Giving Compass' Take:

• Linda Flanagan shares how sports injuries are hurting student-athletes in the short and long term. Advocacy efforts on this issue face pushback and struggle to make progress. 

• How can philanthropy work to reduce head injuries among young athletes? 

• Learn about philanthropists supporting concussion initiatives.

Nearly 8 million boys and girls played on a high-school team during the 2016-17 school year. And for many, especially those who compete in high-impact sports like football and soccer, concussions are a persistent worry. Findings from a study out of Boston University, the largest of its kind, surely will add to that concern. After examining the brains of 202 deceased football players, scientists found CTE—chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the degenerative malady thought to be caused by brain trauma—in 87 percent of the brains.

Even the brains of young adults who had only played high-school football showed mild cases of the disease, leading to pronounced changes in behavior, mood, and cognitive function: hopelessness, impulsivity, memory loss, and substance abuse were typical among the afflicted.

Awareness of the dangers concussions pose seems to be growing among high-school parents, players, and coaches, thanks in part to sobering studies such as the latest one from BU. But concrete changes to laws and practices still lag behind the science. This is so partly because there is no overarching body to implement or enforce them, and partly because the culture of some sports, especially football, resists change.

Read the full article about sports brain injuries by Linda Flanagan at The Atlantic.