High school football players are nearly twice as likely to sustain a concussion as are college players, yet it “remains unclear” as to whether repetitive head injuries can lead to long-term brain disease

As FRONTLINE reported in a recent investigation into the NFL’s concussion crisis, researchers led by Dr. Ann McKee at Boston University have discovered CTE in the brains of dozens of deceased football players.

A study of retired NFL players published in the Journal of Neurotrauma linked repeated concussions and head trauma to pituitary dysfunction and reduced levels of growth hormone and testosterone, which can result in metabolic syndrome -- a group of risk factors that raise the risk of heart disease and diabetes -- as well as erectile dysfunction and a reduced quality of life.

Teenagers with a history of concussions are more than three times as likely to suffer from depression as teens who have never had a concussion

But concussion is not just an issue for the NFL. A study from the National Center for Injury Prevention found that 47% of high school football players say they suffer a concussion each season, with 37% of those reporting multiple concussions in a season.

It's pretty clear that all those concussions can have devastating long-term impact on NFL players. Many former players, still young, report persistent headaches, fatigue, difficulty paying attention, memory problems,

The disease has ravaged the lives of former professional and college football players, and reinforced the violent image of the NFL, both on and off the field. (A forthcoming Will Smith movie, Concussion, recounts the sordid history that led to more than 4,500 players suing the league for hiding the dangers of concussions.)

The link between head trauma in football players and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease, was discovered by Bennett Omalu, the forensic pathologist played by Smith in the movie, in the early 2000s.

A federal district court judge on Wednesday gave her final approval to the settlement of a lawsuit brought by more than 5,000 former players who accused the N.F.L. of hiding from them the dangers of concussions, a major step toward ending one of the most contentious legal battles in league history.

The Seau family rejected the settlement because they want the truth to come out about the N.F.L.’s decades-long deception to hide the dangers of concussive brain injuries from the players,” said Steven Strauss, a lawyer for the Seau family.

I worry about youth sports as much as I love the games because of the risk of head injury and subsequent need for neurosurgery. That’s why, when I’m not in the operating room, I’ve been on a mission to raise awareness about the signs and symptoms of traumatic brain injury.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, each year U.S. emergency departments treat an estimated 135,000 children ages 5 to 18 for sports-related brain injuries. Most of these injuries are concussions

the way football is being played currently, that I've seen, it's dangerous. It's dangerous, and it could impact their long-term mental health. You only get one brain.

If a child who plays football is subjected to advanced radiological and neurocognitive studies during the season and several months after the season, there can be evidence of brain damage at the cellular level of brain functioning, even if there were no documented concussions or reported symptoms

In 2011, the two leading and governing professional pediatrics associations in the United States and Canada, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Canadian Pediatric Society, published a position paper recommending that children should no longer be allowed to engage in high-impact contact sports, exemplified by boxing, and willfully damage their developing brains.

59% falsely believe that safety equipment like helmets and mouth guards can prevent most concussions. While helmets can help prevent skull fractures, it’s a myth that they can prevent concussions.</>

In May, FRONTLINE reported that as early as 2000, the NFL’s official helmet provider, Riddell, was warned that even a helmet that passed industry safety standards for protection against skull fractures and other severe head injuries could still leave a player with a 95 percent likelihood of receiving a concussion

Earlier this month, for example, an HBO Real Sports/Marist Poll found that most Americans are aware of a connection between football and long-term brain injury, with about one-in-three saying this knowledge would make them less likely to allow a son to play.

High school football players are nearly twice as likely to sustain a concussion as are college players, yet it “remains unclear” as to whether repetitive head injuries can lead to long-term brain disease,