>> narrator: tonight on frontlinthe conclusion of the epic story of football's concussion crisis. >> these players come down with dementia and then alzheimer's, and then they're gone. >> narrator: a major frontline investigation of what the nfl knew and when it knew it. >> the level of denial was just profound. >> we strongly deny those allegations that we withheld any information or misled the players. >> we don't know who is at risk for it. we don't know if concussion in and of itself is what causes the abnormalities. >> narrator: a decades-long battle between scientists, players, and the nation's most

powerful sports league. >> you can't go against the nfl. they will squash you. >> narrator: next, the award- winning frontline investigation of what the nfl knew, and when it knew it. >> i'm really wondering if every single football player doesn't have this. >> frontlinis made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. and by the corporation for public broadcasting. major support for frontliis provided by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. more information is available at macfound.org. additional support is provided by ford foundation, working with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide, at fordfoundation.org. the park foundation, dedicated to heightening public awareness of critical issues. the john and helen glessner family trust, supporting trustworthy journalism that

informs and inspires. and by the frontline journalism fund, with major support from jon and jo ann hagler, and additional support from scott nathan and laura debonis. >> second and three, ball on the three... in motion... wide open... touchdown! >> the brains are precious cargo. >> now back to the third, and he goes outside... >> we have to get the brain usually within hours of the death. >> touchdown. >> play action... going deep... >> you have a brain that's intact; it's been removed from the upper spinal cord. >> picks it up, looks for running room. he's at the 40, he's at the 45,

midfield, he's gonna go! desean jackson! >> narrator: it is the brain of a former football player. >> this is a process that is awe-inspiring in the old-fashioned sense of the word. >> you have the responsibility of actually possessing somebody's brain, which is probably the best representation of who they were. you really treat it with the utmost respect. >> from a scientific perspective, there's this secret that's being unlocked. >> we take it out, we weigh it, we photograph it, all the external surfaces. >> the attitude is so careful about, that this is a person that's being delivered into

their care. >> i never forget that the brain is the human being. i feel very privileged that someone has trusted me with this duty. >> narrator: in 2008, dr. ann mckee was a leading alzheimer's researcher. >> this is what i do. i look at brains, i'm fascinated by it. i can spend hours doing it. in fact, if i want to relax, that's one way i can relax. >> narrator: then one day, she received a phone call from the boston university medical school. >> i called her and said, "are you interested in looking at the brains of former football players?" and she didn't drop a beat, and said, "are you kidding?" i had no idea that she was a super football fan. >> i was born with football. my brothers, my dad. i played football when i was a kid. i mean, you know, it was part of life, it was part of growing up.

it's, you know, it's a way of life, so i get it. >> narrator: now dr. mckee was joining a team of researchers to build on the discovery of a brain disease, chronic traumatic encephalopathy-- cte. >> she's learned a little bit about the work that had previously been done on this issue and she's eager to find some brains. >> narrator: mckee and colleagues from boston university were determined to examine as many brains as they could. and this man knew how to get them. >> chris nowinski shows up and says, "look, i'll find the brains for you, i'll bring them to you, and they're going to be football players. are you interested?" and she says, "absolutely." you know, she describes this as the greatest collision on earth for her. >> narrator: for nowinski, the issue of cte is personal. he worries he has it. >> i'd be a fool not to worry about cte personally. and i took as much brain trauma as anybody. i think i have more than enough reason to believe that i'm going to be fighting this myself, i am fighting it.

>> narrator: at harvard, nowinski was a punishing tackler. he suffered countless head injuries. then, instead of the nfl, he became a professional wrestler. >> he ends up with the nickname chris harvard, the persona of this sort of snobbish wrestler who's smarter than all the fans. >> you people should be grateful to have someone of my intelligence in your presence. >> narrator: for chris harvard, the performance often ended with a blow to the head. >> chris harvard landed on his head quite a bit. you know, as much as wrestling is performance, there's a very, very small margin of error. and especially when you're learning the thing, you fall on your head a lot. >> narrator: nowinski began to have violent nightmares and migraine headaches. >> and i said, "there's something really wrong with me." and the headache didn't go away for five years. >> narrator: brain trauma became

an obsession. >> what motivated me every day was the fact that my head was killing me and i knew that i felt awful and i knew that i wasn't the only person, but i was a person in a position to make a difference. >> narrator: he would take on the task of finding brains of former football players for dr. mckee. >> they call him the designated brain chaser, like that's his job, to go out and get the brains. >> narrator: almost right away, nowinski secured a portion of the brain of a 45-year-old former tampa bay buccaneer, tom mchale. >> tom mchale was a brilliant guy, went to cornell, had been playing football since a kid. his brilliance intellectually was matched by being an incredible athlete. >> narrator: tom and lisa mchale had three sons. once his career was over, mchale ran a successful chain of restaurants.

but then, uncharacteristically, trouble. >> restlessness, irritability, and discontent describe tom to a t today, but no way is it anywhere near the man i had known and the man i had been married to for years. >> the change was so diabolical. he became a drug addict, he became depressed, he became... had irate moments of violent temper. >> narrator: mchale's addictions spiraled out of control: painkillers, cocaine. >> i remember so clearly him looking at me-- and this is going back, you know, in the final months of his life-- and saying, "lisa, when i look in your eyes, all i see is disappointment." and i honestly don't know whether he was seeing my disappointment, or whether it was his own disappointment that he was seeing reflected back.

but it pains me to think of how much that hurt him. >> a former tampa bay buccaneer was found dead this morning... >> former tampa bay buccaneers player... >> narrator: he had died of an overdose. >> we dissect and section his brain, do a whole series of microscopic slides, look at it with all sorts of different stains for different things, and then come to a conclusion about what the diagnosis is. >> narrator: what she saw was that tell-tale protein, tau. >> this is a 45-year-old with terrific disease. i mean, he had florid disease. he has tau in all these regions of his brain. >> narrator: it was chronic traumatic encephalopathy. >> the tau was effectively closing in around the brain cells and choking them and it's impacting the way the brain is working and ultimately erupting in issues around memory, agitation, anger.

>> i remember my feeling. i was scared. i was really scared. it really was a turning point. it was a new understanding that, "hey, you know, this might be bigger than we think." >> narrator: dr. mckee soon had three brains, all with cte, but rather than just publish in scientific journals, chris nowinski was determined to get the word out. >> nowinski, who is not a scientist, says, "there are people getting hit here. if we speak up now, we may be able to, if not save lives, at least prevent the damage that we are seeing on ann mckee's table." >> narrator: nowinski decided to take on the nfl in a very public way: at their biggest event, the 2009 super bowl. >> ♪ all right, what a night it's finally here. ♪ super bowl sunday's

kicking into high gear... ♪ >> narrator: the glitz and glamour of the nfl production machine was in full gear, developed over decades. highly choreographed. >> ♪ running and hitting with all their might... ♪ yeah, everyone's ready... >> narrator: a national event with a carefully crafted story. >> ♪ the whole world's ready, kick that ball off the tee ♪ because the super bowl rocks on nbc. ♪ >> narrator: in tampa, before the big game, nowinski and mckee tried to crash the festivities by holding a press conference. >> this is the genius of nowinski, really, i mean, right? i mean, "we're going to present her findings." >> this is something you never should see. >> "where do we want to announce that?" "oh, let's go to tampa bay where the super bowl's about to play out, where there's 4,000 media members who are there waiting to watch." >> and i can tell you, i have examined thousands of brains and this is not a normal part of aging. this is not something you normally see in the brain. >> they were saying, "football caused this, this is an issue."

i think mckee uses the word "crisis." she says, "this is a crisis and anybody who doesn't believe it is in denial." >> narrator: also on the panel, nowinski's other star, lisa mchale. >> eight months ago, i lost my best friend, my college sweetheart, and my husband of 18 years... >> narrator: lisa mchale had decided to go public with her husband's story. >> i never hesitated to be public with tom's findings because i was so fully blown away to know that tom could have had the kind of injury he had to his brain and that it could have been caused by football, and i said, "my god, of course, this is information that i would have liked to have had." >> narrator: and after her husband's death, mchale decided to become an advocate for dr. mckee's research. >> he is now the sixth confirmed case of cte among former nfl players. and bearing in mind that only

six former nfl players have been examined for cte, i find these results to be not only incredibly significant, but profoundly disturbing. >> narrator: but that day, there were few reporters listening. >> there were thousands of reporters across the street and probably two dozen were willing to walk across and learn about cte. >> that was the shocking part. you know, here we were in the midst of everything, and this potentially giant story was being told, and virtually no one was there. >> everyone, thank you so much for your time, and we're available if you want to stick around. >> narrator: nowinski's press conference was no match for the show the nfl was putting on across town. >> the build-up is over, and away we go in super bowl xliii. >> narrator: then, one of the

most watched television broadcasts in history. a 30-second ad sold for $3 million. >> it's all right, we're here now! >> narrator: it was the crowning event for a year in which the nfl earned almost $8 billion. >> here's the run-up, and super bowl xliii is underway with the flashbulbs a-poppin'. >> the league is this massive force financially. the super bowl is a spectacle. tv is paying huge money to televise the sport. >> he gets it away quickly and finds the tight end over the middle, and it's heath miller. >> the nfl is broadcast over five networks. espn, where we work, their new contract with the nfl is worth almost $2 billion a year. >> and he hits anquan boldin! >> so they're basically paying around $120 million per game. that's like the budget of a harry potter movie every week, week in, week out. >> and the pittsburgh steelers

become the first franchise in history to win six super bowls. >> ladies and gentlemen, here to present the vince lombardi trophy, the commissioner of the national football league, roger goodell. >> well, some said that we could not top last year's super bowl, but the steelers and cardinals did that tonight. >> narrator: presiding over it all, the most powerful man in sports, roger goodell. >> ...all the steeler fans, congratulations on your sixth world championship. >> narrator: he sat atop a multibillion-dollar empire that he was determined to protect. >> one of his mantras was to protect the shield, the nfl shield; to protect the integrity of the game. >> narrator: but now, the league might face huge lawsuits and a tarnished image if dr. mckee's findings about cte held up. they wanted to hear directly from dr. mckee. she was invited to their headquarters.

>> we head on up to a very, very fancy conference room, nice wood paneling, jerseys and trophies in the glass, and it was probably 15 members of the committee. >> narrator: for years, the nfl's mild traumatic brain injury committee had been publishing research claiming there was no evidence of a link between football and long-term brain damage. >> i'm up against a lot of doubters. i'm up against people who don't think that any of this holds any water. so fine, i'm just going to show them what i have. and they kept interrupting. >> narrator: indianapolis colt team physician dr. henry feuer was one of the nfl doctors at the meeting. >> i just have a problem. ann mckee, she cannot tell me where it's starting. we don't know the cause and effect. we don't know that right now. we don't know the incidence. >> narrator: the committee

members believed dr. mckee could not answer two important questions. causation: did football cause cte? and prevalence: how many players had it? >> she was seeing only those that were in trouble, and we know that there are thousands roaming around that are not having problems. so i think that's where we may have had an issue. >> i think we're very early in the evolutionary understanding of cte. a certain percentage of the individuals diagnosed with this have had steroid abuse, alcohol abuse, other substances abuses. we don't know the concussion history in many of these. and there may be other confounding factors in terms of the genetics that we simply don't understand. >> they were convinced it was wrong, and i felt that they were in a very serious state of denial. >> i remember at one point one of the nfl doctors asking, "couldn't you be misdiagnosing

this? these all look like they could be frontal temporal dementia." and ann said, "well, actually, i was on the n.i.h. committee that defined how you diagnose that disease, so no, they're definitely different diseases." like, she had the experience and they didn't. >> narrator: and according to dr. mckee, there was something else-- something familiar about the way the nfl committee was acting. >> i don't want to get into the sexism too much, but sexism plays a big role when you're a doctor of my age who's come up in the ranks with a lot of male doctors. sexism is part of my life. and getting in that room with a bunch of males who already thought they knew all the answers, more sexism. i mean, you know, it was like, "oh, the girl talked. now we can get back into some serious business." >> i don't know why she feels that way. i thought that she presented herself, as i recall-- and it's

been several years-- that there was something in her manner. and i think she's a brilliant woman. she's done a great job. there was just something about the way she said it, and not that everybody was looking down, it was just, um... >> narrator: dr. feuer insists dr. mckee is mistaken about how she was treated. >> if we, for some reason, came across as being disrespectful, then i would say that everybody else we interviewed over the 15 years must have felt the same way. that's all i can say about that. and i feel strongly about that, too. we would listen, and, "thank you," and that's it. whether she wanted us to start yap... you know, i don't know where she's coming from on that. >> narrator: the meeting had changed nothing. just a few blocks from nfl headquarters, the commissioner had another problem.

in a midtown manhattan restaurant, an internal nfl research document was leaked to a reporter. >> documents were passed to me at smith and wollensky's in manhattan, in an envelope-- i mean, it was great, it was very deep throat-- by somebody who shall remain nameless. but he literally slid it across the table in an envelope. >> narrator: it was a scientific study of former players commissioned by the national football league itself. >> at the bottom of page 32, there it was: dementia. and they had asked players, or their representatives, their wives, "have you been diagnosed by a physician as having alzheimer's, dementia, or any other memory-related disease?" >> what it showed was that former nfl players seem to have

memory-related disorders at a much, much higher rate than people in the regular community. and here was a study that the nfl supported, and it came out not looking too good for the nfl. >> it was the people who the league hired to find out the answers to these questions giving them the answers. and that's what they were. and so, you knew that this was going to be big. >> narrator: the study went to the heart of the prevalence question. in this case, it showed the prevalence of brain disorders was far higher among football players than the nfl anticipated. >> so now schwarz calls up the nfl to get a response, and what he gets from greg aiello, the league spokesman, is more denials. they're now denying their own study. >> narrator: aiello insisted the

study's design was flawed, but now the nfl's concussion crisis was again national news. >> and so it's becoming almost impossible for the nfl to ignore it. >> narrator: at the same time, another force was also causing trouble for the nfl and the commissioner: the wives and widows of players with cte. >> i don't think anyone else but the wives, sisters, mothers, daughters, and ann mckee, could have forced this issue into american consciousness. >> narrator: eleanor perfetto was one of them. her husband, ralph wenzel, had played for the pittsburgh steelers. >> as the disease progressed, he went from being ill but fairly functional to getting to the point where he could no longer, you know, dress or feed himself. and in the last year and a half to two years before he died, he couldn't even walk anymore. >> narrator: she'd spent years

trying to get help from the nfl and its players association. then perfetto took matters into her own hands. she showed up uninvited to a league meeting about caring for retired players. >> there's going to be a meeting that the commissioner is holding with former players. and her husband, suffering from dementia, obviously can't be represented there by anybody but her. and she's told she's not allowed to enter the room. >> narrator: it was the commissioner himself who kept perfetto out. >> and i said, "i'd like to attend this meeting." and he said, "no, you can't attend. it's only for players. it's not for anyone else." and i said, "but my husband is a player who is severely disabled, and he can't be here right now." >> narrator: nevertheless, the commissioner said no. >> the issue is head injuries among players and if those injuries can lead... >> narrator: as the concussion story received more attention, the coverage helped spark

interest in the nation's capital. >> congress considers concussions in the nfl... >> congress is getting into the game. they're looking into the long-term impact... >> the committee will come to order. >> congress is looking into the long-term impact of concussions... >> congress saw it as a way to put the nfl's concussion policies on trial, in the court of public opinion. >> narrator: the commissioner arrived like a celebrity, the star attraction at the hearing and the focus of all the cameras. >> goodell is asked point-blank if he stands by the idea that concussions don't hurt pro football players. >> let me address your first question. >> he can't answer. >> you're obviously seeing a lot of data and a lot of information that our committees and others have presented with respect to the linkage, and the medical experts should be the one to be able to continue that debate. >> i just asked you a simple question. what's the answer? >> the answer is, the medical experts would know better than i would with respect to that... >> his consistent response to questions was, "i'm not a scientist, and any questions about the long-term effects of

concussion or head trauma in nfl players are better addressed to scientists." >> narrator: one at a time, committee members went after goodell. >> we have heard from the nfl time and time again. you're always studying, you're always trying, you're hopeful. i want to know, what are you doing now? >> the nfl sort of reminds me of the tobacco companies pre-'90s, when they kept saying, "no, there's no link between smoking and damage to your health or ill health effects." >> the last thing the league wanted to be dealing with in that moment was the analogy to big tobacco. there's nobody in america who doesn't know what that means. that means denial. >> you have the commissioner of the nfl who's being hauled before congress to answer why his own research arm has been denying, since 1994, that football causes brain damage when everybody from the new york timto former

nfl players to the respected research scientists are saying, in fact, the opposite is true. >> talk about nfl owners as being like tobacco executives... >> but i think it's seen as being plausible... >> the nfl, similar to what the tobacco industry engaged in... >> narrator: back in new york, with the pressure mounting, the commissioner decided to make some dramatic changes. >> the nfl changes its playbook. new rules for treating athletes with concussions... >> nfl commissioner roger goodell wants all teams to adhere to a new policy for head injuries... >> they'd just been hauled before congress and the commissioner was embarrassed by linda sanchez, they'd been compared to big tobacco, and they were trying to fight back. >> narrator: the commissioner initiated a series of new rules designed to protect players from concussions. >> it was quite obvious what they were doing. they were in the middle of a major damage control operation. >> narrator: a new concussion committee would be formed, led by two prominent neurosurgeons. >> the nfl is committed to medical and scientific research... >> narrator: and there was one

other surprise. >> i read on the wire that the nfl had given a million dollars to boston university. i was like, "what?" and so i called up chris, like, "what the hell's going on?" he didn't know what was going on-- he's, like, "what are you talking about?" >> the answer was, "i don't know what you're talking about-- this doesn't sound right at all." >> a cbs reporter wanted to know what i thought of the gift of a million dollars. that was the first i heard of it. i was, like, floored. >> narrator: and goodell offered dr. mckee something she needed even more than money: brains. >> they get a letter from the league. it says, "you guys are now the nfl's 'preferred' brain bank, " and that the league will help with efforts to direct families to donate the brains of former players to boston so that they will be studied for cte. >> the national football league says it will encourage current and former players to donate... >> narrator: as the story of the deal broke...

>> the nfl is donating $1 million... >> narrator: ...the nfl's spokesman greg aiello received a call from reporter alan schwarz. >> while we were talking, he said, "it's clear that there are long-term consequences to concussions in nfl players." now, that kind of statement don't make news if anybody else says it. but this time, it was the league saying it. >> schwarz stops. he knows that the nfl has not only been denying this for years, that they've never come close to uttering anything even remotely close to this. >> and i said, "greg, you realize that's the first time that anyone associated with the league has made that connection." and i remember he was a little... i don't... what's the adjective? annoyed. he was annoyed. >> the timenow suddenly has

a huge story that the nfl has acknowledged a link between brain damage and football. and sure enough, stripped across the top of the times' sports section the next day is that very story. >> narrator: at dr. mckee's research lab, thanks to the nfl's endorsement, the brain bank business was booming. >> there were nfl players out there that were talking to their wives and saying, "i think this might be something. i'm experiencing some problems and i'm thinking i should donate my brain to this work." >> narrator: by 2010, dr. mckee had looked at the brains of 20 nfl players. she had found cte in 19 of them. it was during that time that a brain arrived that would dramatically raise the stakes. >> owen thomas to me was a critical case. here we have a 21-year-old who was a hard-hitting lineman from the age of nine on. >> and then, seemingly out of

nowhere, he decided to take his own life. had ever been diagnosed with a concussion, never had a problem in the world. >> narrator: owen thomas had hanged himself in his off-campus apartment. chris nowinski secured his brain for dr. mckee. without any history of diagnosed concussions, it seemed unlikely he had cte. >> i was fully prepared to see nothing. i remember late at night looking at the brain and thinking, "just going to knock this one off." and it just floored me, it just... i just couldn't believe what i was seeing. >> narrator: such an advanced case of cte had never been found in such a young person. >> in, like, 20 spots in his frontal lobe. he's 21. he's so young. you know... that changes the game to me.

>> wrapped up and brought down by owen thomas. >> narrator: because he'd never had a diagnosed concussion, dr. mckee suspected thomas might have gotten cte from the everyday sub-concussive hits that are an inherent part of the game. >> another nice play by owen thomas. >> those sub-concussive hits, those hits that don't even rise to the level of what we call a concussion, or symptoms, just playing the game can be dangerous. >> the rock is home. a crucial matchup in the afc... >> mckee is saying, "look, this is very much an issue at the core of the game, of offensive linemen and defensive linemen pounding the crud out of each other..." >> (grunting) >> "...on every single play, on every single down at every single practice, and there's no getting around that." >> narrator: it was a controversial theory that raised fundamental questions about the way the game was played. >> the human body was not created or built to play football.

when you have force against force, you're going to have injuries. and i'm not talking about the knees and, you know, all of that stuff is a given. but from a neurological standpoint, you're going to have some brain trauma. >> narrator: harry carson has been studying the matter since he retired 25 years ago. >> you know, most people are keyed in on the big hit. but the little mini-concussions are just as dangerous because you might be sustaining six to ten, maybe a dozen of these hits during the course of a game. and if you're going up against top-flight players who are able to perfect those skills of hitting you upside the head or getting hit with an elbow, it's one of those things that at some point you're going to pay for it down the line.

>> i really worry about my lineman brothers. i really worry for my running back brothers. i mean, that's the truth. you talk about a nefarious injury, one that you never feel until it's too late. so that's the, that's just... when i look back over 30 years associated with football, that's the thing that's most alarming to me. >> the way the game is played, i don't see how you can eliminate all of those routine hits that linemen make every play. how do you eliminate them and have the game still be football? >> narrator: for dr. mckee and others, it raised the obvious question: how safe is it for children to play football? >> what time is it? >> game time! >> all dogs now! >> (barking)

i believe you, you believe me! >> from a physical risk standpoint, you know what you are doing when you sign your kid up, that he can hurt his knee, okay. but what you should know now is, your child could develop a brain injury as a result of playing football. it's not just on the pro level, it's on every level of football. the question is, do you want it to be your child? >> narrator: and for the b.u. advocate chris nowinski, it was a danger the nfl helped to create. >> as long as the nfl dismissed this, that meant that parents were signing their kids up to go play football believing that there was no risk. and that wasn't fair to those kids, or those parents. but especially those kids. >> let's give him a big round of applause. he's a rough, he's a tough...

>> narrator: dr. mckee, who had grown up loving football, has struggled with her feelings about the sport. >> i don't feel that i am in a position to make a proclamation for everyone else. >> if you had children who are eight, ten, 12, would they play football? >> eight, ten, 12? no, they would not. >> why? >> because the way football is being played currently, that i've seen, it's dangerous. it's dangerous and it could impact their long-term mental health. you only get one brain. the thing you want your kids to do most of all is succeed in life and be everything they can be. and if there's anything that may infringe on that, that may limit that, i don't want my kids doing it.

>> narrator: mckee's warnings about the danger of the game have made her the subject of sharp criticism. >> she's a lightning rod because people see her as the woman out to destroy football as we know it. probably the most hurtful charge that's been leveled against her is that she's crossed the line from scientist to activist. >> narrator: a number of prominent scientists believe she has overstated the dangers of playing football. >> there's a kind of polarization in that the b.u. group are clearly the advocates for cte research. but it's not the only issue. there are other issues that we've got to look at. "how common is this? how many brain traumas do you need to get this? is this something that everybody will get if they have enough brain trauma? or is it the result of steroid or drug abuse in a small number of nfl players?" we don't know.

these are questions, not statements of fact. >> narrator: some researchers say dr. mckee has examined only a limited sample of players and too few brains to justify her conclusions. >> there has been a sense, a fear that's been put into parents, that "maybe i shouldn't let my kids play sports." having said that, i still think it's something that we need to be concerned about. we just need more information on it in terms of what exactly is the incidence and the risk. nobody knows that at this point in time. it's still being debated, depends on who you listen to. >> those that have been conducting the autopsies are working with what they have to work with. i think that we need to learn more about these former athletes, learn more about them during their living years so that we can better understand what their neuro-cognitive function is like, what their emotional status is like.

we just have to be careful not to say that this causes that and be able to connect those dots without having more prospective analysis. >> i'm not surprised that people don't believe me. they don't have... they don't look at... they haven't done this work. they haven't looked at brain after brain after brain. i just feel that i guess the more cases we get, the more we persevere, the more they hear, eventually they'll change their mind. >> narrator: still, mckee and her colleagues at b.u. acknowledge there are limits to her research. >> not everyone who hits their head gets this disease, and so a critical question is, why does one person get it and another person doesn't? there must be really important variables: genetics, things about the type of exposure to brain trauma people get. we need to figure those things out. >> narrator: dr. mckee admits she's seeing only a small sample. >> i think to be truthful, even

a selection bias in an autopsy sample-- even if the family of an individual who is affected is much more likely to donate their brain than a person who had no symptoms whatsoever-- given that, we have still been just ridiculously successful in getting examples of this disease. >> narrator: dr. mckee has now examined the brains of 46 former nfl players. 45 had cte. >> we have an enormously high hit rate. i mean, you know, that would be extraordinary with any other disease, to be able to pull in that many cases just that were suspected. so i think the incidence and prevalence have to be a lot higher than people realize. >> narrator: to her, it may be the beginnings of an epidemic. >> i think it's going to be a shockingly high percentage. i'm really wondering where this stops. i'm really wondering on some

level if every single football player doesn't have this. >> narrator: and then, another death. >> an apparent suicide by a powerful athlete. >> a beloved nfl star apparently took his own life today... >> linebacker junior seau died today in an apparent suicide... >> the untimely death of junior seau is provoking questions... >> narrator: as the news broke, the question emerged: did cte play a part in junior seau's death? >> here comes seau. he's sacked! >> narrator: he had used his body and his head for 20 years in the nfl. number 55 was a hard-hitting linebacker. pain and injury were his specialty.

he even bragged about it once on an nfl film. >> a perfect hit is when you're faced up, coming one-on-one, and you hear him go, "uh." (player groaning) just a little, "uh." >> narrator: he talked about the price he was willing to pay. >> you have to sacrifice your body, you have to sacrifice years down the line. when we are 50, 40 years old, we probably won't be able to walk. that's the sacrifice that we take to play this game. >> narrator: and it had paid off. seau made millions. he was a philanthropist, beloved in his community. but then, a familiar story: his life fell apart. >> junior seau was arrested for domestic violence in oceanside, california, early on monday... >> seau accused of hitting his 25-year-old girlfriend... >> junior seau drove his suv right off a cliff in california... >> former pro football star has apparently fallen on hard times... >> narrator: at 43, his business empire had imploded.

he'd lost millions of dollars gambling. he wasted everything. >> we didn't know why he was detached or forgetting, or why he would bark at us for nothing. we didn't know. >> the past two years had been the roughest. and for a couple of months at a time, i wouldn't hear from him at all. and that would scare me. >> we got really close, and, you know, i feel like it's turning around, okay, he wants to be part of my life. and then all of a sudden, i wouldn't hear from him. >> he is truly a legend, and he will be with us forever... >> narrator: seau was one of the most popular players and out of the league for only two years. his brain became the most sought-after ever.

>> you've got a half-dozen prominent researchers immediately began to mobilize to try to get their hands on this brain tissue. >> i spent time making calls. we had a lot of mutual friends. i spoke to people at his foundation and just said, "we would, like every other case, we would like to review this case if you want." >> narrator: but behind the scenes, nfl doctors worked to keep seau's brain away from dr. mckee and chris nowinski's pr machine. they wanted the brain to go to the national institutes of health, the nih. >> getting it in the hands of good science is the goal there. so yes, i think that was probably what was driving the suggestion, that let's have nih get involved. >> narrator: the final diagnosis in seau's case was national news.

>> abc news and espn have learned exclusively seau's brain... >> narrator: he had cte. >> ...showed visible signs of cte, chronic traumatic encephalopathy. >> narrator: in the months following seau's death, the nfl went on the offensive. the commissioner helped to promote a youth football safety initiative, the heads up program. the league donated $30 million to the nih to study sports injuries including joint disease, chronic pain and cte. >> we recently committed $30 million to the national institutes of health... >> good pr is one part of the nfl strategy, but the other piece of it is that the nfl wants to come off as being very forward-looking. the nfl wants to keep pushing these questions into the future, keep the discoveries going, make it seem like these questions that still need to be resolved are things that the league is working with doctors and researchers on. >> narrator: it was a message the commissioner himself

delivered, granting a rare tv news interview the morning of the super bowl. i'm going to ask you this question because some widows of some nfl players have asked me to ask you: do you now acknowledge that there is a link between the game and these concussions that people have been getting, some of these brain injuries? >> well, bob, that's why we're investing in the research, so that we can answer the question, what is the link? what causes some of the injuries that our players are still dealing with? and we take those issues very seriously. >> though the league previously through greg aiello acknowledged a link, there is no more acknowledging a link exists. there's, "the science is still emerging and we're really going to try and do long-term studies on this, and we're going to figure out whether there's a link." >> we're going to let the medical individuals make those points. we are going to give them the money, advance that science. in the meantime, we have to do everything we can to advance the game and make sure it's safe. >> he said, almost identically to what he had said before congress back in 2009, which was, "we're going to let the

medical people decide that." >> narrator: almost two decades after the nfl founded its first scientific committee to research the issue, the league continues to insist the evidence of a link between cte and football is unclear. >> it sure looks like it was just a relentless and endless delaying action. year after year after year, at crisis after crisis after crisis, the concussions committee and its members assured the public that the league was looking into this. the league actually never got around to looking at it in any kind of valid way. we're talking in the year 2013. this committee was founded in 1994. maybe there should be better evidence by now. >> narrator: as the concussion crisis deepened, the commissioner faced yet another challenge: a lawsuit brought by more than 4,500 retired players. >> the threat to the nfl from

this litigation was existential. the threat was that the league was going to have to pay out in the billions with a "b," not millions with an "m." >> narrator: about one-third of nfl veterans, including some of the biggest former stars, claimed the nfl had fraudulently concealed the danger to their brains. >> the main allegations here are... it's very simple. there was a very severe hazard that was present in professional football, and it was a little secret. the nfl knew it, but the players certainly didn't know it. >> narrator: on the other side, the nfl's lawyers. >> representing the national football league will be paul clement, who will be flanked by anastasia danias, she's from the national football league, and also beth wilkinson from paul weiss... >> narrator: they insisted the league had done nothing wrong. >> let's be clear. we strongly deny those

allegations that we withheld any information or misled the players. and if we have to defend this suit, as paul was alluding to, we will do that and be able to make those factual allegations. but we absolutely deny those allegations. >> narrator: but away from the cameras, the two sides were engaged in tense court-ordered negotiations. >> the players, initially, they were requesting around $2 billion or a little more than $2 billion, and what we've been told is the nfl was offering virtually nothing-- they were offering "peanuts," as one person said. >> narrator: the players believed they had significant leverage-- a threat to the nfl. >> the threat was that the doctors and trainers, neuropsychologists, maybe owners, maybe commissioners and ex-commissioners, were going to have to testify under oath as to what they knew and when. >> historic settlement today, with the nfl... >> narrator: then, with football season about to begin, a surprise settlement. >> ...settlement between the national football league and thousands of its former players... >> narrator: the league agreed to pay $765 million to resolve

the lawsuit. >> it appears as if it ties it up quite nicely. the two sides figured out that that was fair, and they were okay with it. and so the image of the situation to most fans is that the nfl got taken to task for the concussion problem, okay? >> there is a proposed settlement in a huge concussion lawsuit... >> narrator: but the settlement left one big question unanswered. >> there's no admission whatsoever of guilt by the league. the league makes it very clear they're not admitting any guilt, that there's no acknowledgment of any causation between football and the possibility of long-term brain damage. and that was a prominent part of the settlement. >> i don't think we needed a trial to know that the nfl conducted a lot of shoddy research. and it wasn't hypothetical. it wasn't a supposition.

what the trial would have done was bring out that evidence. you didn't need the trial to know that there was something wrong there, but the details of how they went about it, that's what's going to stay locked away. >> narrator: one week later, the commissioner made the league's position clear. >> there was no admission of guilt, there was no recognition that anything was caused by football. >> narrator: the league would not have to answer those tough questions about what they knew and when they knew it. >> we've reached an agreement here that resolves these issues, and we'll move forward from there. >> i think everyone now has a better sense of what damage you can get from playing football. and i think the nfl has given everybody 765 million reasons

why you don't want to play football. >> erenberg touchdown! touchdown, pittsburgh steelers! >> listen to this crowd, they're on fire! >> narrator: for now, the future of the league and the game of football seem secure. >> franco harris is now to the 30, big pileup. >> narrator: but fundamental questions remain about how the game will be played and who will play it. >> you love 'em wild and woolly and you're seeing it now. >> you've got the most popular sport in america basically on notice. you've got the very real question being asked of whether the nature of playing the sport exposes you to brain damage and lots of science that suggests that it can. >> an awesome, physical team were the steelers today. >> and that raises all sorts of questions for guys who are playing in the league, guys who played in the league, moms, kids, all of us who love football. it's pretty scary. it's a big deal.

>> and the future opponents are going to have some trouble. (crowd cheering) >> narrator: since this program first aired, roger goodell and the nfl have finalized the settlement with players and their families. the payout could now exceed $1 billion. by the summer of 2017, the first payments, some for as much as $5 million, were approved. >> the legal part of this for the nfl isn't over. you know, the settlement solved part of it for them, but you still have people who have opted out, choosing to fight on. >> narrator: after a dispute with the nih, the league's $30 million research partnership is ending. much of that money has not been spent. and dr. ann mckee continues to study the connection between cte and football.

she has now examined the brains of 111 nfl players. all but one tested positive for cte. >> for ten years, f.b.i. agent john o'neil was obsessed with osama bin laden. >> he said that we're at war with these people. >> he warned of the threat to the united states. >> they are here to hurt us. >> but the f.b.i. headquarters had stopped listening to him. so he took a new job as head of security at the world trade center. >> the night before he died he said to me, "we're due for something big." >> "the man who knew", a frontline investigation. >> go to pbs.org/frontline to watch more of frontline's exclusive interviews with nfl players... >> force against force... >> ...nefarious injury, one that you'd never feel. >> ...their families... >> you know, your brain can't function... >> ...and the scientists. >> i was shocked. >> to learn more about how the

nfl tracks concussions among today's players, visit our "watch" page, where you can screen more than 200 frontline documentaries, then connect to the frontline community on facebook, twitter, and pbs.org/frontline. >> frontlinis made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. and by the corporation for public broadcasting. major support for frontliis provided by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. more information is available at macfound.org. additional support is provided by ford foundation, working with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide, at fordfoundation.org. the park foundation, dedicated to heightening public awareness of critical issues. the john and helen glessner family trust, supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. and by the frontline journalism fund, with major support from

jon and jo ann hagler, and additional support from scott nathan and laura debonis. captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> for more on this and other frontline programs, visit our website at pbs.org/frontline. frontline's "league of denial" is available on dvd. to order, visit shoppbs.org or call 1-800-play-pbs. frontline is also available for download on itunes.

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this is "nightly business i wait all year, instead of buying stuff, i wait until black friday. it's all cheaper. >> deals and door busters. the holiday shopping season has begun. a critically important time for retailers. but who will win and who will lose? driving for a deal. shoppers are also hitting the lots as automakers roll out sweetened offers on new rides. shopping for stock. our market monitor has names he says could see double digit returns in the next year or so. those stories and more tonight on "nightly business repor good evening, everyone. i'm kelly evans in