NFL must address concussion concerns
Football is by far the most popular sport in America. Millions of Americans tune in to watch the gridiron sport every Sunday. In fact, all of the top 12 shows of the fall 2015 season were NFL games. As Alec Baldwin said in the movie Concussion, “The NFL owns a day of the week, the same one that the church used to own.”
In the movie, Will Smith plays Dr. Bennet Omalu, the founder of the disease Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. Omalu found the disease in the brains of two former NFL stars, Mike Webster and Terry Long and published his report with the help of the University of Pittsburgh. Instead of receiving the credit and attention that he deserved, Omalu was accused by many fans and the NFL of making up the disease to destroy the sport.
It took the NFL almost four years to admit there was a link between playing football and suffering concussions after Omalu published his first report in 2005. Public outcry didn’t reach its peak until 2013, when CTE was found in NFL legend Junior Seau’s brain after he committed suicide at the age of 43.
The Super Bowl is the NFL’s most cherished moment, a once-a-year extravaganza that shows off the best the sport has to offer. This upcoming Sunday will be the 50th anniversary of the Super Bowl. Over 115 million American viewers are expected to tune into the game to watch the Denver Broncos take on the Carolina Panthers at Levi’s Stadium. Fans are paying a minimum of $850 just to get into the stadium, and companies are spending almost $5 million dollars for a 30-second ad spot. The NFL has truly become the strongest business in America.
However, despite all of the success that the NFL has accomplished both on and off the field, the concussion issue continues to hinder the league. We are all part of the problem. As fans we live for the big hit, that certain hit that makes you jump out of your seat and “ooooh man.” Physicality is what makes the NFL what it is. Take away the big hits and it is nothing more than a glorified flag football game.
But at some point a line has to be drawn. Last Friday the NFL released its statistics on injuries during the 2015 season. The NFL reported that the number of concussions during the 2015 season rose a staggering 58 percent to 182 reported concussions.
To put that number into perspective, as of May 2014 the NBA only reported 89 concussions total since the 2008 season. Even the NHL, one of the biggest contact sports out there, reported only 53 concussions during the 2014 seasons. The NFL has a huge concussion problem that it simply will not address.
One of the biggest reasons why the NFL continues to ignore the concussion crisis is the simple fact that people keep coming to games. There’s something about watching 250-pound men crash into each other that sparks the American interest. Even the fact that Roger Goodell has proven to be vastly incapable as a commissioner, botching almost every major decision he has made, can’t keep people away.
As a lifelong Raiders fan, I always considered the NFL to be my backup sport to watch because well, the Raiders have been awful my entire life. I often stuck to watching the NBA and NCAA football. I never realized the power that the NFL had until I watched the movie Concussion — which if you have not seen, you should immediately.
Since 2009, more than 5,000 former NFL players have sued the organization for failing to protect them while they were playing. The players suffer from debilitating headaches, Alzheimer’s snd other serious brain problems. The NFL reached an agreement in 2015 to pay each retired NFL player up to $5 million dollars “for serious medical conditions associated with repeated head trauma.”
One of the issues that plagues CTE is the fact that it can only be found after an individual has passed away. However, in September 2015 PBS released a study that stated Boston University had found CTE in over 96 percent of former NFL players. In total, the researchers have found CTE in the brains of 131 out of 165 people who have played football at some point in their life, whether it was high school, college or professional.
As much as these new findings on concussions has inspired me to write about the problem, I will most likely be watching the Super Bowl on Sunday. The NFL has become a staple in the American lifestyle and shows no signs of slowing down. A real solution needs to be put in place before more young men continue to die from the disease.
Nick Barbarino is a senior majoring in business administration. His column, “Beyond the Arc,” runs Tuesdays.
so tired of this bs, since almost a hundred years ago people have known that concussions can cause permenant injury. read history of boxing and concussions. this is nothing new. Players know they risk more the just concussions and brain injuries when playing. broken bones, necks, paralysis, even death has occured. they still go out and play. even with all the stuff out now pretending this is a new thing they still go out and play. college kids declare for draft the minute they think they can get in and make money. you go to a game and tell any nfl player that hey, if you go out you could have a concussion and maybe get cte and brain damage, they gonna say oh, wow, never thought of that, never mind, i quit. no. they dont care. they want the money. and as far as im concerened thats why they make all that money. to cover health problems and everything so they dont have to work again for the rest of their lives. whats even more concerning is you cant find cte til after death, so all the people with their hands out looking for cash are families of dead players. the players new the risk, made their decisions. then after they die the families are looking for hand-outs for decisions the players made. ridiculous. people know the risk of drinking and driving, but if someone gets drunk and crashes and dies should their family be able to sue the alcohol companies for it? or if someone becomes an alcoholic and it destroys their family should they be able to sue the maker of their favorite beer?
Players know the risks. just like someone who drinks knows what could happen. problem is everyone has the, well, it wont happen to me attitude. thats not the NFL’s fault. Yet all we hear is how the nfl is causing this, the NFL needs to fix the problem. How is this their fault? they are constently coming up with new rules and better equipment to try and protect players, they pay the players millions of dollars and give them some of the best doctors money can buy, they are doing their fault. players need to start taking responsibility for their own choices and stop looking for handouts. and families need to stop trying to get free money of the choices of players. sorry, sounds harsh but its true. I dont here boxers and MMA fighters, hockey and rugby players, all who get concussions, sitting around whining and trying to get handouts. trying to say, oh, I never knew I could get brain damage from constantly getting hit in head.
So you want to write an article, why not write one about how the movie concussion lies, how if you look it up CTE was discovered long before the doctor in movie took credit for others findings. how players know the risk but still CHOOSE to play. if I choose to shot myself in the foot I cant sue the gun maker. write an article on the truths and choices of the matter and get over this trying to blame the nfl that does try to make the game safer for those that CHOOSE to play. when you show me a player that was forced by the nfl to declare for draft and then theyre forced at gunpoint to go out and get concussions, then write an article about how the nfl is responsible.
one other little tidbit I find ammusing. you even say in article how they are finding this in players that played high school and college footbal, so how is this all an nfl problem? why arnt people blaming the schools, or for that matter the parents who stick their kids in football at a young age. just the fact that the nfl is the only one ever blamed maybe shows this is all based on greed? go after the company that has money right, not the real problem. most of these players have had multiple concussions through pee-wee, middle school, high school, college, before they ever reach nfl, its even fair to say that alot of the complaining people may have a good chance of already having cte before ever playing a snap in nfl.