Jason Kelce says he ‘can virtually guarantee’ that he has CTE

Former Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce has stayed in the news since retiring from football in March. The media darling broke from his typical light-hearted nature when he mentioned that he may have chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disease.

Kelce angered some social media users last week when he theorized that Secretariat, one of the fastest horses of the 20th century, benefitted from steroids. 

Former horse racing journalist Jay Privman suggested that the host of the “New Heights” podcast must be suffering from a brain disease for making the unsubstantiated claim. 

“I mean I can virtually guarantee that I have CTE, all the research would suggest I have some degree of it,” Kelce wrote on X. “I think it is entirely reasonable to assume I have some degree of that pathology.”

CTE typically affects people who suffer repeated head injuries. The disease can only be diagnosed post-mortem, though it is often found in professional football players. 

“Even though there is no test to see if I currently have CTE, the evidence suggests I probably do,” Kelce wrote. “Just like the reality that a lot, if not most of the high-level horses of the 70s and 80s were doping because adequate tests were not available.”