Just watched League of Denial again

[wiffleball 4,640]

I mean, it's so easy to hate the NFL on the whole CTE story.

They were shady as shiit and their expert? Was a rheumatologist- Worthless.

The rest of their science crew? Company men all - bought and paid for.

Almost none of them specializing in Neuro - and not nearly as trained as Omalu.

 

However, some of you may remember a few of my posts on the subject;

Nothing's changed in that regard.

So, therefore, begrudgingly, the NFL was sort of 'right'.

 

As long as the majority of players - all subject to the same level of head trauma / violence

don't go on to develop signs of CTE/Neuro Cognitive degradation, the 'science' isn't there - yet.

 

The best you can say right now is:

1) SOME football players develop CTE

2) Most who submit their brains after suffering from depression and killing themselves show CTE. - But that is still a radically small sample of all players.

 

The BIG question - the science behind it all - is:

"What about all the players in the same circumstance who DON'T develop signs of Neuro degradation?

 

- Because as long as you have them - that fact - you don't have the science. There are SO many other environmental and genetic factors that need to be accounted for and eliminated. THEN add in the awful strangeness of the vagaries of the human mind - we just don't know enough. And the 'link' isn't there. Certainly not a causal one to be sure.

 

But, if you're a 'journalist' - especially a 'sports journalist', things like 'Selection Bias' and "Confirmatiion Bias" aren't exactly part of the daily lexicon.