[BostonCard]

https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/57/3/166.full

Aside from the risk of CTE, former professional football players show signs of early aging: higher risk of arthritis (no surprise), Alzheimer's disease, high blood pressure and diabetes (younger, but not older professional football players).

The authors write:

Our data suggest significantly foreshortened healthspan in former ASF players compared with the general population. This was driven by an increased prevalence of conditions typically associated with ageing including arthritis and dementia/Alzheimer’s disease across all age groups 25–59 years and hypertension and diabetes among players 25–29 years within a large cohort of early adult and middle-aged former professional ASF players.

BC

[BostonCard]

https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/57/3/166.full

Aside from the risk of CTE, former professional football players show signs of early aging: higher risk of arthritis (no surprise), Alzheimer's disease, high blood pressure and diabetes (younger, but not older professional football players).

The authors write:

Our data suggest significantly foreshortened healthspan in former ASF players compared with the general population. This was driven by an increased prevalence of conditions typically associated with ageing including arthritis and dementia/Alzheimer’s disease across all age groups 25–59 years and hypertension and diabetes among players 25–29 years within a large cohort of early adult and middle-aged former professional ASF players.

BC

[81alum]

Interesting.  Imagine this thought experiment:  someone proposes that a major university should recruit students to play a new sport that no one has yet heard of, but which promises to be quite exciting and entertaining.  The downside: the players will have a substantially heightened risk of brain degradation and premature aging, dementia, arthritis, and many other serious health complications.

What would such a university decide?

[81alum]

Interesting.  Imagine this thought experiment:  someone proposes that a major university should recruit students to play a new sport that no one has yet heard of, but which promises to be quite exciting and entertaining.  The downside: the players will have a substantially heightened risk of brain degradation and premature aging, dementia, arthritis, and many other serious health complications.

What would such a university decide?

[TonyLima]

From the late John Madden: "If you play just one game in the NFL your body will never be the same for the rest of your life."

Quoting from memory, don't @ me.

[TonyLima]

From the late John Madden: "If you play just one game in the NFL your body will never be the same for the rest of your life."

Quoting from memory, don't @ me.

[M T]

Interesting.  Imagine this thought experiment:  someone proposes that a major university should recruit students to play a new sport that no one has yet heard of, but which promises to be quite exciting and entertaining.  The downside: the players will have a substantially heightened risk of brain degradation and premature aging, dementia, arthritis, and many other serious health complications.

What would such a university decide?

Imagine this thought experiment:  someone proposes that teenage & early adult males participate in activities that are exciting and (to them) entertaining.  The downside: the players will have a substantially heightened risk of death and premature aging, dementia, arthritis, and many other serious health complications.

Activities might include binge drinking, dangerous stunts, driving fast cars, using guns, adopting divisive colors, tattoos, clothes, or other symbols.

What would those males choose?

I'm not saying females might not make the same choices, but currently it seems fewer do.

[M T]

Interesting.  Imagine this thought experiment:  someone proposes that a major university should recruit students to play a new sport that no one has yet heard of, but which promises to be quite exciting and entertaining.  The downside: the players will have a substantially heightened risk of brain degradation and premature aging, dementia, arthritis, and many other serious health complications.

What would such a university decide?

Imagine this thought experiment:  someone proposes that teenage & early adult males participate in activities that are exciting and (to them) entertaining.  The downside: the players will have a substantially heightened risk of death and premature aging, dementia, arthritis, and many other serious health complications.

Activities might include binge drinking, dangerous stunts, driving fast cars, using guns, adopting divisive colors, tattoos, clothes, or other symbols.

What would those males choose?

I'm not saying females might not make the same choices, but currently it seems fewer do.

[akiddoc]

I once sat next to a young MD on a plane flight who was a walk on at U of Florida for 4 years. Linebacker. He said that UF had data showing cognitive decline on every member of the team between freshman and senior years - except for the kickers. That included guys who never saw the field on Saturday. Even the practice only players were in that group. He also said the data would never see the light of day.

[akiddoc]

I once sat next to a young MD on a plane flight who was a walk on at U of Florida for 4 years. Linebacker. He said that UF had data showing cognitive decline on every member of the team between freshman and senior years - except for the kickers. That included guys who never saw the field on Saturday. Even the practice only players were in that group. He also said the data would never see the light of day.

[OutsiderFan]

What does eating a high fat, sugar, salt and low fiber diet with limited exercise, smoking and high alcohol consumption do to the body? Because it seems to me there are a hell of a lot more people degrading their health with these choices than there are playing football.

[OutsiderFan]

What does eating a high fat, sugar, salt and low fiber diet with limited exercise, smoking and high alcohol consumption do to the body? Because it seems to me there are a hell of a lot more people degrading their health with these choices than there are playing football.

[SkiBum80]

What does eating a high fat, sugar, salt and low fiber diet with limited exercise, smoking and high alcohol consumption do to the body? Because it seems to me there are a hell of a lot more people degrading their health with these choices than there are playing football.

Good point
We can’t all be milquetoast vegan accountants 
No offense to toast & accountants intended
Offense to vegans intended

[SkiBum80]

What does eating a high fat, sugar, salt and low fiber diet with limited exercise, smoking and high alcohol consumption do to the body? Because it seems to me there are a hell of a lot more people degrading their health with these choices than there are playing football.

Good point
We can’t all be milquetoast vegan accountants 
No offense to toast & accountants intended
Offense to vegans intended

[gocard14]

Interesting paper, but a few things I note. Some things like earlier arthritis and sadly dementia or cognitive decline are expected based on what we already know. Others, like higher rates of diabetes are unclear in mechanism and may be indicative of correlation rather then causation. 

One issue that jumps out to me is they control for BMI. But they don’t control for past BMI which admittedly would be very difficult. One could easily imagine that a lineman who spent their 20s and 30s at 300 pounds then dropped to 220 after playing is higher risk for diabetes then someone who was at 220 their entire life.

[gocard14]

Interesting paper, but a few things I note. Some things like earlier arthritis and sadly dementia or cognitive decline are expected based on what we already know. Others, like higher rates of diabetes are unclear in mechanism and may be indicative of correlation rather then causation. 

One issue that jumps out to me is they control for BMI. But they don’t control for past BMI which admittedly would be very difficult. One could easily imagine that a lineman who spent their 20s and 30s at 300 pounds then dropped to 220 after playing is higher risk for diabetes then someone who was at 220 their entire life.

[Mick]

What does eating a high fat, sugar, salt and low fiber diet with limited exercise, smoking and high alcohol consumption do to the body? Because it seems to me there are a hell of a lot more people degrading their health with these choices than there are playing football.

Good point
We can’t all be milquetoast vegan accountants 
No offense to toast & accountants intended
Offense to vegans intended

I was in the accounting business for 19 years. Once an accountant hits about 35, they often look about ten years older than their chronological age, particularly those accountants who work nonstop during the "busy season" from January 1 to April 15, then scramble the rest of the year to make ends meet. It's a high-stress, long hour job. I don't know that I know any accountants who are milquetoast or vegans.

[Mick]

What does eating a high fat, sugar, salt and low fiber diet with limited exercise, smoking and high alcohol consumption do to the body? Because it seems to me there are a hell of a lot more people degrading their health with these choices than there are playing football.

Good point
We can’t all be milquetoast vegan accountants 
No offense to toast & accountants intended
Offense to vegans intended

I was in the accounting business for 19 years. Once an accountant hits about 35, they often look about ten years older than their chronological age, particularly those accountants who work nonstop during the "busy season" from January 1 to April 15, then scramble the rest of the year to make ends meet. It's a high-stress, long hour job. I don't know that I know any accountants who are milquetoast or vegans.

[2006alum]

Imagine this thought experiment:  someone proposes that teenage & early adult males participate in activities that are exciting and (to them) entertaining.  The downside: the players will have a substantially heightened risk of death and premature aging, dementia, arthritis, and many other serious health complications.

Activities might include binge drinking, dangerous stunts, driving fast cars, using guns, adopting divisive colors, tattoos, clothes, or other symbols.

What would those males choose?

I'm not saying females might not make the same choices, but currently it seems fewer do.

The problem with this analogy is that universities are hardly in the business of pushing alcohol, firearms, etc. on their students. So whether adults make life choices that are at odds with their wellbeing is pretty totally unrelated to whether it's morally problematic for universities to put forward a sport that is essentially antithetical to their mission of developing their students' minds and enhancing their lifetime wellbeing.

Interesting.  Imagine this thought experiment:  someone proposes that a major university should recruit students to play a new sport that no one has yet heard of, but which promises to be quite exciting and entertaining.  The downside: the players will have a substantially heightened risk of brain degradation and premature aging, dementia, arthritis, and many other serious health complications.

What would such a university decide?

81, I'm totally with you, which is why I just can't get into football anymore. It's just too hard to justify at the college level. The problem is this: without football, the financial model for the rest of college sports completely falls apart. It's the golden goose that drives it all. (For an illustration of this, look no further than UConn, whose independence in football has dragged the entire AD down with it: UConn athletics posts $47.2 million deficit for 2021.)

I'm not saying that maintaining those sports justifies maintaining football, but if we started ex ante, and subtracted college football, the thought experiment also has to be: someone proposes a major university should recruit students to play extra-curricular activities that cost the university ~$80-100m a year while generating ~$10-20m in revenue. It detracts from their students' academics, produces a less academically qualified student body, distorts the college admissions process, produces numerous national recruiting scandals, and results in very few students going on to become professionals in those endeavors.

What would such a university decide?

[2006alum]

Imagine this thought experiment:  someone proposes that teenage & early adult males participate in activities that are exciting and (to them) entertaining.  The downside: the players will have a substantially heightened risk of death and premature aging, dementia, arthritis, and many other serious health complications.

Activities might include binge drinking, dangerous stunts, driving fast cars, using guns, adopting divisive colors, tattoos, clothes, or other symbols.

What would those males choose?

I'm not saying females might not make the same choices, but currently it seems fewer do.

The problem with this analogy is that universities are hardly in the business of pushing alcohol, firearms, etc. on their students. So whether adults make life choices that are at odds with their wellbeing is pretty totally unrelated to whether it's morally problematic for universities to put forward a sport that is essentially antithetical to their mission of developing their students' minds and enhancing their lifetime wellbeing.

Interesting.  Imagine this thought experiment:  someone proposes that a major university should recruit students to play a new sport that no one has yet heard of, but which promises to be quite exciting and entertaining.  The downside: the players will have a substantially heightened risk of brain degradation and premature aging, dementia, arthritis, and many other serious health complications.

What would such a university decide?

81, I'm totally with you, which is why I just can't get into football anymore. It's just too hard to justify at the college level. The problem is this: without football, the financial model for the rest of college sports completely falls apart. It's the golden goose that drives it all. (For an illustration of this, look no further than UConn, whose independence in football has dragged the entire AD down with it: UConn athletics posts $47.2 million deficit for 2021.)

I'm not saying that maintaining those sports justifies maintaining football, but if we started ex ante, and subtracted college football, the thought experiment also has to be: someone proposes a major university should recruit students to play extra-curricular activities that cost the university ~$80-100m a year while generating ~$10-20m in revenue. It detracts from their students' academics, produces a less academically qualified student body, distorts the college admissions process, produces numerous national recruiting scandals, and results in very few students going on to become professionals in those endeavors.

What would such a university decide?