AI Summary
5 min readWould you let your kids play football?
A new study from Mass General Brigham, published in the BMJ in late August, found that among NFL players who died between 2016 and 2021, at least 25 percent—one in four—had CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) at the time of their death. The NFL responded by saying it "continuously strives to make the game safer." The NFL Players Association called the findings "a call to action across the entire football ecosystem." Yet the new season kicked off as scheduled. This episode asks how we got here, and whether this news is strong enough to change the country's relationship with football.
The labor calculus no one talks about
The core of the problem is that NFL contracts are not guaranteed. As Elzie Granderson explains, fully guaranteed contracts are extremely rare, and the average NFL career lasts about three years. Players have a very short window to maximize earnings, and they make those decisions in their early twenties. Former NFL offensive lineman Ephraim Salaam described the dynamic on a recent podcast: teams present the choice as "do you want more money a year, or do you want more guaranteed money?" Then they add, "You can't talk to a room full of current players who want to maximize their earning potential and tell them about in 20 years you're going to want to have health care. Twenty years is two decades away."
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:27) **New CTE Study and the Return of Football Season** - The host introduces a new study from Mass General Brigham, published in the BMJ, showing that at least 25% of NFL players who died between 2016-2021 had CTE. The episode asks if this news can change America’s relationship with football.
- 2 (02:40) **Introducing the Guests: Gene Demby and Elzie Granderson** - The host brings in two guests with deep knowledge of football and culture: Gene Demby (co-host of Code Switch) and Elzie Granderson (LA Times columnist and podcast host).
- 3 (04:19) **CTE as a Labor Issue: The Power of Non-Guaranteed Contracts** - The guests explain that CTE has always been a labor issue, rooted in the fact that NFL contracts are not fully guaranteed, leaving players financially vulnerable.
- 4 (08:19) **The Invisible Injury: Why CTE is a Hidden Risk** - The discussion moves to why CTE is so difficult for young players to weigh, focusing on its invisibility and the fact it can only be diagnosed after death.
- 5 (12:07) **Football, Masculinity, and the Military** - The conversation explores the deep cultural messages tied to football, particularly how it is linked to ideas of manhood, sacrifice, and militarism.
- 6 (16:52) **Why Hasn't CTE Stopped the Show?** - The host asks why the CTE news isn't a "season-pausing conversation," given the dire statistics.
- 7 (20:10) **Blaming the Players: Capitalism, Race, and Fandom** - The guests analyze why fans often blame players for their own injuries, saying the millions of dollars must be "worth it."
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Show Notes
That's what football athletes, fans and doctors are asking after a new study published in late August revealed that from a sample of athletes who played at least one NFL game in their careers and who died between 2016 and 2021, a minimum of around 25% -- that's one in every four of those players -- had a brain condition called CTE upon their death. But what do these findings really mean for one of the world's most lucrative sports leagues, and how might our cultural ideas about football be creating blind spots for us when we consider the risks of the game? To find out Brittany is joined by Gene Demby, co-host of NPR’s Code Switch, and LZ Granderson, host of the LZ Granderson Show podcast, and op-ed columnist at the LA Times.
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