Sports Editor Column
There are currently 173 million practicing Christian adults in the United States of America. 173 million people file into church on Sunday and worship in some way. While these people are in church, a vast swath of America is on the couch, ready to worship their own modern-day deities. For these people, the living room is church, and the NFL is a religion. According to Nielsen and the NFL in 2014 there were 200 million unique viewers of the NFL in America. This number is a bit dubious considering there are 318 million people that live in the United States, but even if it is outlandishly overstated, there is no denying that football has a stranglehold on the attention of many American sports fans.
However, as of late there has been a dark cloud collecting over Sunday NFL worship. Traumatic brain injuries and the long-term effects of playing football are beginning to take hold as critical issues for players and league officials. An influential piece in the New York Times, published on Sept. 12, 2014, exposed harsh truths about player health and safety. The crux of the issue for players lies in repeated head injuries and concussions. Repeated concussions lead to a condition known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy. CTE, as it is known, can bring on depression and rage in mild cases and in more advanced cases CTE has caused dementia and memory loss. Of the 79 former NFL players’ brains studied at the National Brain Bank, 76 showed signs of CTE. A series of high-profile suicides by former NFL players has also brought the issue of long-term player safety into the spotlight. Junior Seau and Dave Duerson both committed suicide in the past five years. Duerson drew particular attention because he wrote that he committed suicide in order to preserve his brain for studies on long-term degenerative diseases in football players.
The truth of the matter is grim. Every Sunday, NFL players are taking one more step towards irrevocably damaging their brains. The financial incentives of playing in the NFL are obviously huge. It is difficult to stare millions of dollars in the face and turn it down in the name of long-term health. NFL players know what they are doing to their brains and will continue to play. Money plays a role, but certainly can’t explain the whole story. NFL players could take home $2-3 million in one season and then retire and invest their money and live comfortably on $100-150 thousand per year. NFL players are being driven by a genuine love of the game. It’s a dangerous and destructive type of love.
There are exceptions to the rule however. Most recently, 49ers rookie linebacker Chris Borland retired at the age of 24. Borland told ESPN, “I’ve thought about what I could accomplish in football, but for me personally, when you read about Mike Webster and Dave Duerson and Ray Easterling, you read all these stories and to be the type of player I want to be in football, I think I’d have to take on some risks that as a person I don’t want to take on.” Borland separated himself as a person from his career as an NFL player, a difficult stance to take for a person whose entire life has centered in many ways around reaching the NFL.
NFL players can do as they please and I’m overjoyed that football exists, but it’s worth noting the sports world’s reaction to the scientific evidence behind brain trauma. Even today, when the harsh truth about brain trauma is widely recognized, even by NFL officials, pro football is more popular than ever. As a society, we are willing to overlook the fact that our fandom and support of the NFL is digging an early and tragic grave for many of our favorite players.
The discovery and scientific proof behind CTE has had rippling effects in the football world. For instance, participation in the Pop Warner youth football league dipped 9.5 percent between the years of 2010 and 2012. Numbers in high school football across America have also fell since 2010. Parents and athletes alike are choosing to invest in their future.
The NFL’s solution thus far to the issue of brain trauma has been to pay out money to former players. A lawsuit filed collectively by thousands of former NFL players garnered $675 million. According to NFL actuaries almost 28 percent of current players will be eligible for compensation upon retirement. The compensation of former players is an imperfect solution to what is looking to be a permanent problem for the NFL. As long as the NFL exists players will continue to plummet towards long-term health problems. Compensation in the form of money does nothing to repair the damaged brains of former players.
The solution to the NFL’s current problem will not be a simple one. I applaud every player that chooses to retire early and move on with their life beyond the NFL. However, like so many other Americans I tune in each Sunday to watch the carnage of the NFL. The NFL is more popular than ever in 2015, but it will not stay this way for much longer if current youth football trends continue. Every young athlete that steps onto a baseball field, basketball court, or soccer pitch in lieu of the gridiron is doing their brain a favor. The NFL will continue struggle in the years to come to reconcile the violent athleticism of the sport and the inherent risks for its most valuable commodity: its players.
David Andrews
Latest posts by David Andrews (see all)
- $700 Million and Counting: What You Need to Know About the Endowment – Dec 17, 2016
- Colorado College President Jill Tiefenthaler – Dec 17, 2016
- English Professor Natanya Pulley – Dec 3, 2016