Whether it’s 250-pound linebackers tackling someone to the ground, or a wide receiver breaking tackles to gain yards after catch, one thing no one can deny is the injury risk that comes with playing tackle football. And one of the scariest outcomes for dedicating your life to this sport is CTE. But ask Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Michael Wilson about it, and you’ll get an answer most players shy away from – he’s okay with CTE if that means his family can be taken care of.

“I think [for] any football player, that crosses your mind,” Wilson said in an ESPN interview conducted this offseason. “But also, that is so far down the line and … the legacy, the financial gain that you can carve out for yourself to me outweighs the risk of CTE, especially as a wideout.

“How cool would it be to leave a legacy that generations of my family, the Wilson legacy will talk about? And if CTE is a consequence of that, then so be it. But I also could sleep good at night knowing that I was the one person in the Wilson family that ended up changing our financial, socioeconomic class, like you can point it back to me and say, ‘Michael’s the one that did it.’ So for my kids’ kids’ kids, they can always look at me, and if CTE is a consequence of that, then I’m willing to bet on myself that hopefully I won’t get it, but if I do, then I made a decision and I chose that.”

Now, just days before the regular season kickoff, Wilson was handed a 3-year, $75 million deal. That payday already goes a long way to fulfill the goal of changing his family’s financial status. And given the fact that Wilson is already proving to be a valuable offensive piece, that payday is likely to increase if he keeps the momentum up. And the risk of CTE, for Wilson, is a small price to pay for it.

But not everyone operates on that same wavelength. While star players make billions across their NFL careers, there are many who are stuck with league minimum salaries, and still playing football with the same stakes. Although even among the high-paid players, there are many who take CTE very seriously. Minnesota Vikings guard Will Fries, for one, banks heavily on a proper diet and sleep to keep himself healthy.

“A lot of guys want to have families, and that’s a goal of mine,” Fries told ESPN. “Would I trade football for anything? Absolutely not. I love putting in the work and I know the risks of it, and I’m doing everything I can.”

The league isn’t sitting idle either. Through multiple rule changes, safety initiatives, and helmet upgrades, the NFL has continuously tried to ensure player safety. For CTE itself, per the ESPN interview, NFL’s chief medical officer Dr. Allen Sills has outlined the three rules the league follows.

“We have to continue to do the research to try to understand how these pathologic changes might be caused in life symptoms,” Sills noted. “No. 2, we have to make sure that people don’t self-diagnose and that they get properly evaluated, and that we treat symptoms that we know we can treat. And No. 3, we just double down on our efforts to reduce and prevent head contact where we can.”

Going back to Michael Wilson, he hadn’t played a single full season of College Football owing to injuries. Even when he came to the NFL in 2023, he had a shoulder injury and a cervical neck strain which cost him four games in his rookie season, per DraftSharks. While his injury scares have been minimal in recent seasons, as he gets more targets, more defenders will aim to tackle him to the ground, which can’t be good for his long-term health.

Former NFL quarterback Cam Newton, on his 4th & 1 podcast back in August, also addressed the injury risks associated with playing in the NFL. But he, like Wilson, made the case of suiting up knowing the risks because the benefits outweigh everything.

“Every single time I take my kids to private school, you understand, it is because of the game of football,” Newton said. “Every single time I open my refrigerator to some degree, it has something to do with the game of football. Every time I go visit my mother, and I see this beautiful house, I’m looking at my dad’s car, I’m looking at my lifestyle, I can’t just pick out all the negative stuff.”

Unless medical research discovers a way to diagnose and treat CTE before a player passes away, these discussions are likely to continue. We’re just three weeks into the season, and major injuries have already started piling up throughout the league. But this is one of the biggest sports in the world – with paychecks that do that title justice. For stars like Michael Wilson, Cam Newton, and many others, that makes everything worth it.