News & Headlines

A new portrait of NRL legend Wally Lewis conveys a striking message about the consequences of brain trauma in sport.

Recently, trauma suffered by football stars has raised fresh concerns about the league’s ongoing issues with head injuries — and raised questions about whether there is more the NFL could do to protect its players.

The recent revelation that Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease has reignited the debate about the link between contact sports, such as football, and the long-term risk of neurodegenerative diseases. Favre, a legendary NFL quarterback who spent 20 seasons primarily with the Green Bay Packers, made the announcement while testifying before Congress. His diagnosis has highlighted growing concerns regarding the dangers of repeated head injuries in collision sports and their possible connection to conditions like Parkinson’s, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), and other brain diseases.

Ontario's Minister of Sport, 71-year-old Neil Lumsden, recently announced his decision to donate his brain to the Concussion Legacy Foundation Canada to support research on brain injuries. Lumsden played 10 years in the Canadian Football League, winning four Grey Cups and while he knows he had his "bell rung" a number of times during his career, he doesn't believe he has had any long-term neurological damage. Helping researchers find out why his brain seems to be more resilient than some of his teammates motivated his decision. As if on cue, on Sept. 24, 54-year-old National Football League Hall of Famer Brett Favre revealed during unrelated testimony before the United States congress that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, likely as a result of hundreds of concussions experienced during his storied career. Why have these two athletes had such different outcomes?

A 2020 study found that having a single concussion increased the risk of developing Parkinson's disease by 57% and having multiple concussions further compounds the danger.

One-third of former professional football players reported in a new survey that they believe they have the degenerative brain disease known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. The research, published Monday in the medical journal JAMA Neurology, represents one of the broadest surveys to date of former NFL players' perception of their cognitive health and how widely they report symptoms linked to CTE, which is thought to be caused by concussions and repeated hits to the head.

One concussion is bad. Two are worse. Three? There might be a problem. That's the dilemma faced by Tua Tagovailoa, the Miami Dolphins quarterback, who suffered a concussion — at least his third in the NFL — this month in a nationally televised game. Now his football future is in question. The most recent concussion "has prompted a dramatic response by fans and former players" urging Tagovailoa to retire, said NPR. "It's not worth it," said Antonio Pierce, coach of the Las Vegas Raiders. "If that was my son, I'd be like, 'it might be time,'" said Tony Gonzalez, the Hall of Fame former tight end. That's because concussions and lower-level blows to the head are "key factors" in the development of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a condition known to cause "early dementia and death" among retired players.

At what he calls the lowest point in his life, Coast Guard veteran Jorel Wester went to a sandwich shop for what he thought would be his last meal. “I was sitting in my car in the parking lot and I had this pistol in my lap and I was like, this is the moment," he told NPR. "I went to grab a drink and on the side of the cup, it had this advertisement for K9s for Warriors, saying they help pair veterans with service dogs for PTSD. I’m like well, I’m going to give them a call and if somebody answers, I’m going to tell them what’s happening.”

Football's governing body FIFA and the World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday launched a global concussion awareness initiative developed with brain health experts. The "Suspect and Protect: No Match is Worth the Risk" scheme aims to highlight the risks of traumatic brain injury and offer resources on the subject, they said in a joint statement.

Concerns about the long-term impacts of concussion and head injury have become prominent in recent years, particularly among participants and stakeholders of contact and collision sports. Many people have been left wondering about the risk of head injury in sport and whether it is safe to continue to play. People are especially worried about what is commonly known as CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy). A 2022 publication claimed repetitive head impacts in contact and collision sports were the cause of CTE.

Now that the N.F.L. season has begun, you may have noticed football players wearing a strange sort of cover over their helmets. It’s called a Guardian Cap, and it adds a layer of foam to the outside of the helmet, with the aim of reducing brain injuries. N.F.L. players have worn the caps during summer practice for the past few years, but this is the first season the league is allowing them in games. A handful of players wore them during the opening weekend. The company behind the caps, Guardian Sports, says they reduce the force of the impact when a player’s head is hit. But what does that mean? And do they protect against concussions?

A study released Thursday found post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is on the rise among college students.  The research found PTSD increased 4.1 percentage points over five years, going from 3.4 percent of students in the 2017-18 school year to 7.5 percent in the 2021-22 academic year.  The analysis conducted by the University of Alabama at Birmingham suggested possible stressors that could have triggered PTSD in students, such as losing loved ones during the pandemic, campus shootings and racial trauma.