The PBS Frontline program League of Denial says that traumatic brain injury can occur even from the normal give and take of playing football, even without any concussions. You can watch the program here.
These sub-concussive impacts that are inherent in the game can over time add up to serious injury. The above link has a short clip of a 21-year old player who had never had anything that was diagnosed as a concussion but killed himself. An autopsy showed that his brain had suffered serious trauma called chronic trauma encephalopathy (CTE). Neuropathologist Ann McKee describes the four stages of this disease. In stage 1, there are no symptoms. In stage 2, people experience rage, impulsivity, and depression. In stage 3, they have confusion and memory loss. Stage 4 is advanced dementia.
I wrote last month about how the NFL, a massive business that makes huge amounts of money and pays its executives lavishly (though it outrageously has the status of a non-profit organization), has tried to suppress information about the dangers of the game and pressured ESPN to withdraw cooperation from the production of the program.
You can expect the NFL to pull out all its massive public relations apparatus to fight the negative publicity arising from this documentary. It does not care about the health of young people, even if they die at an early age or are incapacitated. They only care about making money.
I stopped watching football long ago for other reasons but this has convinced me that it is so dangerous that schools and colleges should not field teams, let along glamorize it the way they do. If adults choose to form leagues and kill or otherwise destroy themselves there is little that we can do about it. But there is no reason for schools and colleges to collude with the NFL to lure young people into this dangerous activity.
Neuropathologist Bennet Omalu, the first doctor to diagnose CTE in a football player, said that an NFL doctor privately told him what the implications of his findings were. He said, “If 10 percent of mothers in this country would begin to perceive football as a dangerous sport, that is the end of football.”
I hope that all parents watch this program.