All the hand-wringing over CTE and its link to football needs to SLOW THE HELL DOWN ... so says Merril Hoge -- who tells TMZ Sports he's getting support from NFL stars like Ben Roethlisberger.
Merril -- an ex-Steelers RB and former ESPN analyst -- makes the argument in his new book, "Brainwashed: The Bad Science Behind CTE and the Plot to Destroy Football," that football does NOT necessarily lead to CTE, as some reports have strongly suggested.
In fact ... Merril tells us it was those articles that made him want to write the book in the first place.