Dive into the ESPN/KFF Survey of 1988 NFL Players

Last year, ESPN sought to examine the life outcomes of NFL players who are now nearing retirement age and partnered with independent health-policy research, polling and news organization KFF to survey nearly 550 players from the 1988 season. The ESPN/KFF Survey of 1988 NFL Players included questions about their physical and mental health, their finances and families, and their attitudes about football today.

Top takeaway:

• The surveyed NFL players are more likely to be living with chronic pain or a disability, are more depressed and are far more likely to report having some type of cognitive decline than the average American man. But overwhelmingly, they would make the same decision to play professional football again. Read more about the survey's findings

More from the survey:

• Nearly every player surveyed reported having pain in the past three months, with half saying they experience pain every day. Read about the players' physical and mental decline

• Black players fared worse than white players across a wide range of life outcomes, even though they all reached the same pinnacle of professional football. Read about the racial disparities in the data

• Players from the 1988 season remain loyal to the game, watching the NFL, coaching football and encouraging their children to play. But they're more divided on the benefits and risks of youth tackle football. Read about the players' attitudes toward the sport

• Want to hear from the players themselves? Survey respondents anonymously answered a handful of open-ended questions about the game. Here's what they had to say

• For a video of the survey results, visit YouTube

To view the entire survey and read KFF's reports, visit KFF's website

The ESPN/KFF survey was partially inspired by a call from Alayna Gilbert -- widow of former New Orleans Saints offensive lineman Daren Gilbert -- who contacted the network and expressed concern about her husband's struggles before he died in 2022, and about the state of many of his teammates. While those men relish the brotherhood they built through the game, they're also coping with the loss of at least 10 teammates and the swift physical decline they blame on football. Read ESPN's story on the 1988 Saints, 'They Were All Young'

For more on the '88 Saints:

• ESPN gathered several 1988 Saints players and the wife of a deceased teammate in a New Orleans-area restaurant named for iconic former Saints quarterback Bobby Hebert to talk about their lives in football. Watch the roundtable conversation

• The Gilbert family's relationship with football embodies many of the sentiments drawn from the ESPN/KFF survey: appreciation for the sport and its values, awareness of its risks and uncertainty about its safety for the next generation. Watch the Gilberts' story

Read the survey's methodology

The ESPN/KFF Survey of 1988 NFL Players was designed and analyzed by public opinion researchers at KFF in collaboration with reporters at ESPN. The survey included a representative sample from the 1,532 former NFL players who participated in at least one game during the 1988 season. The survey was conducted from Oct. 17, 2024, through Nov. 30, 2024, both online and by telephone. All data collection was managed by Davis Research.

Sample and contact methods

Players' contact information was researched and verified through multiple sources, including LexisNexis and Marketing Systems Group (MSG). Of the 1,532 players, 128 were identified as having died either prior to or during data collection. For those individuals, researchers attempted interviews with a proxy. Players and their proxies were contacted via a mailed letter that explained the project and provided a website to complete the survey and a phone number for the individual to complete the survey with a live, trained interviewer. Those who didn't respond received follow-ups via email, mail, phone calls and text messages.

The final sample includes interviews with 546 former players. An additional 18 interviews with family members of deceased players, as well as one interview with a family member of a living player who was identified as having cognition issues, helped to contribute to the reporting.

All survey participants were offered a $100 gift card or the option to donate the amount to Gridiron Greats, a charity supporting former NFL players.

Representation considerations

The project team took careful consideration to ensure the surveyed players accurately reflected the demographics of the league in 1988 across variables including race and ethnicity, position, teams and years in the league.

The final sample closely matched the demographics of all 1988 players, and no additional weighting adjustments were needed.

The overall response rate for living players was 40%, and for family members of deceased players, it was 16%.

The margin of sampling error for the full sample is plus or minus 3 percentage points. For results based on subgroups, the margin of sampling error might be higher.

Additional note