Uh-oh
 

It seems every coin has at least 2 sides. (from the NFHS.org website)


Study of HS Football Players in 1950s Shows No Increased Cognitive Risk at 65
By NFHS/Journal of the American Medical Association on October 23, 2017
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In August, the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) released the results of a study attempting to estimate the association of playing high school football with cognitive impairment and depression at 65 years of age. Nearly 4,000 men who both played high school football in 1957 in Wisconsin and nonplayers were assessed in various cognitive tests to determine if a participation in high school football led to long-term cognitive impairment.

From JAMA:

Key Points
Question: Does playing high school football have a statistically and clinically significant adverse association with cognitive impairment and depression at 65 years of age?

Findings: In this cohort study using data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study among men graduating high school in Wisconsin in 1957, there was no statistically or clinically significant harmful association between playing football in high school and increased cognitive impairment or depression later in life, on average.

Meaning: For men who attended high school in the late 1950s, playing high school football did not appear to be a major risk factor for later-life cognitive impairment or depression; for current athletes, this study provides information on the risk of playing sports today that have a similar head trauma exposure risk as high school football played in the 1950s.

But this is such a small & specialized sample: those cadavers whose brains were already chosen for evidence of CTE -- and then the difference didn't even show up as CTE, but as other things reported from their hx! I'd say it's far more likely that the popul'n of kids selected for tackle football would be above avg. in income & care, & therefore more likely to have seen psychiatrists & psychologists later in life for things like mood complaints.

One of the most valuable lessons remembered from Marketing and Statistical Research courses, is that there is more than enough statistical data available to confirm just about any conclusion, anyone wanting to, and capable of, "cherry picking" and manipulating available statistics to produce "accurate" results to support and confirm ANY pre-selected conclusion.

Something to keep in mind when considering the accuracy of "polls" which can be designed to produce whatever predictable results a talented "question writer" is seeking.

Mark Twain wrote in his Chapters from My Autobiography: "Figures often beguile me, particularly when I have the arranging of them myself; in which case the remark attributed to Disraeli would often apply with justice and force: 'There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.'"

It should be noted that no where in British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli's works can the phrase "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." be found. None-the-less, it is a accurate statement in my opinion.

MTD, Sr.