Ann McKee

Families don't donate brains of their loved ones unless they're concerned about the person.

It makes common sense that children, whose brains are rapidly developing, should not be hitting their heads hundreds of times per season.

Is there a way that we would actually recognize the game of football with fewer tackles and fewer collisions? I'm not sure. But I think that's the direction we're going to have to go. Bigger fields? Fewer players on the field? I think we are ultimately going to have to change some of the major rules of the game.

It's almost un-American to say that you want to change football.

I have a little easier time watching the NFL than college or high school. I used to go to the high school games, and now I have trouble with it. The NFL players get big rewards from it. I feel at least the NFL has made big changes to help their safety. And they're adults - they can make good decisions.

Is a concussion going to lead to CTE? No, probably not in most cases. But if you have enough concussions over a certain amount of time, yes, then I think you can lead to CTE.

CTE can be caused by smaller hits to the head over time.

I feel like Dr. Death.

I think you have to be creative to make a difference in science.

Certainly, our work has identified CTE in many professional football players, but we're also seeing it in a very high percentage of college players.

Football has a future. I don't know what that future is. I'm a physician.

I'm concerned about the future of football, because we have paid a lot of attention to concussions. We are more aware of concussions. But it's really the repetitive minor injuries, the ones that are asymptomatic that occur on almost every play of the game, the sub-concussive hits: that's the big problem for football.