Dangers Of American Football: Over 40 Percent Of Retired NFL Players Have Brain Injury, Study Says

American football is one of the most physical team sports in the world. A new study further confirms this as its findings suggest that more than 40 percent of retired NFL players have brain injury.

The findings will be announced during the upcoming American Academy of Neurology annual meeting in Vancouver, IFL Science reports. The increase in awareness about the high risk of brain injury is also making many prospects hesitate to engage in American football and become NFL players.

The research involved the study of the brains of 40 retired NFL players who played an average of seven NFL seasons in their career. A total of 12 NFL players were found to have brain injury using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

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When diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) was used to study the brain of the NFL players, 17 players were also found to have brain injury. This means that 43 percent of the participants are suffering from brain injury.

"In the face of growing evidence regarding the dangers of these types of impacts, NFL commissioner Rob Goodall was recently left with no choice but to publically accept the link between football and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a cognitive disorder that develops from TBI," IFL Science explains. Several NFL players who have retired young despite being physically fit to continue are 49ers' Chris Borland, retired at 24; Buffalo Bills' A.J. Tarpley, retired at 23; and Lions' Calvin Johnson, retired at 30.

Why do so many NFL players have brain injury if they are wearing special protective helmets? It turns out that the state-of-the-art helmets can only protect the skull from damage but the players' brains will still be shaken and receive impact when they take hits during the game, Co.Design explains.