Look intuitively, this sounds correct, but in reality… according to a 2017 study on brains of deceased football players that were donated to a brain bank, 99% of tested brains of NFL players, 88% of CFL players, 64% of semi-professional players, 91% of college football players, and 21% of high school football players had various stages of CTE. (1)
Meanwhile, according to a 2016 study on retired boxers, about 11% of all retired boxers examined had a mild case of CTE, and about 6% of the boxers had major neurological problems. And if you just looked at boxers who were over the age of 50 and fought in over 150 fights, the rate of CTE went up to 50%. (2)
I’m sorry, but it is absolutely reasonable for a boxing fan to say that American football should be illegal due to the injury risk, because American football is a much more dangerous sport than boxing in relation to the risk of traumatic brain injury.
And if you’re surprised to learn that American football is more dangerous than the sport where you literally punch each other. Well. I’d say that that’s part of the problem, actually.
(1) Mez J, Daneshvar DH, Kiernan PT, et al. (25 July 2017).
(2) Iverson GL (January 2016). "Suicide and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy". The Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences. 28 (1): 9–16.
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