HJNO Jul/Aug 2026

and other cognitive impairments. It is a step forward that CTE is being recognized as a concern for college players, but it is also a nearly impossible promise: CTE cannot yet be definitively diagnosed in living people. So how does a living former player qualify for help for a disease that may not be confirmed until after death? This amount will not come close to covering the players living today with the effects of brain damage sustained while they were student-athletes. The NFL concussion settlement fund has already paid more than $1.5 billion for concussion-related brain and neurologic injuries, and the fund is uncapped. College and high school football should stop pretending the bill is not coming due for them, too. Tackle football at schools and universities will soon become too expensive to insure. As the game itself continues, know this: You may think you are just watching a football game, but you are actually watching live brain damage, and the players don’t feel a thing. The brain is not made that way. We don’t know when CTE actually starts, but we know where it ends — and it is cruel. There is no amount of money made by or awarded to a player’s family that reverses the long-term brain damage from this game. Game makers, university presidents, school boards, and principals who are asking parents to sign waivers for their sons in this day and age, knowing what we U.S. HEALTHCARE JOURNALS I  JUL / AUG 2026 19