Not sure if you're headed down this path as vehemently as I am, but here is my take.
In the US in 2013, 5300 people in 100,000 between the ages of 65 and 74 were diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. 17000 in 100,000 between the ages of 75 and 84. It's one of the most common diseases of aging. According to the Deadspin article, the PET imaging that is being done to "diagnose" CTE uses the same markers that are being studied to "diagnose" Alzheimer's, but the pattern is different??? They're looking at middle aged former athletes with anger issues and depression who spent a third of their lives hitting their heads against a wall and saying that because the findings on an unvalidated test are more localized, instead of the diffuse findings on this unvalidated test that you would see in an older population with Alzheimer's, that this must be reflective of CTE and not Alheimer's? You can't diagnose Alzheimer's with a PET scan, but now you can diagnose CTE???
I'm not disputing CTE exists. I'm not disputing the value of the work that is being done on it. I AM disputing the significance of how the "facts" of this condition are being reported. And I AM disputing that any person who ever got hit in the head and has an amyloid plaque or some abnormal Tau deposition has CTE. People age... therefore, brains age...and aging results in abnormalities, regardless of whether or not you spent your life in a bubble or hitting your head against a concrete wall. Search the scholarly literature for anything other than descriptive data on CTE and you come up empty. And before 2010, barely any literature existed at all.
Right now, IMO, this is essentially an irresponsible paparazzi driven whirlwind because of who it is affecting and how this story is being told.