CTE Pathology Found in Nearly 75 Percent of Deceased Former NFL Players

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 4, 2026 (HealthDay News) — Among former National Football League (NFL) players who died during 2008 to 2023, 74.5 percent had chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) neuropathology, according to a study published online Oct. 28 in JAMA Network Open.

Julia Gallini, M.S.P.H., from the Boston University School of Public Health, and colleagues conducted a population-based cross-sectional study using data from the Understanding Neurologic Injury and Traumatic Encephalopathy brain bank combined with National Death Index records on former NFL players to estimate the prevalence of CTE neuropathology. Data were included from brain donor and nondonor NFL players who died from January 2008 to December 2023.

The cohort included 2,362 deceased former NFL players: 396 brain donors and 1,966 nondonors. Overall, 93.5 percent of 387 donors had CTE. The researchers found that the median selection rate was 4.97. At death, the bias-adjusted population prevalence of CTE was 74.5 percent, with a conservative lower-bound analysis estimating 63.7 percent. During life, the bias-adjusted population prevalence of all-cause dementia history was 27.2 percent.

“Providing a precise estimate for the prevalence of CTE among deceased NFL players helps define the scale of the problem and informs priorities for the potential current and future medical needs of this community,” Gallini said in a statement.

Several authors disclosed ties to the biopharmaceutical, medical technology, and publishing industries.

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