Can you read this study and still love football?

Michael Coats Jr. of the Cleveland Browns tackles Ray Davis of the Buffalo Bills during a preseason game on August 22, 2026. | Nick Cammett/Getty Images This story appeared in Today, Explained, a daily newsletter that helps you understand the most compelling news and stories of the day.

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Football season kicks off soon, and there’s an elephant on the field.

Not the University of Alabama’s pachydermal mascot, alas — but a new study on the incidence of brain injury in football players.

The startling paper, published this morning in the journal BMJ , examined the brains of 235 of the 878 former NFL players who died between 2016 and 2021.

It found that at least one in four of those players — and, in all likelihood, many more than that — had chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) at their time of death.

CTE is an ugly disease .

It’s a progressive, degenerative brain disorder caused by repeated blows to the head.

It can be debilitating in its advanced stages, with symptoms including memory loss, confusion, depression, erratic behavior, and personality changes.

Researchers have long linked CTE to the recurrent head trauma common in football and other contact sports.

But this study offers one of the clearest estimates yet of just how widespreadthe disease is.

It’s not a freak occurrence confined to an unlucky few — it’s a significant occupational hazard, akin to black lung disease in coal miners.

Go a little deeper View Link Federal regulators have intervened to protect coal miners and other people in hazardous jobs, of course — but they’ve stayed on the sidelines when it comes to sports.

Football is an American institution, after all.