[CofR]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sport...rticle1976014/

Researchers say they are hard-pressed to find current published medical studies that prove professional football players have a life expectancy of 55 years.
And the author of a 2006 article that startled CFL players last week – citing that a pro football player’s life expectancy is 51 to 55 – says he based his medical opinion article on a conversation with an insurance expert, not a medical study.

“That number of 55 has simply never been proven with any data, it has just floated around and been perpetuated by reporters too lazy to back up the facts,” said Chris Nowinski, co-director of the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy at Boston University, and founder of Sports Legacy Institute, which educates on concussion in sport.

In 1997, a study was done by the NFL along with the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). It found players are not dying younger than the U.S. life expectancy for males of 72. It did, however, conclude that linemen, due to their bulk, had a rate of heart disease much higher than the general population.