August 28, 2026 - U.S. Patriot Missile Stock Depleted

The numbers that stayed with me this week came from The BMJ.

Researchers reviewed 1,712 former NFL players who died. At least one in four had CTE. The floor is 24.5 percent. The ceiling is 97.7. In the general population it’s under one percent.

I asked Chris Nowinski about that spread on Thursday’s program. He’s the co-founder and CEO of the Concussion & CTE Foundation, a former Harvard defensive tackle and pro wrestler whose own career ended with a concussion. He wouldn’t let me hide behind the word “could.”

“It’s not could that be 1 in 4,” he said. “It is definitely 1 in 4, and could be 98 percent.”

Of the brains actually donated and examined, 92 percent had CTE.

I told Chris a family story. My brother was prone to concussion, though in his era nobody used that word. We’d simply say he got his bell rung. In ninth grade he was the only player on his team issued a Riddell helmet - the kind that would come to dominate the pros. Teammates wore small foam pads snapped into a shell. That felt like protection. It wasn’t the answer, because the helmet was never the whole problem. The hits are.

Nowinski’s message is blunt. CTE is a real risk for every player, every season he plays. A study last month found NFL players dying of dementia at four times the rate of everyone else. Fifteen years of football, he told me, is worse for the brain than lead was before we took it out of gasoline. And nobody needs to play tackle before high school.

I asked about soccer. A healthy sport, he said - except for heading. Don’t head the ball. FIFA still won’t acknowledge the risk.

Today CTE can only be diagnosed after death. Scans and blood tests are coming. Not soon enough.

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