ESPN/KFF survey: NFL players from 1988 battle pain but still embrace football - ESPN

Former NFL players now entering retirement age are more likely to be living with chronic pain or a disability, are more depressed and anxious, and are far more likely to report having some type of cognitive decline than the average American man, a new survey has found.

Yet, in spite of all that, the vast majority say they would do it all over again, and that playing football had a positive effect on their lives.

Mark Fainaru-Wada, Paula Lavigne, Elizabeth Merrill and Shwetha Surendran contributed to this story. Research by John Mastroberardino.

The findings are the result of a survey conducted by ESPN and independent health-policy research, polling and news organization KFF that sought to assess the life outcomes of NFL players who are around the typical retirement age. The survey attempted to contact all 1,532 players who played in an NFL game during the 1988 season; 546 men participated, with an average age of 62, representing about one-third of the players in the league that year.

The 45-question survey, the largest independent study of its kind, asked a range of questions about the players' day-to-day lives in the years after they retired from the NFL. Among the survey's key findings:

Almost all the ex-players reported having at least some pain the past three months, with half saying they had pain every day and three-quarters saying pain limited their work and personal activity. Almost half said they had «serious difficulty» concentrating, remembering or making decisions at times. By several measures, former players were significantly more likely than men their age to report experiencing pain and mental health issues. (Comparisons to men of a similar age are based on data from large federal health surveys or other