[Goose]

Still, football players do get ALS at about 4 times the rate of the general population.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?ter...S+football

CONCLUSIONS:

The neurodegenerative mortality of this cohort is 3 times higher than that of the general US population; that for 2 of the major neurodegenerative subcategories, AD and ALS, is 4 times higher. These results are consistent with recent studies that suggest an increased risk of neurodegenerative disease among football players.

So, yeah, not a coincidence.

BC

It is not a coincidence, but it would be incorrect to infer causation. There are many other factors that football players have in common with each other that could be causative. One would need to control for those factors as well. There are studies that indicate a higher level of ALS and similar in ALL athletes. Nobody is sure what that means. It is an interesting data point though.

[Goose]

Still, football players do get ALS at about 4 times the rate of the general population.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?ter...S+football

CONCLUSIONS:

The neurodegenerative mortality of this cohort is 3 times higher than that of the general US population; that for 2 of the major neurodegenerative subcategories, AD and ALS, is 4 times higher. These results are consistent with recent studies that suggest an increased risk of neurodegenerative disease among football players.

So, yeah, not a coincidence.

BC

It is not a coincidence, but it would be incorrect to infer causation. There are many other factors that football players have in common with each other that could be causative. One would need to control for those factors as well. There are studies that indicate a higher level of ALS and similar in ALL athletes. Nobody is sure what that means. It is an interesting data point though.