Can Football Ever Be Completely
Safe?
Introduction
Jimmy has always been a big fan of football. He remembers watching it
constantly with his brothers and father whenever time would allow. It was only natural
that when it came to Jimmy being the right age that he would be ready to play
some tackle football for himself. This had been the moment Jimmy dreamed of. He
was actually going to play the sport that he watched for a long time. What
Jimmy didn’t expect was the constant contact that he would experience is
different than just watching the sport itself.
Sports has been part of our lives more than we realize. We
have played multiple kinds of sport games throughout our life or supported
someone who played a specific sport. Most all sports, if not all, require some
kind of physical activity. Some can also include contact with a player with
another. Isn’t it great that we have these great protective gear that protects
us from all contact? Even though some sports require specific equipment to be
worn so it may protect the player doesn’t fully prevent them from getting
injured. The two that seem to be most common is football and hockey. These two
sports have continuous hitting and contact with other players throughout the
entire game. According to Head Case in 2012, the top two sports that have the
highest concussion rate are football and boy’s ice hockey. What is a
concussion? A concussion is, “an injury to the
brain that results in temporary loss of normal brain function. It usually is
caused by a blow to the head.”
Who do we look to with these high concussion rates? How do we make the games we
know and love less risky for our health? Is there a way where each sport can be
completely safe with no risk of injury? Some have pointed that we can make
equipment better and safer for all. Others understand the risk of each sport
they play and need to accept this risk for it makes that specific sport the way
it is. All in all, is there any specific way to make all sports safer for every
player?
Dangers of Football Are a Price
Worth Paying
Athletes in all sports are paid quite a lot. The highest paid football player
in the NFL currently is Drew Brees from the New Orleans Saints. His estimated
yearly endorsement is said to be $11,000,000. To the rest of us who have played
several different sports and not get paid a thing, that is a big number. Drew
Brees isn’t the only player who earns a lot of money while playing his sport.
There are a ton of athletes out there who get paid quite a bit. Do the athletes
know what kind of risk they are taking while going into this sport?
When I was trying out for football at my High School, we had to take a
concussion test. Not only was it to test out whether or not we had experienced
a concussion or not as well as whether we currently had a concussion right
there and then, it also taught us what exactly a concussion is. If we as the
players do not know the dangers of the certain sport we are playing, whether it
be football, hockey, boxing, or any other contact sport, then the sport can be
even more dangerous for us as we don’t know how to prevent ourselves from
getting injured.
Do the football players in the NFL feel the same way? Or do they want to be
safe the entire time while on the field? In a Washington Post, Robert
Nkemdiche, a defensive lineman, was quoted when teaching football camp of his
opinion, “At the end of the
day, the game is a dangerous game. It's a collision. You want to do everything
you can do to protect yourself and be on the line at the same time. You want to
still be aggressive and still be a monster, but there's ways to do it in a
safer manner. It's kind of like a paradox.” This is a battle with the athlete
on whether or not he wants to play in the certain moment that he is in
aggressively and risk getting injured, or to play it safe so that he doesn’t
have to go through the side effects of the injury he had caused on himself.
However, Nkemdiche also did say this, “"I'll play till I can't play no
more. You get to a point of loving the game, and you're like: 'This is me. This
is what I have to do. And I know I'm going to do it for a long time."
Nkemdiche is not alone. When we find out something that we love to do, we want
to give our one hundred percent no matter what to it. This is also the case for
these football players. The players know the risk they are getting into. They
know they could affect their health later down the road with one critical
decision that can lead to one critical injury, but they still play their
hardest because it is the thing they love to do.
With this in mind that players do know the risks of playing sports like the
example here in football, there are some who do know these risks and leave
pretty early in their football career. How could this be? If they know the risk
of playing the sport that they love, why not just battle through it? One of the
reasons could be that a certain study had the athletes choose to not continue
their career in football. In the same article, it lists several examples of the
feelings of certain players leaving the NFL league: “A study published in the
Journal of Neurotrauma last month was even more troubling, finding that
repeated blows to the head that fall short of concussions can be just as
damaging, if not more so. That's largely why Borland chose to retire from the
NFL after just one season, despite the fact that it meant forfeiting future
earnings and repaying a portion of his signing bonus. After contacting the
leading neurologists in the field, he concluded that there simply were no
guarantees for his long-term health as an NFL player. Tarpley concluded the
same, explaining on his Instagram feed that he was leaving a game he loved
"to preserve my future health" after suffering the third and fourth
concussions of his career in a single NFL season.”
There is this comic that Steve Breen, from Creators News Service, created that
explains, in a funny way, the reason why football players leave so early
because of the fear of their future health being affective. The first square
drawing shows a football player all dressed up for a game talking to a teammate
who is not dressed up for the game in any way named Chris. The suited up
football player asks Chris, “Hi Chris. Why aren’t you suited up for practice?”
Chris replies, “I’m retiring from the NFL. I don’t want to risk head injury.”
In the next square sequence Chris asks the suited up football player, “So how
are you feeling these days?” to which the football player replies with a
simple, “Good” answer. The next square sequence just shows the two standing
there showing that time has gone by. Then the next square shows the football
player asking the same question he asked in the first square sequence. This
comic illustrates one of the reasons why the football players leave early for
their future health.
Another NFL player, a Louisiana defensive tackle named Vernon Butler, gives the
best argument for this situation, "Your body knows when it's time to
stop." The players in each competitive and contact sport know or should
know their own body’s compatibility. The players overall have the choice to
choose whether to continue playing the game and continue risking getting
injured or to take leave and protect their long term health.
Even though players constantly get concussions in football, whether big or
small, one study shows that actually playing through the concussion helps it
recover double the time. When players are found to have a concussion after a
hit in football, they are taken off the field where trainers figure out how bad
it is. Some are not even bad enough and they can come back into the game. If it
is a severe concussion then the player is to be kept off the field and goes
under further investigation on how long the player has to wait until he can
come back and play.
But imagine the possibility to just come out of the field and diagnosed with a
concussion, but put right back in because it doubles your recovery time.
According to small study involving sixty-nine teenagers at the University of
Pittsburgh Medical Center, the claim that there is evidence that players
symptoms of concussions recovered faster while playing the game than rather off
the field of game. They say, “Sidelined players reported symptoms immediately,
including dizziness, headaches, and mental fogginess and fatigue, and were
diagnosed with concussions by trainers or team physicians. The others, who
continued playing for 19 minutes on average, delayed reporting symptoms and
were diagnosed later.”
But this can also be dangerous! They also say, “Return-to-play policies are
widespread, especially in youth athletics, and they typically recommend
sidelining players after a suspected concussion until symptoms resolve. One of
the main reasons is to prevent a rare condition called second-impact
syndrome--potentially fatal brain swelling or bleeding that can occur when a
player still recovering from a concussion gets hit again in the head.” There
can be a huge risk in continuing to play with a concussion. If a player
continues to play with a concussion, according to the study, they will have
double the recovery time, but one fatal hit could make the concussion even
worse. In fact it can turn into a second-impact syndrome which could be fatal.
Again, this all is depended on the player on whether or not he wants to
continue playing or not or whether the league should step in and disallow the
player who have been diagnosed with concussion to come back into the game.
Changes in
Sports Equipment and Rules of Game
Every
sport has its own type of equipment. Whether it be for better performance play
or only for protection, each and every sport requires a form of equipment to
wear for the players. Most of the gear that athletes wear are for protection.
This includes large upper body pads for football and hockey players, shin
guards for soccer players, even helmets for baseball players. These are to
protect the vital and most vulnerable parts of the body in the certain sports
they are in. This is so the player if taken a blow can be protected to the best
of the ability of the equipment they put on and come out with as little as
injury as possible.
Even with this “safe” equipment players put on, we still see multiple injuries
in sports. Isn’t it the companies who make the equipment for other player’s job
to make the absolute best equipment to protect every player from getting
injuries? Does the league of the certain sport have to make certain rules or
change of rules to make the game safer for athletes?
It can be
extremely scary to be one day totally and perfectly functional and then all of
a sudden a single hit on the field could change that. It is also scary that
this also escapes peoples mind. Tadd Haislop in his article states,
“…players develop a sense of invincibility. Then they're told not to
rely on their protection. Swartz compared the theory to every-day motor
vehicles, pointing out that ‘once they started having anti-lock brakes, padded
interiors and seat belts, accident rates went up … deaths went up.’" Just
because we keep making cars better and safer, doesn’t mean they are completely
safe. This same principle can be applied here. Just because football equipment
has become better and safer doesn’t mean the actual sport is totally safe. Just
because the rules and fundamentals of football have evolved doesn’t mean
football is completely safe.
According to Roman Oben, who was drafted by the New York Giants in 1996, said
this, “I have seen--as a player and now an executive and advocate for
football--how the NFL continues to improve player health and safety. NFL
coaches and players use safer tackling techniques, and we've made 42 rule
changes over the past decade to protect our players. The league and the NFL
Players Association reduced the number of full-contact practices and improved
field surfaces to help lower the likelihood of injuries.” Football has become a
safer sport as time has moved along. We see here that certain changes of the
rules protect the athletes better than without these rules.
There has even been some major
consequences for those who break this rule. For example, the rule of targeting
in college football by the NCAA states: “By
rule, every targeting foul is reviewed by the instant replay official. Up to
this point, the replay official's role has been to verify whether the forcible
contact was with the crown of the helmet or was struck at the head or neck area
of a defenseless player. Now as part of the review, the replay official is
directed to examine all elements of the ruling made by the official on the field,
not only the location of the forcible contact. In addition, the replay official
is empowered to "create" a foul if he sees an obvious and egregious
targeting action that the officials on the field miss. Because the action is so
dangerous and the ejection penalty so severe, the committee has made these
changes to increase the probability that targeting fouls are correctly ruled
and administered.”
The players who break this rule
are in serious risk of not only hurting the player they are in coming contact
with, but also themselves as well. The player is later ejected from the game
for breaking such a dangerous act. By even ejecting the players of the game it
does make the field for the remainder of the game safer. This is one of many
examples that different sport leagues have changed the rules of the game to
make athletes safer.
Making the game safe for athletes
doesn’t just include the players alone. The coaches and parents of the players
are also effected.
The founders of Evoshield, a company who makes protective under armor wear for
multiple sports, had a story to share about how they were influenced to start
such a company. Their son was a big fan of football. He was a sophomore in high
school and was starting in a football game. He caught a pass in the game and
got hit from the front and the back pretty hard. He was put into an ambulance
where he lost conciseness and never regained it. Instead of pointing their
finger and blaming it on people, the parents started to think, “What is the next
step to make youth sports safer?”
They now go around not only making gear that protects more of you internally in
all sports, but also teach the reason why certain parts should be protected.
They help the young athletes become more knowledgeable of the game itself and
understanding the reason why certain equipment is available for them. It helps
the athletes understand safety. If the athletes understand why the rules and
equipment are there, then understand the why the league makes the certain rules
to make the game a whole lot safer.
Conclusion
The two arguments presented here both acknowledge that football is not a safe
sport and perhaps can never be completely safe. The differences where the two
arguments branch out at is how to make the game safer or whether or not the
game can be any safer than it already is. One expresses that football players
know how much football can injure them whether it be short term or long term,
but also accept that is usually the case with most other sports. This is where
they teach a safer way to play whether it be the player itself or the leagues
rules.
The other side of the argument expresses that the equipment can be and should
be better for players. This will help minimalize or significantly lower the
injury rate of the players on both sides of the field. There is another part
that this side and also the other side of the argument agree on as well and
that is the players should know the rules of the gameplay. This one just adds
more than just the way the players play, but also the equipment that protects
them. They aren’t pointing fingers at certain at certain companies. Rather,
they are trying to fix the problem to the best of their ability. The argument
isn’t really blaming the problem on others. It is to see what is the next step
is to make it safer while still enjoying the sport.
Football will always be a contact sport. We enjoy sports with contact too much
to even disband it. However, we can make the game safer. There are other
suggestions that could be applied here, but the two main steps to making the
game safer or understanding the danger of the game are as spoken above. Both
sides want the game to be still enjoyable. Both sides want the kids to do the
thing they love while being the safest they can be while doing it.
Works Cited
1. American Association of Neurological Surgeons. "The American
Association of Neurological Surgeons." AANS, Web. 06 Nov.
2016.
2. Head Case. "Head Case - Complete Concussion Managements." Stats
on Concussions & Sports -. N.p., 2012. Web. 06 Nov. 2016.
3. Webster, Samue. "Top 100 Highest-Paid Athlete Endorsers of 2015 |
Opendorse." Opendorse, 29 June 2016. Web. 06 Nov. 2016.
4. Clarke, Liz. "For NFL Draft Picks,
the Dangers of Football Are a Price Worth Paying." Washington Post, 29
Apr. 2016:, SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 06 Nov. 2016.
5. EvoSHIELD. "The Taylor Haugen Foundation on Youth Equipment for
Sports Safety." YouTube. YouTube, 23 Aug. 2013. Web. 06 Nov.
2016.
6. Oben, Roman. "We're Making Football
Safer." USA TODAY. 29 Apr. 2016: A.7. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 06 Nov.
2016.
7. National Football Foundation, "College Football: Need-to-know
Rule Changes for 2016 Season." NCAA.com., 03 Aug. 2016. Web. 06
Nov. 2016.
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