Families of former British footballers agreed to create a "bank" of donated brains "to deliver new and potentially conclusive medical evidence into the link between football and dementia," according to Jeremy Wilson of the London TELEGRAPH. The NFL acknowledged how American football caused chronic traumatic encephalopathy "only" after the disease was "repeatedly diagnosed following hundreds of autopsies" by the Boston University "Brain Bank," and a "comparable body of research" could now take place in the U.K. The distinct tau proteins that are the "hallmark" of CTE -- "a devastating strain of dementia that is caused by repeated blows to the head" -- can only be identified post-mortem, and football's first case was discovered by Scottish neuropathologist Dr. Willie Stewart in former England striker Jeff Astle. Parts of Astle's brain were shown on Sunday on a BBC documentary titled "Alan Shearer, Dementia, Football and Me" -- and a group of families have reportedly "offered to release the brains of other former footballers when they die." They include Ernie Moss, League Two side Chesterfield's all-time record goalscorer, whose daughter Nikki Trueman said, "As a family we would like to donate his brain because it is only going to help others. It's a heart-breaking, horrendous and harrowing thing to have to do but I do think that's what we'll find." The Jeff Astle Foundation has been contacted by the families of "more than 300 suffering former players, including a growing number who are ready to donate the brain of a loved one" (TELEGRAPH, 11/11).