The league has such a large platform to reach millions of people and let them know of the dangers of concussions in sports. The number of information on the diagnosis and prevention of brain injuries, athletes of a multitude of sports are put at a higher risk of suffering from concussions and the effects of concussions.
A concussion is classified as a traumatic brain injury and is caused by a violent shock to the head shaking the brain inside the skull. Some things that concussions and head trauma can lead to are CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) and Alzheimer’s. According to biography.com, in the year 2002 doctor Bennet Omalu discovered the first case of CTE in a deceased football player named Mike Webster. The reason CTE is so dangerous is that “evidence of the disease can be found only in postmortem brain examinations”(NFL Head Injuries). This brain disease is extremely common in the NFL today and doesn’t seem to be ending soon. The fact that the NFL has known about this for 17 years and little progress has been made is proof enough of the league’s negligence of its players.
Another case that shows the life ruining effects of CTE comes in the form of Dave Duerson. He was a Chicago Bears linebacker who, in 2011 “committed suicide. At his request the Boston University Center conducted a study that showed he suffered from the brain disease CTE, associated with repeated concussions”(NFL Football). There is an obvious link between both CTE and suicide. The brain disease causes debilitating headaches and depression which the NFL does not explicitly warn players about. After the discovery in 2002 by Dr. Omalu the NFL did not take the steps to properly educate and support its players, especially Mr. Duerson. For the fans and especially the children watching their favorite players go through a disease like this, it normalizes the symptoms and results of concussions. Because of the fact that the NFL tries sweep these cases under the rug as fast as possible, we as fans forget and become desensitized to the issue. This becomes most problematic when looking at high school football, college football, and even other sports that are deemed “non-contact” and supposedly safer.
When looking at the large number of concussions in sports like women’s soccer you start to wonder, is this the fault of the NFL? Obviously accusing the NFL of causing concussions in women’s soccer is ridiculous. What the NFL is responsible for is the education of the players and coaches in diagnosing and spotting concussions. On Aug. 20, 2012, M.U. was playing in a preseason high school soccer scrimmage.
“During the game, she jumped to head the ball and collided with another player, causing a blow to her head. One of her teammates told her coach that she had been hit in the head, but the coach did not pull her from the game. M.U. played the remainder of the game, experienced other collisions, and headed the ball in other plays. She developed a headache on the bus ride after the game. Two days later, her mother took her to the hospital where doctors confirmed a brain injury. M.U. continued to have anxiety, difficulty concentrating, memory loss, and head aches. She missed more than 80 days of school that academic year due to her symptoms”(Underwood).
The NFL has such a large platform to teach these coaches and players the signs of concussions but chooses not to in order to protect themselves. This girl was given a major setback in life which could have been prevented if the coaches and players knew the devastating effects of concussions. In The Happy Prince for example, the prince becomes reliant on the swallow because he is blind and cannot see, this mirrors the way that our nations children are reliant on parents and coaches because the children themselves are essentially blind when it comes to the health and safety risks of playing organized sports. The fact that the children are blind to this and the coaches and parents are as well, due to the lack of care from the NFL, shows how dangerous the biblical quote “the blind leading the blind”(Matthew 15:14) can be in modern society. Something the NFL can affect more directly than soccer, is the game of football at the high school level.
Most high school football players are fans of or watch the NFL on a regular basis which exposes and normalizes to them the deadly concussive blows the professional athletes take every week. These violent hits are a part of the game and to some people what they enjoy most about the game itself. This is all well and good but to a high school kid who sees his favorite player take huge hits and just get back up again it’s problematic. Getting hit hard and getting back up is a sign of toughness but “high school players can experience over 1000 head impacts per season, many of which are sub-concussive and are undetected or unreported by the athletes, medical staff, parents, and coaches”(Asplund). These numbers are easily attainable by the NFL, yet not really acted upon, and show how dangerous football really is.
Recently the league has been putting out more information on concussions and starting more programs to help such as the NFL play smart, play safe initiative. This is still a very tiny, not well advertised piece of key information. The website is not set up very well and is basically just a screenshot of the information given on the CDC website about concussions. The information is very accurate and important but is not talked about therefore the page is not known in mainstream media.
There are basically 4 levels of football, starting with youth, then high school, college, and the pros, high school is one of the levels with the most participation. A key piece of data against the NFL is that “46% of all concussions happen during high school football”(Underwood) and all they have done to help is build a lackluster website. Seeing a pro player not come out of the game after a huge hit makes a high school player want to do the same, but he can’t because as high school students our brains are still developing and need to grow without shock or trauma. These concussions have caused many high school kids to suffer in ways that could have been avoided, such as “memory problems, depression, poor impulse control, anger, apathy, and impaired motor behaviors”(Asplund). The reason kids still play the game is because there is a love for it, as players concussion related symptoms (headaches, memory loss, inability to focus) are just thought of as a price to pay for the game we love. What players are missing is that voice telling them that the price is much more serious than just a headache, “The recovery rate for an injured 16-year-old is as much as 100% longer than that for a 20-year-old college football player who has sustained a similar concussion”(Age Related Responses to Injury). These are the stats that should be shown to be shown to all players, and these kids need to be taught the risks, yet they are neglected by the league time and time again.
Something that is increasingly dangerous to kids practice. As most football players can attest to, playing with the same people every day for months you start to pick up on their strengths and weaknesses and how to exploit those. Wanting to practice at full speed makes you play harder to impress coaches, but also increases risk. While in game concussions are most publicized and talked about, “33% of concussions happen during practice”(Underwood). This number refers to high school football and the dangers of practice. The danger here is not only the hits themselves but the reporting of kids. It is embarrassing and looked down on to report concussions to coaches or other teammates. This is a stigma that is real and should be addressed by the NFL. Being encouraged to report personal or teammates with obvious concussion symptoms should be something advertised by the NFL to players and coaches.
After High School the speed of play is much different resulting in harder hits. In College football playing basically becomes your job and your talent determines your pay, the better you are the more likely you’ll go to the NFL. This race for the NFL along with advances in modern science has sparked a new breed of football players. Linemen for example are getting bigger than ever in “1936 the average offensive lineman was 212 pounds compared the average of 317 pounds in the year 2013”(Bresler). The size of these players isn’t the only thing increasing, the players strength, speed, and agility all improve every year making the NFL more fun to watch, but more dangerous to play. The reason this is such a major factor is that the NFL isn’t taking the time to protect the players from the increasing speed. Since the league has made only minimal rule changes compared to the huge leap that the players talents and abilities have made, it puts safety far down the list of priorities. This fight to be the best starts in college which leads to competition getting more and more fierce. These college players aren’t allowed to be paid and most wont make it to the NFL which means they are playing because of their love for the game. The reason and the love for football shown by college athletes can be summed up in the words of The Happy Prince “surely Love is a wonderful thing. It is more precious than emeralds, and dearer than fine opals. Pearls and pomegranates cannot buy it, nor is it set forth in the marketplace. It may not be purchased of the merchants, for can it be weighed out in the balance for gold”(Wilde). That love the Prince found is the same as college athletes found for the sport. This love however is exploited by the NFL because they know people want to play in their league so they’re focused on profits. Something the NFL has done in the past is just flat out deny concussions and the link between playing football and traumatic brain injuries.
To an average player in the NFL money isn’t everything. They love the game and would do anything to protect it, even knowing the health and safety risks. The Prince in Oscar Wilde’s The Happy Prince is the perfect analogy for this. He has already given so much of himself but he says once more “Alas! I have no ruby now,” said the Prince; “my eyes are all that I have left. They are made of rare sapphires, which were brought out of India a thousand years ago. Pluck out one of them and take it to him. He will sell it to the jeweler, and buy food and firewood, and finish his play”(Wilde). Right here the Prince is giving everything of himself for those he doesn’t even know, in this case it is a random man walking down the road. When we look at an NFL player he works hard and gives everything including his future, health, well being, and much much more for us, the fans. Even though the prince is on his way to becoming blind the swallow is standing by him the whole time.
Just recently the NFL has put the wheels in motion on taking slight responsibility for the issue of concussions. In the past however concussions were denied by the league “For 15 years, the National Football League (NFL) denied any link between football and brain injury or chronic traumatic encephalopathy”(Asplund). “critics have charged that a proposed NFL-sponsored study examining the link between football and dementia is fundamentally flawed because of an inherent conflict of interest”(Bartholet).
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