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Patriots Coach Mike Vrabel Reacts to Alarming Results From CTE Study of NFL Players
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- Patriots Coach Mike Vrabel Reacts to Alarming Results From CTE Study of NFL Players
Patriots Coach Mike Vrabel Reacts to Alarming Results From CTE Study of NFL Players originally appeared on NESN . Add NESN as a Preferred Source by clicking here .
A new study estimates that approximately 75 percent of NFL players who died over a 15-year span had chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE.
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The study, published in JAMA Network Open , analyzed medical records from thousands of former players who died between 2008 and 2023. Researchers determined that three in four players had CTE, a degenerative brain disease, and approximately 27 percent of the players had dementia during their lifetime.
"More than 20 million men alive today in the U.S. have played football, so understanding how many of them have CTE is an important public health question," Yorghos Tripodis, a professor of biostatistics at Boston University and an author of the paper, told ABC News .
Patriots coach Mike Vrabel, who played 14 seasons in the NFL, responded to a question about the study during a press conference on Wednesday.
Here is Vrabel's full answer after being asked about the findings and how the league has addressed safety issues:
I think the game has, I think the league has [made positive changes]. I think we're aware of it, but I also would say, having done this for the better part of 20 years, I think we — or at least I knew what the risks were. Your kids were gonna have to see you maybe be knocked out on the field and laying there unconscious, or getting another surgery, or breaking your arm, or breaking your leg. That's kind of how most of the players — at least that I know — are kind of wired. You love the game so much that you're gonna do whatever you can to play the game. Now, what the league has done and what the Players Association [has done], we should do everything that we possibly can to make sure that, when our players leave the game, they can be husbands. They can be fathers. They can be friends. They can have a quality of life. They work hard for what they earn, and they should be able to enjoy it with their families. So, I do think that the league in being conscious, in trying to make the game safer and better, is good. But also, I knew what I was signing up for when I decided to play the game.
As part of a statement to ABC News , an NFL spokesperson said that the league "continuously strives to make the game of football safer, including by implementing strategies to reduce concussions and head impacts."
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