Football does not cause long-term brain damage

Football does not cause long-term brain damage
	FALSE
	"Playing American football does not cause long-term brain damage, and concussions in professional football have no lasting effects on players' brains."
Domain	Sports & Competition
Tactic	Statistical & Evidentiary Distortion; Pseudoscience / Junk Science;
Era	Historical
First seen	1990s
Origin	Statements by the National Football League and papers published from 2003 by the league's Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Committee, which minimized the long-term risks of concussions
Last reviewed	2026-10-27
	Further reading: books on Sports & Competition

The claim that football does not cause long-term brain damage was promoted for years by the National Football League. A league committee published research suggesting that concussions in professional football were not serious and that players could safely return to games quickly. In 2005, forensic pathologist Bennet Omalu published the first report of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease, in a former NFL player, Mike Webster. The league's committee members called for the paper to be retracted. Subsequent research found CTE in the brains of many former football players. In 2016, an NFL executive acknowledged before Congress that there was a link between football and CTE.

The claim

In the 2000s, the NFL's committee, chaired by a rheumatologist, Elliot Pellman, published a series of papers in the journal Neurosurgery suggesting that professional players were less susceptible to brain injury and that returning to play after a concussion did not increase risk.

What the evidence shows

CTE discovery. Omalu examined the brain of Mike Webster, a Pittsburgh Steelers Hall of Famer who died in 2002, and found abnormal protein deposits characteristic of CTE. His findings were published in Neurosurgery in 2005.
Brain bank studies. Researchers at Boston University and the Department of Veterans Affairs, led by neuropathologist Ann McKee, studied brains donated by families of former players. A 2017 study in JAMA found CTE in 110 of 111 former NFL players' brains. The authors noted that the sample was not representative, because families were more likely to donate if they suspected brain problems.
Repetitive impacts. Research has found that CTE risk is associated with years of playing and cumulative head impacts, including impacts that do not cause diagnosed concussions.
Acknowledgment. In March 2016, NFL senior vice president Jeff Miller told a congressional roundtable that the answer was "certainly yes" when asked whether there was a link between football and degenerative brain disorders such as CTE.
Settlement. The NFL agreed to a settlement with thousands of former players over concussion-related injuries, approved by a federal court in 2015, which has paid out more than $1 billion.

Why it persists

Football is enormously popular and profitable, and acknowledging serious health risks threatens its future. CTE can be diagnosed definitively only after death, which makes it harder to study and easier to dispute. Some argue that the risks are overstated for youth and recreational players, a question on which research continues.

Lessons for readers

Research sponsored by an industry with a financial interest needs extra scrutiny.
Unrepresentative samples can show that a problem exists but not its prevalence.
Scientists who challenge powerful organizations may face pushback.
Absence of immediate symptoms does not mean absence of long-term harm.
Institutional acknowledgments often come years after the evidence.

Sources

Bennet I. Omalu et al., "Chronic traumatic encephalopathy in a National Football League player," Neurosurgery 57, no. 1 (2005).
Jesse Mez et al., "Clinicopathological Evaluation of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy in Players of American Football," JAMA 318, no. 4 (2017).
Mark Fainaru-Wada and Steve Fainaru, League of Denial: The NFL, Concussions, and the Battle for Truth (Crown Archetype, 2013).