On July 28, 2025, a 27-year-old gunman entered a New York City office building that is home to the National Football League’s headquarters. He shot and killed four people and injured one other before killing himself.

In a note found in his wallet, he claimed he had chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, a degenerative brain condition believed to develop from repeated traumatic brain injuries. He asked experts to study his brain.

CTE has received much attention over the past two decades as multiple NFL players have been diagnosed with the condition after their deaths. The 2015 movie “Concussion,” about a forensic pathologist named Dr. Bennet Omalu who documented the first case of CTE in an NFL player, also highlighted the issue.

The gunman in the New York City shooting played high school football, but he did not play professionally. It is not known whether he had CTE.

I’m a clinical psychologist who studies mental health issues and their relationship to physical illness. Although people generally associate CTE with professional athletes, a growing body of research, including my own work, shows that adolescents and young adult athletes experience traumatic brain injuries that can have both short-term and long-term effects on mental health. In my view, young players and their families, as well as coaches, should pay attention to these emerging risks.

At least

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