NFL official acknowledges football's link to brain disease

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Podcasts Take Two

Mar 15, 2016

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NFL official acknowledges football's link to brain disease

Now that a league senior executive has admitted that football can lead to brain damage, what's next? And can the NFL continue to distance itself from CTE?

Minnesota Vikings quarterback Teddy Bridgewater lies unconscious after sustaining a particularly nasty hit to the head during a game against the St. Louis Rams in 2015. The NFL reports there were 271 diagnosed concussions last year.

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Now that a league senior executive has admitted that football can lead to brain damage, what's next? And can the NFL continue to distance itself from CTE?

After years of denial, an NFL senior official confirmed that there is a connection between playing football and the brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

Jeff Miller, the NFL's senior vice president of health and safety policy, made the statement at a roundtable discussion on concussions yesterday.

After months of the league denying any correlation between football and CTE, this admission could mean some big changes for players and concussion-related lawsuits in place against the league.

For more, Take Two's A Martinez spoke with A.J. Perez. He writes on sports news for USA Today.