The latest CTE study made big headlines when it was released this past week.

And for many of those in the medical and football communities, the headlines are a problem.

The study, conducted by Dr. Ann McKee of Boston University and published on Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, proclaimed that 110 of the 111 brains of deceased NFL players that it studied were found to have the degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

The findings were trumpeted in the Globe and several national media outlets, replete with startling pictures of brain fragments of the deceased players.

The implication of the study was obvious — football causes brain injuries, and brain injuries lead to CTE, which leads to a host of mental problems. Ravens offensive lineman John Urschel, a PhD candidate at MIT, retired from football last week following the report’s release.

While few debate the dangers of football as it relates to head injuries, some in the medical community take issue with the report’s alarmist tone. McKee’s study certainly shows that CTE is an issue that demands more research, but it did little to advance the overall knowledge surrounding CTE.

“Concussion research is still in its infancy,’’ wrote former Chargers team doctor David Chao last week, in a piece entitled, “Plea for timely truth about football’s link to brain disease.’’ “One day we hope to have precise classifications for the types of head injury. For example, the outcome of a ‘Grade 2B occipital lobe concussion’ or a ‘Grade 3C temporal lobe concussion’ might have different treatment and prognosis. It is hard to find a cure when you don’t know the exact disease. The truth is our knowledge of head injury today is like that of knee injuries in the pre-MRI and arthroscopy era. Everything was a knee sprain and we didn’t differentiate between ACL, PCL, MCL, LCL, or medial versus lateral meniscus tears.’’

The BU study was a “convenience sample’’ of 202 brains donated by families of former football players who demonstrated cognitive issues in life. Since there is still no way of diagnosing CTE in living people, no meaningful testing has occurred to determine the true causes of CTE and the role of football and other sports.

We don’t know whether CTE is hereditary or caused by outside factors such as alcoholism or chemical dependence. And we don’t know why some people afflicted with CTE die young and others make it to old age.

“That first step is not solved yet — whether there’s a definitive link to concussions,’’ Dr. Lili-Naz Hazrati, a Toronto neuropathologist, told the Toronto Sun last week. “So how can you even think about who’s the most susceptible? Who’s not? What age is the worst? Just looking at these brains [posthumously], you cannot say any of that. It’s just impossible at this point.’’

McKee, the chief of neuropathology at the VA Boston Healthcare System and director of the CTE Center at Boston University, acknowledged the limitations of her study.

“There’s a tremendous selection bias,’’ she told the New York Times, noting that many brains were donated specifically because the former player showed troubling symptoms.

But that point was seemingly glossed over last week. The “99 percent’’ and “110 out of 111’’ are what got people’s attention.

The same JAMA medical journal published a study on July 3 stating that men who played high school football in Wisconsin in 1957 were at no increased risk of later-life cognitive impairment or depression.

That study barely registered with the media, as attacking football seems to be far more fashionable than defending it.

The NFL has gotten a lot of criticism about denying the link between concussions and CTE, and much of it is deserved. Late last week, ESPN reported that the NFL is walking away from a partnership with the National Institutes of Health to study concussions, after giving less than half of a $30 million gift that it announced back in 2012. NIH officials criticized the NFL for being too heavy-handed in directing where the money went and refusing to allow BU researcher Dr. Robert Stern to lead one of the studies.

But the motivations of some of the top concussion researchers are also questionable, as they fight each other for funding, access to brains, and publicity.

“Competing scientists should not be fighting to sign up brains for when someone passes,’’ Chao wrote. “We should be studying these people while they are alive and trying to offer help and support.’’

The NFL needs to continue to do more to support concussion and CTE research and remain vigilant in protecting its players. But researchers also need to be a little more honest with the public about the context of their findings and how little we still know about brain injuries.

Patriots special teams captain Matthew Slater may have summed it up the best last week as he began his 10th training camp.

“As a player, you’re definitely thankful that they’re starting to look into that, do the necessary research, and hopefully get us to a better place when it comes to that,’’ he said of the CTE study. “Being married to a pathologist, I know that there is a lot I don’t know and there is a lot that we still have yet to learn.’’

LOCAL NEWS

Patriots-related items of note

■ Interesting to see receiver Chris Hogan change agents last week. He left Art Weiss, the New Jersey-based agent who signed Hogan out of Monmouth College in 2011, and signed with Erik Burkhardt and Andy Ross of Select Sports Group, who also represent Danny Amendola.

Hogan is entering the second year of a three-year, $12 million contract. He has $2.5 million in guaranteed base salary and $500,000 in per-game roster bonuses this year, and $3 million in non-guaranteed base salary and the same roster bonuses in 2018. With Brandin Cooks, Julian Edelman, and Malcolm Mitchell signed for 2018, Hogan may be preparing for a contract renegotiation or free agency next year.

■ We finally tracked down the incentives for Edelman and Patrick Chung in their contracts signed this offseason.

Edelman signed a three-year deal worth a maximum of $19 million, and included in all three years is the same incentive he had on his last contract: a $500,000 bonus for achieving any of the following — 1,057 receiving yards; 70 catches and seven touchdowns; 80 catches and 13 wins; or 80 catches and a Super Bowl appearance.

But in 2019, Edelman can achieve this $500,000 plus an additional $3 million — $500,000 each for 60 catches, 70 catches, 80 catches, 90 catches, 100 catches, and a Pro Bowl original ballot.

And Chung, who already was under contract this year for a maximum of $2.9 million, was given $1.7 million in incentives. That entails $200,000 for playing 65 percent of the Patriots’ defensive snaps, $400,000 for 75 percent, $500,000 for 85 percent, $300,000 for 80 percent and a Super Bowl appearance, and $300,000 for 80 percent and 13 regular-season wins.

■ Bill Belichick does not seem to be a fan of the practice limitations governed by the 2011 collective bargaining agreement, which bans teams from wearing pads or having any contact for all spring practices and the first two training camp practices.

“We’re not in pads. We’re not tackling guys. We’re not jamming the receivers. We’re not blocking each other in the running game, or very infrequently. We’re not defeating run blocks,’’ he said Friday. “We’re not doing any of those things, so we don’t evaluate them.’’

Saturday’s practice was the first time since Super Bowl LI that the Patriots’ offensive and defensive linemen could hit each other. Here’s how Belichick evaluated them up until that point:

“I think you can evaluate what you’re teaching them to do. Do they understand the plays? Do they understand their assignments? Are they using the proper technique in their assignment? So yeah, in terms of evaluation it’s definitely limited. What we do want is so that the players understand their assignments, their techniques, adjustments that they’re going to have to make so when we can evaluate it, they already know what to do and there’s not a lot of ‘Do I do this? Do I do that’ hesitation, which then nobody looks good doing that, and it’s hard to evaluate a player when he’s not confident or sure of what he’s doing.’’

ETC.

Some tales from summer camp

■ The most important stories of the preseason revolve around injuries, as they can change a season quickly. The Ravens already lost running back Kenneth Dixon for the year to knee surgery, and the Broncos will be without running back Devontae Booker for 6-8 weeks with a wrist injury, signing ex-Patriot Stevan Ridley to fill his spot.

Andrew Luck hasn’t practiced coming off shoulder surgery, Cam Newton is limited in practice following his own shoulder surgery, and Joe Flacco is out a week or so with a bad back. Bears linebacker Pernell McPhee will miss time following a knee scope, and Broncos linebacker Shane Ray will be out 6-8 weeks with a wrist injury.

■ Contract squabbles are the other top story line of camp. Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell made good on his threat to hold out and still hasn’t signed his franchise tag tender, meaning the Steelers can’t fine him $40,000 per day. Raiders left tackle Donald Penn, set to make between $5.8 million and $7.15 million, didn’t report to camp as he enters the final year of his contract. And Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald, the NFL’s best defender not named J.J. Watt, is holding out in hopes of a new deal. The Rams have him under contract for $1.8 million this year and $6.89 million next year under the fifth-year option.

■ Meanwhile, the Steelers took care of left tackle Alejandro Villaneuva, who threatened a holdout if the team didn’t improve his scheduled $615,000 salary this year. He received a reported four-year deal worth $24 million, even though the Steelers held all the leverage for this year.

And Giants owner John Mara said the team is willing to begin talks on an extension with Odell Beckham, though negotiations haven’t begun in earnest with Beckham under contract for two more years and about $10.3 million. Beckham said last week he wants to become the highest-paid player in the league, which is an interesting request after he selfishly partied in Miami the week before a playoff game then played horribly in a blowout loss to the Packers.

Panthers committing a turnover

The Carolina Panthers had an interesting offseason, to say the least. Since finishing a disappointing 6-10 season, the Panthers have said goodbye to four top executives.

Team president Danny Morrison left in February. Assistant GM Brandon Beane, who had spent his entire 19-year NFL career with the Panthers and was groomed to eventually run the front office, was allowed to take the GM job in Buffalo.

That decision became even more curious when the Panthers surprisingly fired GM Dave Gettleman last week, forcing the team to hire former GM Marty Hurney on an interim basis to get through the 2017 season.

And one of Hurney’s first decisions last week was to fire longtime pro personnel director Mark Koncz, who had been with the team since its inception.

That’s a ton of turnover for a team that had reached the playoffs three straight years before last year’s setback, and had a 15-1 record and Super Bowl berth in 2015. Fans have to be concerned that owner Jerry Richardson might be acting too impulsively.

Extra points

Philip Rivers is going to be putting in the miles this year. The Chargers quarterback said last week that he, his wife, and eight children will remain in their home just north of San Diego this year, and he will commute daily to the team’s new practice facility in Costa Mesa this regular season. It’s about a 100-mile drive each way, in Southern California’s brutal traffic. “We just thought it was best for me and my family to go this route — that it was at least worth a try this first season, being that it wasn’t too far,’’ Rivers said on The Mighty 1090. “I didn’t want to compromise my preparation/being a teammate. I love being a teammate, so I didn’t want to compromise that because I’m going back and forth. And I wasn’t going to compromise my time spent away from my family. So that’s what we came to, and we’ll find out if we’re right or not.’’ . . . Take the time to read an interesting column from Domonique Foxworth, the former seven year NFL cornerback and NFL Players Association president. Foxworth writes that professional sports unions may actually be hurting the players’ ability to make the wages they deserve, and he urges the unions to “permanently decertify and operate as trade associations instead.’’ One of his main points is that the existence of unions allow the leagues to operate under rules that violate antitrust laws, and decertifying permanently could knock the owners down a peg at the negotiating table. The NFLPA decertified in the 2011 lockout, but did so only at the last minute in March, and it was not viewed as a credible maneuver . . . Two names we never expected to see in coaching began coaching internsh1ips last week. Plaxico Burress is learning the ropes in Arizona thanks to a connection with Bruce Arians, his former offensive coordinator in Pittsburgh. And Michael Vick is getting his feet wet with the Chiefs, helping out with Andy Reid, his former coach in Philadelphia . . . Nice job by the Dolphins, who announced last week that they will fund baseline concussion testing for 15,000 Miami-Dade high school athletes that participate in football, soccer, wrestling, basketball, baseball, and cheerleading . . . The Patriots aren’t the only team with a rugby player anymore. The Eagles last week signed Canadian rugby star Adam Zaruba, a 6-foot-5-inch, 265-pounder who projects as a tight end. He tried out for the Eagles on July 24 and can’t come back to the United States until he gets a work visa.

Ben Volin can be reached at ben.volin@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @BenVolin. Material from interviews, wire services, other beat writers, and league and team sources was used in this report.