Gifford were all found to have had the disease after their deaths, cases that first pushed the sport to confront head trauma years ago.

Within this study’s own window, former Pro Bowl receiver Demaryius Thomas, who died in December 2021 at age 33, was posthumously diagnosed with stage 2 CTE, one of the names that put a face on the data researchers are now analyzing at scale.

Oct 28, 2018; Kansas City, MO, USA; Denver Broncos wide receiver Demaryius Thomas (88) gets into position before the snap against the Kansas City Chiefs in the second half at Arrowhead Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY Sports

Looking at the wider 2008-2021 window, which covered 1,712 deaths and 338 donated brains, at least 18.5% showed signs of the disease. Because donation remains voluntary and skews toward families already worried about symptoms, the true prevalence could run far higher, with researchers estimating an upper bound near 98%. For comparison, CTE affects under 1% of the general population.

That statistical picture is already reshaping how players think about their own careers.

Nick Chubb’s Retirement Reflects a Shifting Mindset in the Locker Room

The findings landed just days after longtime NFL running back Nick Chubb announced his retirement at 30, closing an eight-season run split between the Cleveland Browns and Houston Texans. Chubb himself wrote he wanted to step away “on a healthy note,” a phrase that now reads differently against the backdrop of the new CTE data.

Houston Texans running back Nick Chubb (21) rushes past Indianapolis Colts safety Camryn Bynum (0) for a touchdown at Lucas Oil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Christine Tannous-USA TODAY Network via Imagn Images

He is far from alone. A growing number of players across multiple sports have walked away earlier than expected in recent years, often citing long-term health rather than performance decline.

Dr. Daneshvar noted, “We didn’t know how common it was,” pointing to why players and families are pushing for more transparency around brain injury risk.

The NFL said it continuously works to make the sport safer, while the players’ union pointed to the study as a call for deeper research and better care for those already affected.

For now, the debate over football’s long-term toll continues. The 2026 season opens September 9 with the Seattle Seahawks hosting the New England Patriots in a Super Bowl LX rematch, and the CTE conversation isn’t going anywhere.

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