Shortly before ending his life, 18-year-old Wyatt Bramwell filmed a final request for his parents: to donate his brain to research. The high school football player had a sense that his years of playing the sport contributed to his growing depression and impulsivity.
“I took a lot of hits.” He said in the video.
Researchers at Boston University’s CTE center later confirmed Wyatt’s suspicion: he had stage 2 C.T.E.
Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, the progressive brain disease caused by repetitive hits to the head, is often thought of as one that afflicts old, famous football players. But in the fall of 2023, University researchers released the most comprehensive look to date at the impact on younger players: a study of 152 brains of contact sports athletes who died before turning 30, the majority of them former football players. 41% had CTE.
New York Times reporters obtained exclusive access to speak, on camera, with some of the families of these deceased athletes, like Wyatt Bramwell, to better understand the warning signs, the downward spirals, the heartache of loss and regret. Weaving these original, gripping interviews with childhood videos, graphic explainers, and the saved messages left behind by the young men, the result was this intimate multimedia interactive: They Started Playing Football as Young as 6. They Died in Their Twenties and Thirties with C.T.E.
The interviews are raw, emotional, and surprising. “Would I let him play again?” The camera captures parents wrestling with the question, illuminating the hold the sport has on so many American families.
