The NFL's concussion problem isn't going anywhere

As is well-documented at this point, the NFL has a major concussion problem that doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon. Today, the league released data that suggests concussions are not only here to stay, but actually increasing in frequency. Via Pro Football Talk:

The league released data today showing that a total of 271 concussions were diagnosed in 2015, the highest in the last four years. That includes 29 concussions in preseason practices, 52 concussions in preseason games, eight concussions in regular-season practices and 182 concussions in regular-season games.

The key word there is “diagnosed,” because—as PFT points out—it’s certainly possible teams are just doing a better job at noting these concussions than in previous years, and players are starting to self-report concussions at a rate of greater frequency.

In any case, there remain hundreds of players suffering these brain injuries every year, which means hundreds of players are now increasingly likely to suffer a degenerative disease like CTE. (About half of the diagnosed regular season concussions occurred as a result of a helmet-to-helmet contact.)

In 2012, the NFL reportedly backed out of paying for a major CTE study, though the NFL denied that report. As Sports Illustrated reported, youth participation in football is declining.