"The paper, written as part of the Football Players Study at Harvard University, tracked deaths among former players in the three leagues dating back to 1979. From that point until 2010, suicide rates between the three leagues were statistically similar and below the national average. Beginning in 2011 through 2019, however, the rate for former NFL players was 2.6 times higher than for the NBA and MLB, according to the study."
"In an interview, however, Grashow cited a related study published in 2024 that reported nearly a third of former NFL players with general health symptoms -- including sleep apnea, hypertension, low testosterone and depression -- believed they had CTE. That group was five times more likely to entertain suicidal thoughts than those who did not attribute their symptoms to CTE."
Suicide rates among former NFL players rose during 2011–2019 and exceeded rates among former NBA and MLB players by a factor of 2.6. The Football Players Study at Harvard tracked deaths across the three leagues from 1979–2019 and recorded 101 suicides among thousands of deaths. From 1979–2010 suicide rates were similar across the leagues and below the national average. The 2011–2019 increase coincides with greater awareness of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). A related study found nearly one-third of former NFL players with general health symptoms believed they had CTE and those players reported far higher suicidal thoughts.
Read at ESPN.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]