Steve McMichael’s family announces that he had stage 3 CTE

On Tuesday morning, the Concussion & CTE Foundation announced that Hall of Fame defensive tackle Steve McMichael had stage 3 CTE.

McMichael died in April 2025 at the age of 67.

The highest level of CTE is stage 4.

“By sharing Steve’s diagnosis, we want to raise awareness of the clear connection between CTE and ALS,” Misty McMichael, Steve’s wife, said in a press release. “Too many NFL players are developing ALS during life and diagnosed with CTE after death. I donated Steve’s brain to inspire new research into the link between them.”

In the wake of the Congressionally-forced concussion epiphany, the NFL acknowledged the long-term risks of concussions. Rules changed in an effort to reduce brain injuries. Many former players who donated their brains for research were found to have CTE.

It’s still not known exactly what it means to have CTE. However, a 2021 study performed by researchers at Harvard Medical School and the Boston University CTE Center found that NFL players are more than four times more likely to develop ALS, in comparison to the general male population.

It’s also not known whether the changes made to the sport since 2009 have made a difference. The effort to reduce concussions is irrelevant to the many subconcussive blows to the head suffered by NFL players during practices and games. Although John Madden at one point suggested that the three-point stance eventually could be abandoned for a two-point stance, linemen continue to bang helmets together on every play from scrimmage.

Time will tell. Do modern-day players suffer CTE to the same extent? Will modern players continue to develop ALS at a higher rate than the rest of the population?

The watershed moment could be the development of a reliable CTE test in living patients. What will happen if football players know they have CTE? Will they keep playing? Will more changes be made to the game? Will some hybrid of tackle and flag football emerge?

For now, it’s largely a given that most if not all NFL players from the pre-2010 era have some degree of CTE. What isn’t known is whether it’s still happening, possibly starting from the first time a youth player dons a helmet and starts blocking and tackling.

As to the players from yesteryear, the damage is done. For the players since the NFL finally took concussions seriously, it’s not known whether and to what extent the damage is occurring. Or whether football players will no longer choose to freely accept the risk of playing football.