On the surface, it’s good news that a soon-to-be-published study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concludes that there’s no indication former NFL players commit suicide at a higher rate than the general population. So it’s not surprising that said discovery has been making headlines throughout the week.
Two problems.
First, as ESPN.com’s article on the study points out, “the research did not resolve the issue of whether suicides are more common in players with a degenerative brain disease — chronic traumatic encephalopathy — linked with repeated concussions,” because “the study did not examine concussion data or whether any of the players involved had CTE.”
But isn’t the potential connection between CTE and suicide the real concern? Rather than the potential connection between football and suicide, which is far too broad in the first place?
Second, “the suicide report involved 3,439 former players and found 12 suicides during the study years from 1979 to 2013,” while noting that “suicide rates in the general population suggest 25 suicides would have been expected for men of comparable age.” But that doesn’t account for socioeconomics, which seems ridiculous.
A 2012 study by the San Francisco Federal Reserve found, per Business Insider, that “people who earned less than $34,000 were 50 percent more likely to commit suicide.” Former NFL players are more likely to be rich. And yes, rich people kill themselves too. But strong correlations have been established regarding suicide and wealth, and those correlations haven’t been considered here.
It’s possible that the NFL’s apparent “suicide problem” has been exaggerated. Anecdotal evidence is dangerous that way. However, it’s still possible former NFL players are more likely to commit suicide than non-athletes who otherwise have somewhat similar life circumstances, especially if those ex-players suffer from CTE.
Unfortunately, this study does nothing to shed light on those possibilities.
