I wish we could get decent stats on how many NFL players are suffering and what positions they played.

Wikipedia page is not a bad place to start: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_issues_in_American_football

This page has some interesting reports: http://www.unc.edu/depts/nccsi/

From an ABC News report:

Two recent studies – one released by the National Institutes of Health Thursday -- have discovered abnormalities associated with the condition in the brains of former pro football players like Seau.

Of the 34 former NFL players who have died and donated their brains to research, the percentage of them who have pathologically confirmed CTE is staggering – over 90 percent, a 2009 University of Michigan report found.

"Despite improvements in technology and equipment and modifications to rules in the game on both the pro and amateur level, there's just a rougher style of play now than in the past," said Dr. Jaime Levine, the medical director of brain injury rehabilitation with the Rusk Institute in New York.

Levine noted that pro football players are a lot bigger than they used to be. According to ESPN statistics, from 1979 to 2011, the typical top-five offensive tackle enlarged from an average of 6-foot-4, 264 pounds to 6-foot-6, 314 pounds. From 1979 to 2011, NFL-bound centers grew from an average 6-foot-3, 242 pounds to 6-foot-4, 304 pounds. In the same period, guards enlarged from an average 6-foot-3, 250 pounds to 6-4, 317 pounds.

Ahhh, really?  

I love competitive sports.  Professional sports bring forth exposition of humanity's own wild, animalistic heritage (which is a good thing) and, for the most part, all participants are fairly well compensated for their voluntary participation.  

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The fact that professional athletes end up damaged should be neither unexpected nor sad, unless it occurs in both those ways:  ultimate fighters and football players play at something with consequences--the great ones, the good ones, the mediocre and the poor ones all get paid to play and risk their bodies and their healthspan futures for what they choose to do--voluntarily...

I would expect that were we to truly become concerned and interested about retired sports stars' medical conditions it would be AFTER we have given as much or better focus and applied energy towards helping out our war veterans, who are neither paid as well nor medically supported for their sacrifices on fields of honor where all spectators rightly fear to attend.

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I mean I'm sorry if Brett Favre forgets where he puts his keys to the Bentley every day...