Druski’s viral NFL skit puts CTE in the spotlight as a new study shows just how common it could be

Druski’s NFL skit has millions talking, but it arrives as a new study sheds light on the prevalence of CTE among former NFL players.

Druski has released another one of his hyper-realistic skits on social media. And this time, he’s shining the spotlight on the professional football world and the prominence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a brain disease linked to repeated head trauma. 

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Now, while NFL fans have applauded the comedian for the high quality production and meme worthy moments ahead of football season,  Druski’s skit is particularly timely in relation to CTE. Days before his post, The BMJ, a medical journal published a new study exploring the prevalence of CTE among NFL players. And the recent study revealed a sobering statistic: at least one in four of all NFL players might expect to end up with the brain disease, as reported by the New York Times. 

“We’ve known that this disease process can be caused by, in part, repeated traumatic brain injury. But we didn’t know how common it was,” said Dr. Daniel Daneshvar, the study’s lead author to NPR. 

While scientists discovered a link between CTE and football nearly 20 years ago, questions about how common it is remained unanswered in both the sports world and science community, partly due to the fact that the disease can only be diagnosed after death. Working in collaboration with UNITE Brain Bank at Boston University, researchers examined the donated brains of more than 800 NFL players who died between 2008 and 2021. Narrowing their study down to the cases of players who died between 2016 and 2021, a period during which brain donations were the highest, the study found that nearly 25% of those players had CTE. However, Dr. Daneshvar notes that the true rate at which NFL players could develop CTE could be much higher due to limitations within the study. 

“This study is a sobering reminder that football carries real risks, and those risks can have lasting consequences for players and their families,” the NFL Players Association said in a statement, per ESPN. “The findings should serve as a call to action across the entire football ecosystem. We all share a responsibility to advance research, improve access to care, develop better treatments, and support those affected by the long-term impacts of the game.”

According to the American Brain Foundation, some of the common signs of CTE include cognitive, mood, and behavioral changes, difficulty thinking, short and/or long-term memory loss, depression and anxiety, emotional instability, impaired judgment, impulsive or erratic behavior such as aggression, paranoia, headaches, suicidal thoughts or behavior, and eventually progressive dementia. This is part of why the realism of Druski’s skit struck many social media users. 

From scenes of his football player character being involved in a high speed police chase to him hitting his head repeatedly against a wall to showcasing erratic behavior, and violence, Druski appeared to not only tease to notable moments involving NFL players like Tua Tagovailoa, Antonio Brown, Marshall Kneeland, Richard Sherman, Cameron Skattebo, Ray Rice, Kadarius Toney, but also the ways in which these symptoms appear in players and are often overlooked.

“The post itself didn’t seem insensitive. it may come off that way towards others because everyone is reacting in a certain way. However, I do think Druski highlighted the everyday effects we see, and just scroll [past]. Everything Druski displayed is what happens in real life and how it is damaging in so many different areas,” Vincent McDonald, who played football for over 13 years, told theGrio. “It touched on so many different aspects that I’ve seen impact players directly when having a concussion. Moreover, the fact that it can take one serious concussion to have these impacts. That’s the biggest thing that alerted me. There were many layers to this video, and I believe it put in people’s faces how CTE shows up in players. It shows us that this is a serious condition, and it really does have impacts that we can finally link to actions that occur on an everyday basis.”

Now, whether or not Druski intended to use the comedic skit as a way to raise awareness remains unknown, but social media users have wasted no time sharing their mixed reactions to the video, which has now garnered millions of views across platforms. 

“This is dark humor but it also raises awareness at the same time which is brilliant,” one user wrote on Threads. 

Another Threads user shared: “Druski’s recent skit about Black Athletes having CTE and its negative effects wasn’t funny at all. As a community, we have to stop being entertained by ignorance.” 

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“I rarely feel any sensitivity towards comedy and humor, and I think Druski is good at serving his purpose of sparking much-needed conversation. Playing football is voluntary, and for many athletes like myself, I chose that path with passion, but also awareness of the realities. I wouldn’t say it’s spreading ‘awareness,’ but what it does is challenge introspection. Introspection, especially in those who do feel like it’s insensitive,” Jahkeel Reef, who played football for a decade, told theGrio, reacting to the video. “Assuming those people weren’t forced to play the sport, in a way, it is ‘comical’ to knowingly take on the risks that come with football. If someone feels strongly about this skit, they have to ask themselves why this voluntary possibility is often chosen.”

Even actress Holly Robinson Peete, who is married to former NFL quarterback Rodney Peete, commented under the post on Instagram, saying, “As a football wife, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.” Similarly, NFL veteran and Super Bowl Champion T.J. Ward chimed in on the discourse, saying, “CTE is the only disease that is allowed to be made fun of.”

Since the release of the recent CTE study, the NFL affirmed its efforts to make “the game of football safer, including by implementing strategies to reduce concussions and head impacts” in a statement as reported by ESPN. “The NFL remains committed to ensuring that the NFL community has access to a robust — and expanding — set of resources to enhance their physical and mental well-being.” 

And while players like Houston Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair acknowledge that things like CTE can happen due to the aggressive nature of the sport, experts hope that the new study encourages more players to be vigilant about the signs of CTE and talk to their doctors and loved ones about the possible long-term effects of playing football.