NFL Players and Concussions

On the eve of the Super Bowl, an article on the CNN.com website reports on recent research on brain injuries suffered by football players:

[U]sing tissue from retired NFL athletes culled posthumously, the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy (CSTE), at the Boston University School of Medicine, is shedding light on what concussions look like in the brain. The findings are stunning. Far from innocuous, invisible injuries, concussions confer tremendous brain damage.

It is known that concussions can lead to headaches, sleep disorders and depression. The physical changes to the brains of these former NFL players resemble the physical changes that might be found in the brains of elderly Alzheimer patients. The NFL and the Bert Bell/Pete Rozelle NFL Player Retirement Plan, however, have resisted the concept that repeated football related concussions can lead to depression and other symptoms which might qualify a player for disability benefits after retirement. The article can be found here.