Researchers found brain damage uncom for someone his age. Teams’ key plays and get in-depth analysis of all the playoff matchups. Watch animated renderings of N.F.L. Analysis, updates and debate throughout the N.F.L. Using techniques that can be administered only after a patient has died, doctors have identified C.T.E.. Playoff and Super Bowl picks with Times reporters and fellow fans. Lineman from 1987 through 1995 died last May.

New Sign of Brain Damage in N.F.L. Doctors at Boston University's School of Medicine found a condition called chronic traumatic encephalopathy in the brain of Tom McHale, an N.F.L.

Player age 50 or younger, further stoking the debate between many doctors and the league over the significance of such findings.

McKee said Tom McHale’s brain damage probably played a role in his self-destruction in his final years. Lineman from 1987 to 1995 who died in May at 45. Known as C.T.E., the progressive condition results from repetitive head trauma and can bring on dementia in people in their 40s or 50s.

— Brain damage commonly associated with boxers has been found in a sixth deceased former N.F.L.