“Sure, it’s one of the more dangerous positions,” the Atlanta Falcons return specialist and receiver Devin Hester, who holds the N.F.L. record for punt-return touchdowns and total return touchdowns, told me recently. Football is thrilling and dangerous at every level, as fans of the game are increasingly aware. A 2013 study by the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research found that a dozen high-school and college football players die each year during practices and games. There hasn’t been a death during an N.F.L. game since 1971, but the league itself expects a third of all its retired players to develop some form of long-term cognitive problem, such as Alzheimer’s or dementia, as a consequence of head injuries endured on the gridiron. And a new independent report conducted by researchers with the Department of Veterans Affairs and Boston University found that chronic traumatic encephalopathy—or C.T.E., a disease caused by repeated head trauma, which can result in depression and dementia—affected ninety-six percent of N.F.L. players and seventy-nine percent of all football players whom researchers examined. (The researchers have examined the brain tissue of one hundred and sixty-five former players.)

No position is safe, but some are less likely to endure harm than others. Quarterback, center, and fullback are the “safest” positions, in terms of the risk of concussions. The most dangerous offensive positions: running back and wide receiver. Depending on the offense’s scheme, both can require relentless pounding, play after play. But, at those positions, there is usually little time to contemplate the next hit: it’s arriving now.

Read the article “The Longest Five Seconds in Football, Followed by Danger” on newyorker.com.