I think the even bigger problem is how these dudes get surrounded completely by sycophants and are encouraged to let their brain atrophy completely starting in high school, if not earlier. Nobody is allowed to criticise the sportsballmen, they're often not required to actually do any schoolwork, and the entire social structure of the US education system exists to deify them. They just become the most credulous, egotistical idiots on the planet with nobody willing or able to call them out.

The traumatic brain injuries don't help, but athlete brainrot is a more insidious structural problem as well. That's why you see it in lower contact sports as well.