POINT: Deflategate insignificant due to other issues in the NFL

With the Super Bowl looming, many football lovers are gearing up for the face-off between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks. Recently, though, the fandemonium has turned not to the game, but to the ball itself. In the Jan. 18 game that led to their Super Bowl qualification, the Patriots raised a question of whether deflated footballs contributed to their win, giving the team an unfair advantage in their 45-7 win. This prompted a massive controversy, “Deflategate.” The incident, however, bears low significance, as the NFL already has many other ethical issues to resolve, some of which actually put players’ lives at stake.

Football runs chiefly fairness to both playing teams. Deflategate might be an obstruction to the NFL’s pillars of fairness, but the many other faults of the football league deserve even more attention than this scandal. In recent years, there have been instances of calling that people have deemed grossly unjust. In 2012, the game between the Green Bay Packers and the Seahawks resulted in questionable calls. The two referees on the field were both replacements for the contract-negotiating regulars. The last play ended up with one referee calling Packers interception and one calling a Seahawks victory. After much review, the win was given to the Seahawks. Replays denoting a Packer interference was irrelevant. Ultimately, this incident signified that football is an arena of supreme subjectivity. Deflategate’s attraction of debate is inevitable and also fickle.

Moreover, the NFL needs to evaluate its player conduct code. Scandals surrounding players include Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick and his dog-fighting ring involvement, an infringement on animal rights. Of greater concern is that, according to USA Today, 85 of the 713 NFL player arrests up until 2014 were due to domestic violence, a statistic that came at the heels of a video of Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice beating his wife in an elevator. And to those who are still concerned about the fairness of football, steroid use and, more recently, Adderall use have been prevalent on the fields, giving players dishonest game enhancement and concentration. These issues are more important because they reflect the representation of a team.

The most important issue, however, is how the NFL treats its players. The NFL is a staple of consumer culture, and its players are pawns to earn profits. The league’s responsibility, then, is to ensure the safety of their players, but medical research shows otherwise. Reports have surfaced about the NFL’s lack of responsibility in preventing player concussions. Blunt-force head trauma leads football players to develop chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Effects such as memory loss and depression are often not realized until players are retired. Several former NFL players have committed suicide resulting from this condition. Neurologist Dr. Ann McKee found last year that 76 of the 79 brains of former NFL players showed CTE post-mortem, a fact that the NFL has tried to hide. The prevention of brain deaths is much more important than whether or not some footballs were slightly deflated.

So, maybe there was some merit in that ridiculous speech by Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. Deflategate is no ISIS, but it also reveals how much we give in to the NFL, ignoring more pressing issues. At the end of the day, it’s not a question of one team’s integrity but the integrity of the league itself.

Danni Wang is a sophomore majoring in psychology. She is also the Editorial Director of the Daily Trojan. “Point/Counterpoint” runs Tuesdays.