Game Changers
How dramatic brain discoveries are influencing America’s most popular sport
For years, the NFL downplayed the link between head blows on the field and brain damage later in life. Then, in the middle of the 2009–10 NFL season, the $8 billion-a-year industry appeared to run a single reverse. It publicly acknowledged the link to dementia and instituted a series of rules and policy changes designed to protect players from serious head injury. Behind that change of heart lies the work of a handful of BU researchers.