The Long-Term Game: An Analysis of the Life Expectancy of National Football League Players

Ruud Koning, Victor Matheson (), Anil Nathan () and James Pantano
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James Pantano: Department of Economics and Accounting, College of the Holy Cross, One College Street, Worcester, MA 01610, USA

IJFS, 2014, vol. 2, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: The National Football League (NFL) has recently received significant negative media attention surrounding the safety of its players, revolving largely around the long term health risks of playing the sport. Recent premature deaths and instances of suicide associated with chronic traumatic encephalopathy and other football related injuries have brought the sport under increased scrutiny. By comparing mortality rates of the general population to mortality rates of players using publically available data from the 1970 and 1994 NFL seasons, we test whether participation in football is significantly harmful to the longevity of the players. We conclude that, in total, players in the NFL have lower mortality rates than the general population. However, there is evidence that line players have higher mortality rates than other players and that those who played more games have higher mortality rates than those who played fewer games.

Keywords: National Football League; premature deaths; survivability; injuries (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F2 F3 F41 F42 G1 G2 G3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Related works:
Working Paper: The Long-Term Game: An Analysis of the Life Expectancy of National Football League Players (2014)
Working Paper: The Long-Term Game: An Analysis of the Life Expectancy of National Football League Players (2014)
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