People Who Played Tackle Football Before Age 12 Suffer Brain Problems Sooner

Set to be published in the Annals of Neurology, the study found that playing tackle football at an early age was linked to early onset chronic traumatic encephalopathy or CTE. To be clear, players who started football as a child or adolescent did not suffer more severe cases of CTE, but it did mean that individuals would report symptoms of CTE at an earlier age — approximately two and a half years earlier than their peers for every one year younger.