Research into whether drugs like ayahuasca can mitigate the effects of traumatic brain injury is in its infancy. Pro athletes like the Buffalo Bills' Jordan Poyer are forging ahead anyway. Roam the wide-open halls and cavernous showrooms of the Colorado Convention Center during Psychedelic Science, the world's largest psychedelics conference, and you'll see exhibitors hawking everything from mushroom jewelry, to chewable gummies containing extracts of the psychoactive succulent plant kanna, to broad flat-brim baseball caps emblazoned with "MDMA" and "IBOGA." Booths publicize organizations such as the Ketamine Taskforce and the Psychedelic Parenthood Community, and even, a live-action feature film looking to attract investors. It's a motley, multifarious symposium where indigenous-plant-medicine healers mingle with lanyard-clad pharma-bros, legendary underground LSD chemists, and workaday stoners tottering around in massive red and white toadstool hats that make them look like that cute little mushroom guy from . And yet, oddest among such oddities may be the sight of enormously burly NFL tough guys talking candidly about their feelings.

Though 26 is a remarkably young age at which to retire in traditional sports, in esports it's the norm. In Activision's Call of Duty League, the average competitor is around 22 years old, according to league data. In Blizzard Entertainment's Overwatch League, the average player is about 20 years old. In both leagues, players retire extremely young compared to traditional sports. While only six players have retired from the Call of Duty League since it was launched in 2020, the median age is 26.

A record number of NFL players tested positive for COVID-19 last week, leading to postponed games. LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – Football fans got double the action Monday night and will again Tuesday night. That's because the NFL rearranged its Week 15 schedule as COVID-19 cases surge among the players, 100 of whom tested positive over three days last week. For the second year in a row, professional sports teams aren't just worried about their opponent -- they're worried about whether there are enough players to play the game. "Just like anywhere else, you have to think about can you operate your business if everybody is sick?" said Brian Labus, infectious disease epidemiologist and assistant professor at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas.

The NFL and lawyers for thousands of retired NFL players have reached an agreement to end race-based adjustments in dementia testing in the $1 billion settlement of concussion claims, according to a proposed deal filed Wednesday in federal court. The revised testing plan follows public outrage over the use of "race-norming," a practice that came to light only after two former NFL players filed a civil rights lawsuit over it last year. The adjustments, critics say, may have prevented hundreds of Black players suffering from dementia to win awards that average $500,000 or more. The Black retirees will now have the chance to have their tests rescored or, in some cases, seek a new round of cognitive testing, according to the settlement, details of which were first reported in The New York Times on Wednesday. "We look forward to the court's prompt approval of the agreement, which provides for a race-neutral evaluation process that will ensure diagnostic accuracy and fairness in the concussion settlement," NFL lawyer Brad Karp said in a statement. The proposal, which must still be approved by a judge, follows months of closed-door negotiations between the NFL, class counsel for the retired players, and lawyers for the Black players who filed suit, Najeh Davenport and Kevin Henry.

The Rams aren't the only Los Angeles team Stan Kroenke owns; he's also got the L.A. Gladiators, an eSports team in the Overwatch League. Other NFL owners are heavily invested, too, among them Jerry Jones of the Cowboys and Robert Kraft of the New England Patriots. JuJu Smith-Schuster, a former USC standout who is a Pro Bowl receiver for the Pittsburgh Steelers, has said he might play video games professionally once his football career is done.

While football fans and labor experts ponder whether Colin Kaepernick found a smoking gun to bolster his collusion case against the National Football League, the still-unemployed quarterback is pointing to a central figure in the case: President Trump. Trump, according to the text of Kaepernick's grievance complaint, "has been an organizing force" in the joint decision by the league's 32 owners to deny the quarterback even a tryout. "Owners have described the Trump administration as causing paradigm shifts in their views toward NFL players." The complaint was originally made public by ABC News. Kaepernick may have a point, since Trump injected himself personally into the case and openly denigrated NFL players who supported Kaepernick.

In a week where North Korea insisted that America had declared war and Puerto Rico suffered one of the worst natural disasters in its history, headlines were nonetheless dominated by a war of words between Donald Trump and the National Football League. Speaking in Alabama, the President declared that he would like to see NFL owners whose players knelt during the national anthem to "get that son of a b*tch off the field right now. Trump's comments insisting that players be compelled to stand during the national anthem put a spotlight a handful of NFL players who continued the protest initiated last year by former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick. In response to Trump's comments, every NFL team – and nearly every owner – offered some version of protest in Week 3. The controversy around the NFL protests and Trump's comments raised many questions about the nature of peaceful protest, what the national anthem represents and, what rights are protected by the First Amendment. These are thorny, complicated questions, and researchers at Unanimous AI sought to untangle them by forming a swarm of thirty American voters inside our Swarm AI platform.