Let's say you run a multibillion-dollar football league. And let's say the scientific community-starting with one young pathologist in Pittsburgh and growing into a chorus of neuroscientists across the country-comes to you and says concussions are making your players crazy, crazy enough to kill themselves, and here, in these slices of brain tissue, is the proof. Do you join these scientists and try to solve the problem, or do you use your power to discredit them?

The ability to detect brain disease while players are still alive and active will be a massive win for player safety-and a massive problem for the viability of the game.

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy is a progressive tauopathy that occurs as a consequence of repetitive mild traumatic brain injury. We analysed post-mortem brains obtained from a cohort of 85 subjects with histories of repetitive mild traumatic brain injury and found evidence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy in 68 subjects: all males, ranging in age from 17 to 98 years, including 64 athletes, 21 military veterans and one individual who engaged in self-injurious head banging behavior. 

"They'll die. Just like I would when I was younger. I would have died to win."

The wrestlers included Hall of Famers Mr. Fuji and Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka.

As concerns about CTE grow, future of football looks bleak.

Sean McIndoe: The NHL is facing a lawsuit over its handling of concussions - and it’s not an exaggeration to say that it could be an existential threat to the league.

Some MDs weren't happy at the apparent implication of having misdiagnosed their patients with ALS when what they really had was CTE. But it's possible that everyone got it right here.

Based on his violent outbursts, mood swings and self-medicating ways, it comes as little surprise that Aaron Hernandez suffered from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), as his lawyer alleges in a new lawsuit against the NFL and the New England Patriots.

The hits arrived swiftly, recklessly, striking brains and causing damage. Not tackles on this Sunday’s NFL fields. Not this time. These were journalists contorting Aaron Hernandez’s diagnosis of chronic traumatic encephalopathy into arguments as twisted as the man himself.

What happens when we find out both O.J. and Aaron Hernandez had serious brain trauma?

Quanterix is one of several companies racing for a way to diagnose CTE in the living.

From tough-guy captain of the Dolphins’ perfect team to driven force behind the nation’s premier spinal-cord research program, Nick Buoniconti was always in charge, always on top. Now, as his body and mind succumb to the ravages of football, he and his loved ones are left angry, confused and grasping to understand.

In an exclusive interview, ESPN's Shelley Smith sits down with a close friend of Junior Seau to recount the NFL star's disturbing downward spiral.

Zac Easter knew what was happening. That CTE could attack more than just NFL pros. So he decided to write it all down--to let the world know what football had done to his body and his brain. And then he shot himself.

Researchers see ‘a eureka moment’ in preliminary correlation between elevated levels of specific protein in those who suffered from the disease.

Boston University’s groundbreaking research could soon make it possible to diagnose the disease in living patients-and make it impossible for football participants and fans alike to claim ignorance as an excuse.

Despite the NFL and other football organizations saying they’re taking the threat of CTE seriously, no one will fund a CTE-specific version of Dr. Moussa’s work.

The N.F.L. and the concussion crisis.

A gift from the NFL helps scientists take the lead in traumatic brain disorder research.

This week, we are joined in-studio by Dr. Christian Dotson-Pierson to speak with Dr. Chris Nowinski, Co-Founder & CEO of the Concussion Legacy Foundation, about the recently published study by Dr. Anne McKee which showed CTE in 110 out of the 111 brains of former NFL players who were tested, as well as Dr. Pierson’s own research on the topic.

Don’t believe the pumped-up headlines. The latest study on CTE in the NFL doesn’t tell us anything we didn’t already know.

NPR's Lulu Garcia Navarro talks to Alison Owens, the wife of a late NFL player, and New York Times reporter Ken Belson about a Facebook group for the wives of professional football players with CTE.

All-American players interviewed by USA TODAY give thoughtful - if conflicted - responses to questions about potential brain trauma.

“It's a big problem for the NFL, a bigger problem for amateur athletics and an even larger problem still for the greater public,” one researcher says.