CTE

A man stole an airplane from Seattle's airport and crash-landed it, killing himself. One local news outlet suggested that it wasn't really his fault because he had CTE from playing high school football. This is sheer nonsense.
Repetitive head injuries are par for the course for football players. Do factors such as the number of years played or the age when the athlete first started playing have long-term effects?
Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy is being more widely discussed following a high-profile research study on the brains of deceased football players, including 111 from the NFL. But what is CTE and how does it differ from other brain diseases?  
A new, headlines-grabbing study reports that CTE, a type of irreversible and degenerative brain damage, was found in the tissue of 110 of 111 late NFL players tested. Does this mean all pro players will eventually be diagnosed with CTE? No, not exactly. But this news does mean that the league's long-term health has been thrown for a big loss.   
The U.S. Supreme Court decided not to revisit a challenge to the NFL's class-action lawsuit brought by former players. The high court's refusal, which ends a landmark case that began in July 2011, allows for payments approaching $1 billion to start being made this spring to more than 20,000 former players.
Identifying Brain Trauma
A small, yet promising, brain trauma study may someday lead to a time when doctors can forecast which patients who incurred concussions or repeated blows to the head will be at risk for future neurological problems.
To sports fans, it wasn't even that big of a story when it broke in late July. But for those keeping tabs on the medical machinations of professional football, the retirement of Eugene Monroe -- the NFL's only active player calling for the league to allow marijuana as a pain-reduction option to opioids -- was a noteworthy event.