Former QB Boomer Esiason: All NFL Players Likely Have CTE

Former quarterback Boomer Esiason says he “most likely” has CTE, the degenerative brain disease that a recent study found in the brains of nearly all the deceased football players it examined. And he thinks he’s not the only one who’s been affected by years of concussions on the field. On his radio show Boomer and Carton, a discussion of the study released two weeks ago prompted Esiason to open up about his own risk as a former NFL player, reports USA Today. “If I died tomorrow and my brain was taken and researched and it was found that I had CTE, which, most likely I have,” he said. "All football players probably have it, the way I read it and the way I see it."

Conducted jointly by the VA Boston Healthcare System and Boston University School of Medicine, the study found that 110 of the 111 brains donated by NFL players contained evidence of CTE, or chronic traumatic encephalopathy. (Per the New York Daily News, the disease can currently only be diagnosed in autopsies.) The NFL was hit by a $1 billion lawsuit in 2011 filed by former players and wives of deceased players who say the league didn’t warn of the long-term dangers concussions can have. "The more we learn about our brains, the better it is for the guys who are playing today," Esiason said. “They have much better benefits and retirement benefits than we do." (More NFL stories.)