Speech- Cameron Combs

Cameron Combs

Mr. Logsdon

AP English Language and Composition

13 December 2015

Fixing Football

            Football has and always will be one of the most well-known sports in America, though it will also always be known for its physicality and risk of injuries. Even with all of the padding and protective gear that football players wear to protect themselves during games, there are always freak injuries that occur resulting in broken bones or torn ligaments. While these injuries do many times have long term effects on the careers of certain players, they are more often than not injuries that can be recovered completely from and that do not severely change life outside of playing football. This, sadly, is not the same for many injuries that occur to the head and brain. Recently, the NFL has had a major increase in the number of concussions suffered in games by players which has led to studies about the long term effects of football on the mental health of the players. The results of each of these studies have been the same. They have found that the physical aspects of football do indeed take a toll on the long-term health of a player’s brain. When the news of these results became available to the public, many people were shocked and finally realized the severity of the situation. It was from that point on the task of NFL representatives to plead their case and try to make light of the situation, but ignoring this issue is our worst option right now. With the severity of this issue in the NFL, it is clear that more precautionary measures need to be taken to decrease the number of concussions and other head injuries the players in games.

            Maintaining the safety of all players should be the primary goal of all sports organizations, but it clearly is not in the NFL. They have allowed this concussion issue to be drawn out for years now and have made minimal efforts to cut down the issue. Many people, I am sure, still do not understand severity of the situation. No one did, as a matter of fact, until these studies began to emerge. One groups of scientists examined the brains of 91 former NFL players, and of those 91, 87 of them shows signs of CTE which is a disease of the brain that stems from repetitive brain injury. That is roughly 96 percent of them. Along with these 87 players showing signs of brain damage comes thousands of others who are now infuriated by the results of these studies. Harry Carson, in a series of interviews compiled by ESPN, stated that as more of the former players begin to realize the situation at hand, they will become angered, ban together, and law suits will arise. This rage is not only because they realize now that their mental health had been put at risk throughout their entire career, but also because they felt as though this information had been hidden from them by many highly ranking members of the NFL organization.

            Many people have made claims that many NFL officials have been aware of the severity of this issue and have just covered it up until now, but this is now an issue that could not only hurt the players, but all branches of the NFL as well. How could this damage the NFL officials? Because this has and will continue to cost them money for as long as the problem persists. Prior to the 2013 NFL season, the NFL was sued for $765 million by former NFL players. An article written by Jason Breslow explains that more than 4500 of the retired players at the time sued the NFL for concealing their knowledge of the possible risks in playing football, and even though they denied this wrongdoing, the NFL lawyers still agreed to the $765 million settlement. The documentary, League of Denial, breaks down this case and explains how this settlement then led to the some improvements in safety including making certain dangerous actions illegal, but it is only a matter of time before another case similar to this one will arise.

            Some people, such as Igor Mello in his article “NFL Will Never Solve Its Concussion Problem,” claim that there is nothing that the NFL can do to bring this issue to an end and that they should just accept it for what it is. They may be right in saying that concussions will always be a part of professional football, but that is how all injuries are. No matter how many safety precautions are taken, injuries will always be a part of the game. This is no reason not to try to prevent them as much as possible. The safety improvements made following the 2012 settlement showed a breathtaking level of success. The number of concussions in regular season games decreased by 35 percent since these improvements were made. This goes to show how making a few minor adjustments here and there can provide incredible results. It also shows that as much as we may think that this is an imperishable problem, we can always take steps towards resolving it.

            So why is it that we are not making any changes? The problem at hand obviously needs to be addressed, and yet we wait and hope for the best that the problem will go away on its own. Well the reality of the situation is that it won’t.  The mental health of the players and the financial situation of the NFL are both going to remain at risk until adjustments are made. So why are we waiting? Now is the time that we need to recognize that this problem needs to be worked with and find a way to cut down on the number of concussions and other injuries to the head in the NFL. Just think of how much just a minor adjustment to the rules or the equipment could improve the mental health of the players and how much safer the NFL will be from future lawsuits over this issue. The time to make these minor adjustments and greatly improve the game of football is now.

                                                                      Works Cited

Breslow, Jason M. "The NFL’s Concussion Problem Still Has Not Gone Away." PBS. PBS, 19           Sept. 2014. Web. 23 June 2015.

League of Denial: The NFL’s Concussion Crisis. Dir. Mark Farinaru-Wada. PBS, 2013. Film.

Schaap, Jeremy. “Former NFL Players Suing the League over Concussions.” Interview with      Former NFL Players by Bob Ley. ESPN, 2012. Print.
Mello, Igor. "NFL Will Never Solve Its Concussion Problem | SportsGrid." SportsGrid. N.p., 30         Sept. 2014. Web. 23 June 2015.