{"id":440,"date":"2025-04-01T08:02:35","date_gmt":"2025-04-01T08:02:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/?p=440"},"modified":"2026-05-27T18:39:30","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T18:39:30","slug":"football-killed-him-and-football-didnt-want-to-know-dementia-traumatic-brain-injury-and-football-in-the-uk-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/2025\/04\/01\/football-killed-him-and-football-didnt-want-to-know-dementia-traumatic-brain-injury-and-football-in-the-uk-news\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cFootball killed him and football didn&#8217;t want to know\u201d: Dementia, traumatic brain injury and football in the UK news"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1280\" height=\"853\" src=\"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/files\/2025\/03\/Football-blog-image-1-1.jpg\" alt=\"Shows a football on the pitch with the stadium in the background.\" class=\"wp-image-447\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/files\/2025\/03\/Football-blog-image-1-1.jpg 1280w, https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/files\/2025\/03\/Football-blog-image-1-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/files\/2025\/03\/Football-blog-image-1-1-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/files\/2025\/03\/Football-blog-image-1-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/files\/2025\/03\/Football-blog-image-1-1-930x620.jpg 930w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<div style=\"height:53px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What happens when you bring together three people interested in communication around dementia and a specialist in sport communication? The Public Discourses of Dementia team, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/linguistics\/about\/people\/gavin-brookes\">Gavin Brookes<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/linguistics\/about\/people\/emma-putland\">Emma Putland<\/a>, recently had the pleasure of collaborating with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bradford.ac.uk\/staff\/fslocombe\/\">Felicity Slocombe from the University of Bradford\u2019s Centre for Applied Dementia Studies<\/a> and with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.swansea.ac.uk\/staff\/humanities-and-socialsciences\/culture-communication-staff\/media-communication-journalism-pr-staff\/hannah-thompson-radford\/\">Hannah Thompson-Radford, a Senior Lecturer in Sport Communication and Journalism at Swansea University<\/a>. Together, we asked: how are football, traumatic brain injury and dementia represented in the British Press and how might this contribute to wider discussions surrounding dementia risk and support?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:53px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Context: Traumatic brain injury, football and the news<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is when the brain is injured through a trauma to the head (head injury) and it has been recognised as one of 14 potentially modifiable risk factors for dementia, accounting for approximately 3% of dementia diagnoses (Livingston et al., 2024). There are many possible causes of traumatic brain injury, such as traffic accidents and falls. Evidence has been building that frequently heading the ball in (professional) football can increase the risk of head injuries and dementia. At the same time, exercising has also been linked to a<em> lower<\/em> dementia risk; this necessitates balancing the promotion of physical activity whilst acknowledging the potential dangers of physical contact (e.g., when heading the ball) and working to better protect players.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Football is the UK\u2019s top sport and campaigners have pushed for over twenty years to better protect and support affected players. In response to increasing evidence, UK football has begun to introduce limits on heading in training and a phased complete heading ban for youth football (e.g., <a href=\"https:\/\/www.englandfootball.com\/participate\/learn\/Brain-Health\/Heading-in-Football\">you can read England Football Association\u2019s guidance here<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The news media plays a powerful role in shaping public understanding and interest in this issue, and some UK national newspapers have been campaigning for up to 10 years about the link between traumatic brain injury caused by headers, collisions and falls in football and subsequent dementia diagnoses. Considering the amount and length of coverage, it is useful to zoom out and look for key linguistic patterns to better understand the reporting of this issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:53px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What words are often used alongside \u2018football*\u2019?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This blog reports on our analysis of a collection of 11,372 national newspaper articles that discussed dementia across a decade, from the 1<sup>st<\/sup> of January 2013 to the 31<sup>st<\/sup> of December 2022, totalling over 9 million words. This included eight national newspapers (Express, Guardian, Independent, Mail, Mirror, Star, Telegraph, Times), including their online, Sunday and \u2018sister\u2019 editions. We found that \u2018football*\u2019 (with the * allowing for alternative endings such as \u2018footballer\u2019) was mentioned 10,852 times across 1,836 news articles, which was far more than any other sport or sport in general (\u2018rugby*\u2019 is second most mentioned, with 2,726 uses across 527 texts).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here, we examine frequent linguistic patterns surrounding the word \u2018football*\u2019. To identify these patterns, we looked for words that frequently occurred near to \u2018football*\u2019 (these words are called <strong>collocates<\/strong> and here, they must have occurred at least 100 times within the span of five words to the left and\/or right of \u2018football*\u2019). For example, the words \u2018dementia\u2019 and \u2018football*\u2019 appeared near each another (collocated) 1,741 times. Table 1 shows the top 40 collocates of football.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>Table 1. <\/em><\/strong><em>The top 40 collocates of \u2018football*\u2019 (calculated using Dice coefficient).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><tbody><tr><td><strong>Primary context of use<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>Collocates (words that co-occur with football*)<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Risk and research<\/td><td><em>Heading, between, link, playing, times, dementia, likely, into, links, more, in, and, found, among, study, disease, research.<\/em><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Stakeholders and their perspectives\/actions<\/td><td><em>Professional, former, Association, \u2019, players, Scottish, authorities, league, Football, English, Tackle, \u2018s, who, campaign.<\/em><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Other sports<\/td><td><em>American, rugby.<\/em><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Other<\/td><td><em>has, are, the, of, that.<\/em><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We then we read 100 random examples of how each of the top 40 collocates were used alongside football* in the newspapers, totalling 4,000 examples (see Figure 1 for an example of what this looked like).<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1286\" height=\"737\" src=\"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/files\/2025\/04\/Football-blog-figure-1-new-1.png\" alt=\"Image shows 25 lines of &apos;football*&apos; occuring alongside &apos;dementia&apos;. It is taken from the programme used for this study, CQPWeb.\" class=\"wp-image-579\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.744963725324785;width:675px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/files\/2025\/04\/Football-blog-figure-1-new-1.png 1286w, https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/files\/2025\/04\/Football-blog-figure-1-new-1-300x172.png 300w, https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/files\/2025\/04\/Football-blog-figure-1-new-1-1024x587.png 1024w, https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/files\/2025\/04\/Football-blog-figure-1-new-1-768x440.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1286px) 100vw, 1286px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Figure 1.<\/strong> <em>A screengrab showing how concordance lines appear in the programme that we used, called CQPweb. Here, \u2018football*\u2019 occurs alongside its collocate \u2018dementia\u2019. <em>This shows 25 randomised cases of the overall 1,741 co-occurrences.<\/em><\/em> <em>Each of these lines could be expanded to read more of the text.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-neve-text-color-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color wp-elements-5eba391b51f7725974866c3eb6e2d70c wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"background-color:#f9eefd\"><strong>Note:<\/strong> <br><br>Throughout this blog, <em>collocates<\/em> are <em>italicised<\/em> when found within five places to the left or right of \u2018football*\u2019. <br><br>The <strong>search term \u2018football*\u2019 <\/strong>is in<strong> bold<\/strong> (and <em>italicised<\/em> if it is also a collocate, as with example 7, presented later). <br><br><strong>Traumatic brain injury<\/strong> is abbreviated to <strong>TBI<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:53px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>A debated but increasingly certain link<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Reporting about the link between heading the ball in football and sport-related TBI and\/or dementia both increases over time and becomes <em>increasingly certain<\/em>. For instance, examples 1-3 are all taken from the same newspaper in different years:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<p class=\"has-nv-light-bg-background-color has-background wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Example 1<\/strong><br><br>&#8216;There is not yet enough firm evidence to <em>link heading<\/em> <strong>footballs<\/strong> to brain injuries.&#8217; (MailOnline, 2018)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-nv-light-bg-background-color has-background wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Example 2<\/strong><br><br>&#8216;And now they finally have evidence. There is a casual [sic] <em>link between professiona<\/em>l <strong>football<\/strong> <em>and dementia<\/em>. It&#8217;s an undeniable fact for a game that has been too happy to stay in denial.&#8217; (Daily Mail, 2019)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-nv-light-bg-background-color has-background wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Example 3<\/strong><br><br>&#8216;Groundbreaking <em>research has<\/em> already <em>found that<\/em> <strong>footballers<\/strong> <em>are<\/em> three-and-a-half times <em>more likely<\/em> to die from degenerative brain diseases such as dementia, and previous studies suggest even 20 headers can have an impact on brain function.&#8217; (Daily Mail, 2021)<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While newspapers tend to foreground the elevated risks of TBI and dementia, there are some attempts to balance consideration of these risks with the health benefits of playing sport, too. Dr William Stewart, whose \u2018groundbreaking research\u2019 is mentioned in example 3, is shown in example 4 to provide further context about the overall health implications of sport:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left has-nv-light-bg-background-color has-background wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Example 4<\/strong> <br><br>&#8216;Yet he emphasises that his research should not discourage people from playing sport. Alongside higher rates of dementia, his <em>research<\/em> revealed <em>that former <\/em><strong>footballers<\/strong> have significantly lower rates of cardiovascular disease and some cancers than the rest of the population.<br>Sport helps you live longer.&#8217; (The Times, 2019)<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:53px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Conflict<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As example 2 implies and examples 5, 6 and 7 make more explicit, the increasing evidence of a link between (professional) football and dementia is frequently represented in relation to a conflict, whether between different stakeholders or against dementia. This is signalled through the prevalence of a conflict metaphor (\u2018battle\u2019, \u2018fight\u2019, \u2018victory\u2019, etc.).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<p class=\"has-nv-light-bg-background-color has-background wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Example 5<\/strong><br><br>&#8216;Battle to get brain injury <em>among <\/em><strong>footballers<\/strong> recognised as an industrial<em> disease<\/em> &#8211; which would mean affected players being able to claim state disability benefits &#8211; is realistic, says expert.&#8217; (MailOnline, 2020)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-nv-light-bg-background-color has-background wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Example 6<\/strong><br><br>&#8216;SIR ALEX FERGUSON and Sir Kenny Dalglish have joined forces to support <strong>football<\/strong><em>&#8216;s fight <\/em>against <em>dementia.<\/em><br>The duo will join England manager Gareth Southgate in a one-off event to raise funds for research into the link between <strong>football <\/strong>and the disease &#8211; in conjunction with Sportsmail&#8217;s campaign &#8211; and support those suffering from dementia and their families.&#8217; (MailOnline, 2020)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-nv-light-bg-background-color has-background wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Example 7<\/strong><br><br>&#8216;A <em>study into the link between<\/em> <strong>football<\/strong> <em>and dementia<\/em> was finally commissioned yesterday following an 18-month campaign by The Daily Telegraph exposing what has been branded sport&#8217;s &#8220;silent scandal&#8221;. [\u2026] Confirmation of the study was a victory for The Telegraph and the victims of the killer illness &#8211; including several members of England &#8216;s 1966 World Cup-winning team &#8211; as well as the families who had campaigned for many years for the game to investigate.<br>Chief among them was Dawn Astle, the daughter of West Bromwich Albion legend and former England striker Jeff, whom a coroner ruled in 2002 had been killed by repeatedly <em>heading<\/em> a <strong>football<\/strong>. Admitting she had been &#8220;quite teary&#8221; following the announcement, she thanked the media for its support, adding: &#8220;It&#8217;s been lonely a lot of the time and it&#8217;s pure frustration at times when you know, because it said on my dad&#8217;s death certificate, <em>that <strong><u>football<\/u><\/strong><\/em> killed him <em>and <strong>football<\/strong> <\/em>didn&#8217;t want to know.&#8217; (Daily Telegraph, 2017)<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text is-stacked-on-mobile\" style=\"grid-template-columns:40% auto\"><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"683\" height=\"1024\" src=\"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/files\/2025\/03\/Football-image-2-683x1024.jpg\" alt=\"A man heads a ball on a field.\" class=\"wp-image-445 size-full\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/files\/2025\/03\/Football-image-2-683x1024.jpg 683w, https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/files\/2025\/03\/Football-image-2-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/files\/2025\/03\/Football-image-2-768x1152.jpg 768w, https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/files\/2025\/03\/Football-image-2-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/files\/2025\/03\/Football-image-2.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px\" \/><\/figure><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Conflict metaphors are widely used in media portrayals of both football and dementia. Dementia has frequently been positioned as a \u2018killer illness\u2019, with many \u2018victims\u2019, and so it is often rendered an invisible enemy that society must \u2018fight\u2019 (examples 6,7; Putland &amp; Brookes, 2024). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In this context, while dementia can be positioned as the enemy (example 6), more frequently, the opponent in this conflict is the game of \u2018football\u2019 and the organisations that determine its regulations and activities, as exemplified by Dawn Astle\u2019s above claim that \u2018football killed him and football didn&#8217;t want to know\u2019 (example 7). Here, \u2018football\u2019 may refer to both the role of the sport in Jeff Astle\u2019s death (\u201crepeatedly heading a football\u201d) and to the institution of football (those involved at an organisational level) who are construed as having abandoned Astle.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In this conflict, clear sides are established. As the examples show, the newspapers explicitly align themselves with a coalition of stakeholders, most often of researchers, charities, the media, footballers and their families, that strive to firstly prove the link between football, TBI and dementia, and secondly, to improve the support provided for all footballers. Indeed, the collocates <em>tackle <\/em>and <em>campaign<\/em> can be primarily attributed to the references that newspapers make to their own campaigns (namely, the <em>Telegraph Sport&#8217;<\/em>s 2016 \u2018<em>Tackle<\/em> <strong>Football<\/strong><em>&#8216;s<\/em> Dementia Scandal\u2019, the <em>Sunday Mail<\/em>&#8216;s 2017 \u2018<strong>Football<\/strong><em>&#8216;s<\/em> Timebomb\u2019 and <em>Sportsmail\u2019s <\/em>2020 \u2018Enough is ENOUGH\u2019 campaigns). Examples 6 and 7 exemplify this practice, with the newspapers foregrounding their role in \u2018exposing\u2019 scandals and providing \u2018support\u2019 to advocates in campaigning for change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Continuing in this vein, newspapers consistently foreground criticisms of football organisations\u2019 (in)action (see examples 8 and 9 below) and attribute responsibility to these authorities to do their \u2018duty\u2019 to \u2018protect players\u2019 and \u2018help\u2019 everyone affected (example 10). The newspapers celebrate their campaigns\u2019 \u2018victor[ies]\u2019 when, as example 7 illustrates, these organisations are sufficiently pressured to act. Football organisations are frequently generalised as \u2018football authorities\u2019 (e.g., when discussing \u2018the shameful inaction of the <strong>footballing<\/strong> authorities\u2019; Daily Mirror, 2022) or even as \u2018football\u2019 (examples 7, 8 and 10). Specific organisations are also often discussed, notably the Football Association (FA) and the player advocacy organisation, the Professional Footballers\u2019 Association (PFA):<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<p class=\"has-nv-light-bg-background-color has-background wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Example 8<\/strong><br><br>&#8216;The <em>Professional <\/em><strong>Footballers<\/strong> <em>Association<\/em> gave \u00a3240 towards physiotherapy sessions after Allan suffered a stroke, but Christine claims it declined to help with his dementia. She added: &#8221; It [sic] think it is a disgrace <em>that<\/em> <strong>football<\/strong> isn&#8217;t doing <em>more<\/em>.&#8221; Anger at the lack of help for players with dementia is fuelled by the vast amount of money flooding into the sport.&#8217; (Daily Mirror, 2017)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-nv-light-bg-background-color has-background wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Example 9<\/strong><br><br>&#8216;Sutton&#8217;s <em>professional <\/em><strong>footballer<\/strong> father, Mike, died on Boxing Day following a 10-year battle with dementia. And the player-turned-pundit has spearheaded Sportsmail&#8217;s campaign for research funding, temporary concussion substitutes and limited heading in training to protect players. \u2018The fact is the FA and PFA [<em>Professional<\/em> <strong>Footballers&#8217;<\/strong> <em>Association<\/em>] have not done anywhere near enough,&#8217; Sutton said. &#8216;They have ignored, shunned, turned their backs on a massive issue. Hundreds of players have died. My father among them. And we do not even know what has happened in the amateur game.\u2019&#8217; (MailOnline, 2021)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-nv-light-bg-background-color has-background wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Example 10<\/strong><br><br> &#8216;All of <strong>football<\/strong> <em>has<\/em> a duty to get this right, to protect players, to help the families enduring the cruel sight of their loved ones being dragged away from them by dementia.&#8217; (The Times, 2019)<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:53px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong><strong>News campaigns: Placing footballers in the story<\/strong><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As the above examples illustrate, combining statistics and expert opinions with personal stories and emotive language are some of the strategies used by newspapers to campaign about this issue. Often, as with examples 7-10, newspapers take the perspective of the family members of former professional footballers with dementia. Regularly, the footballers themselves who have been diagnosed with dementia are passivised and victimised. This might be in relation to the sport \u2014 these athletes have been \u2018let down\u2019 and are indeed quite passive victims of the exploitation of athletic labour, with a lack of regulation or support to protect players.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Simultaneously, in previous examples we have discussed, footballers can be positioned by journalists as \u2018the victims of the killer illness\u2019 dementia, or as \u2018loved ones being dragged away from them [their family] by dementia\u2019. Sometimes, the articles draw on the \u2018loss of self\u2019 discourse associated with dementia, whereby the cognitive changes associated with the syndrome entail an \u2018unbecoming\u2019 of self and social death (Fontana &amp; Smith, 1989). For example, the Sportsmail columnist and son of a former footballer who now has dementia, Chris Sutton, claims that dementia &#8216;wipes you out as a person and leaves a blank page&#8217;. While dementia can undeniably entail existential threats to a person\u2019s identity and relationships, and can bring great suffering, overly sensationalising the condition and suggesting that people diagnosed become devoid of what makes them a person (i.e., \u2018a blank page\u2019) risks delegitimating people living with dementia as fellow persons with their own identities, in turn perpetuating existing fear and stigma surrounding the condition (Putland &amp; Brookes, 2024).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It was highly unusual to see a footballer with dementia quoted in the concordance lines examined. For instance, of the 200 cases where \u2018played\u2019 collocates with \u2018football*\u2019, 39 take the perspective of family members discussing a loved one who played, 18 quote footballers without dementia and nine involve experts such as researchers. Three of the 200 instances quote former footballers diagnosed with dementia but two of those are family\/friends\u2019 recollections of what they said in the past, while the other is former professional footballer, Calderwood:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<p class=\"has-nv-light-bg-background-color has-background wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Example 11<\/strong><br><br>He sought no sympathy for his condition, merely the opportunity to raise awareness of its wider impact and encourage other sufferers to come forward. Asked if the competitor in him had made it difficult to speak out, Calderwood replied: &#8220;Yes, you try and hide it. But the message to others is not to be afraid to come forward and talk about it.\u201d [\u2026] One of Scottish <strong>football&#8217;s<\/strong> bubbliest characters, he remains philosophical about the disease. &#8220;Strangely, it hasn&#8217;t been too bad,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I&#8217;ve just got on with things.\u201d (The Times, 2017)<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This example is unusual for directly quoting a former footballer <em>after<\/em> his dementia diagnosis, attributing to Calderwood the agency to speak about his experiences and advocate for change. Notably, here, Calderwood presents life with dementia as not \u2018too bad\u2019, complicating the broader victim discourse and contrasting the usual emphasis on suffering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:53px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Final thoughts<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Between 2013 and 2022, UK newspapers become increasingly certain in their reporting of a link between football and dementia risk from TBI. While the positive health benefits of sport are sometimes considered, football is primarily represented in relation to increased dementia risk. Drawing on a conflict metaphor, the newspapers consistently align with footballers and their families (and researchers, other media and charities) working against a shared opponent: either dementia or football authorities. Newspaper-led campaigns explicitly aim to pressure football organisations to fund research and implement changes to mitigate dementia risk and support people affected. These football-oriented campaigns offer an excellent example of the advocacy role that the news media can take on to promote public understanding of an issue and encourage institutions (here, football authorities) to take action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, while the newspaper campaigns and coverage in many ways promote greater awareness and support, at times the language used to support the cause risks presenting an overly fear-inducing and reductive view of dementia, alongside reducing people diagnosed to being devoid of self, or \u2018blank\u2019. Former footballers with dementia are seldom heard in these examples, which reflects a broader pattern of exclusion of the voices of people with dementia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This topic is of course far more complex than any one blog post can address! We hope that this post can spark some reflection and discussion about the link between football, traumatic brain injury and dementia, and about how the news can play an important role in shaping societal understanding and action on a range of issues. This is a dynamic topic and we are interested to see how this issue continues moving forward\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/files\/2025\/03\/Football-image-3-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Two women footballers play in a match.\" class=\"wp-image-446\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/files\/2025\/03\/Football-image-3-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/files\/2025\/03\/Football-image-3-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/files\/2025\/03\/Football-image-3-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/files\/2025\/03\/Football-image-3-930x620.jpg 930w, https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/files\/2025\/03\/Football-image-3.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:53px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>References<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Fontana, A., and Smith, R. W. (1989). Alzheimer\u2019s disease victims: The \u201cunbecoming\u201d of self and the normalization of competence, <em>Sociological Perspectives, 32<\/em>(1), 35\u201346.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Livingston, G., Huntley, J., Liu, K. Y., Costafreda, S. G., Selb\u00e6k, G., Alladi, S., &#8230; &amp; Mukadam, N. (2024) Dementia prevention, intervention, and care: 2024 report of the Lancet standing Commission. <em>The Lancet, 404<\/em>(10452), 572-628.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Putland, E., &amp; Brookes, G. (2024). Dementia stigma: representation and language use. <em>Journal of Language and Aging Research, 2<\/em>(1), 5-46. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:59px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-nv-dark-bg-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color wp-elements-e36a7da62ba9e2e248f2039f1d89b617 wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"background-color:#f9eefd\"><strong>Note:<\/strong> <br><br>This blog post is based on the following chapter, which offers an extended discussion of the topic:<br><br>Putland, E., Slocombe, F., Thompson-Radford, H. and Brookes, G. (Accepted\/In press) \u2018\u201dFootball killed him and football didn\u2019t want to know\u201d: A corpus-assisted examination of UK newspapers\u2019 reporting on association football-related traumatic brain injury and dementia\u2019. In C.R. Matthews, A.M. Black, J. Hardwicke, D. Malcom and A.J. Pearce (eds.)\u00a0<em>The Routledge Handbook of Sport, Concussion and Brain Injuries<\/em>. Routledge.<br><br>You can read the author copy here: <a href=\"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/files\/2026\/01\/Putland-et-al-2025-Football-killed-him-Author-Copy.pdf\">https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/files\/2026\/01\/Putland-et-al-2025-Football-killed-him-Author-Copy.pdf<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:59px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">About the authors:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns has-background is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-8f761849 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\" style=\"background-color:#f9eefd\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:100%\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-8f761849 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text is-stacked-on-mobile\" style=\"grid-template-columns:20% auto\"><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"812\" height=\"1024\" src=\"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/files\/2022\/05\/IMG_20220104_112536312_BURST001_3-812x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Emma Putland\" class=\"wp-image-83 size-full\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/files\/2022\/05\/IMG_20220104_112536312_BURST001_3-812x1024.jpg 812w, https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/files\/2022\/05\/IMG_20220104_112536312_BURST001_3-238x300.jpg 238w, https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/files\/2022\/05\/IMG_20220104_112536312_BURST001_3-768x969.jpg 768w, https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/files\/2022\/05\/IMG_20220104_112536312_BURST001_3-1218x1536.jpg 1218w, https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/files\/2022\/05\/IMG_20220104_112536312_BURST001_3-1624x2048.jpg 1624w, https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/files\/2022\/05\/IMG_20220104_112536312_BURST001_3-scaled.jpg 2030w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 812px) 100vw, 812px\" \/><\/figure><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Dr Emma Putland <\/strong>is a Senior Research Associate on the UKRI-funded \u2018Public Discourses of Dementia\u2019 project in the Department of Linguistics and English Language at Lancaster University (UK). Her research focuses on health and communication, particularly regarding ageing and dementia, alongside discourses concerning the environment and related crises.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text has-media-on-the-right is-stacked-on-mobile\" style=\"grid-template-columns:auto 20%\"><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Dr Felicity Slocombe<\/strong>\u202fis a Lecturer in Dementia Studies at the University of Bradford\u2019s Centre for Applied Dementia Studies (UK). Felicity is interested in exploring communication with and to people living with a dementia including how media discourses around dementia are experienced and perceived by different people.<\/p>\n<\/div><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" src=\"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/files\/2023\/02\/Felicity-Slocombe-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Felicity Slocombe smiles at the camera.\" class=\"wp-image-260 size-full\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/files\/2023\/02\/Felicity-Slocombe-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/files\/2023\/02\/Felicity-Slocombe-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/files\/2023\/02\/Felicity-Slocombe-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/files\/2023\/02\/Felicity-Slocombe-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/files\/2023\/02\/Felicity-Slocombe-scaled.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text is-stacked-on-mobile\" style=\"grid-template-columns:28% auto\"><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"946\" src=\"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/files\/2025\/03\/Hannah-1024x946.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-449 size-full\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/files\/2025\/03\/Hannah-1024x946.png 1024w, https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/files\/2025\/03\/Hannah-300x277.png 300w, https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/files\/2025\/03\/Hannah-768x710.png 768w, https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/files\/2025\/03\/Hannah.png 1224w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Dr<\/strong> <strong>Hannah Thompson-Radford&nbsp;<\/strong>is a Senior Lecturer in Sport Communication and Journalism at Swansea University (Wales). Her research focuses on the intersections of sport sociology, sport media, and sport communication, with a particular emphasis on gendered perspectives in both representation and lived experiences.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text has-media-on-the-right is-stacked-on-mobile\" style=\"grid-template-columns:auto 20%\"><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br><strong>Dr<\/strong> <strong>Gavin Brookes<\/strong> is Reader in Linguistics and <a>UKRI<\/a> Future Leader Fellow in the Department of Linguistics and English Language at Lancaster University (UK). He specialises in corpus linguistic, critical, and multimodal approaches to discourse analysis, with a particular focus on language used about health and illness and in health(care) contexts.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"275\" height=\"345\" src=\"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/files\/2022\/05\/Gavin-picture.jpg\" alt=\"Dr Gavin Brookes\" class=\"wp-image-81 size-full\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/files\/2022\/05\/Gavin-picture.jpg 275w, https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/files\/2022\/05\/Gavin-picture-239x300.jpg 239w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 275px) 100vw, 275px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In this blog, Emma Putland, Felicity Slocombe, Hannah Thompson-Radford and Gavin Brookes ask: how are football, traumatic brain injury and dementia represented in the British Press and how might this contribute to wider discussions surrounding dementia risk and support?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1550,"featured_media":447,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,39],"tags":[13,28,18,27,42],"class_list":["post-440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guest-blog","category-project-blog","tag-communication","tag-discourses","tag-media","tag-social-narratives","tag-sport"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/files\/2025\/03\/Football-blog-image-1-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1550"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=440"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":586,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440\/revisions\/586"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}