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

No 1401, Working Papers from College of the Holy Cross, Department of Economics

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 from the 1970 and 1994 NFL seasons, we test whether or not 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: I10 I19 L83 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 25 pages
Date: 2014-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea and nep-spo
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Published in International Journal of Financial Studies, Vol. 12, March 2014, 168-178.

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https://hcapps.holycross.edu/hcs/RePEc/hcx/HC1401- ... ing_NFLMortality.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: 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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