Football culture ignores bigger issues
On Thursday, students will head to the Coliseum in light of their rescheduled class — or just skip class entirely — to watch the Trojans play the Huskies. It’s no secret that USC loves football. An excuse for tailgates, camaraderie and painting huge cardinal and gold letters on our bellies, football is a fiery tradition for the Trojan Family. But while the audience enjoys the hard-hitting, fast-action plays that bring excitement to the game, it is the players who pay the ultimate price. A new study published this September on the website of the Concussion Legacy Foundation by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Boston University found chronic traumatic encephalopathy — a neurodegenerative disease that results from repeated concussive or subconcussive blows to the head — in the brains of 87 out of 91 former NFL players who donated their brains to science. As a student body, we must stop worshipping a sport that puts its athletes’ health at risk.
The worst injuries on the field are invisible, at least to the naked eye. When a safety tackles a wide receiver, changes are taking place on the microscopic level. Axons, the flexible arms of neurons that transmit information away from the cell, undergo wear and tear due to frequent collisions. Moreover, analysis of brain tissue of football players reveals buildup of Tau proteins, the culprits of Alzheimer’s Disease. MRI reveals alterations in brain structure as well. A Johns Hopkins University imaging study earlier this year revealed shrinkage of the hippocampus — a region responsible for emotion and memory — due to injury in the brains of retired NFL athletes. The microscopic changes, as well as the permanent brain damage observed through MRI, are mirrored by mental health alterations and cognitive deficits; depression, learning deficits and memory loss are just some of the devastating symptoms of this disease. Former USC linebacker and NFL Hall-of-Famer Junior Seau is a tragic example of the psychological toll a football career can have on a player. Famous for his hard-hitting tackles, Seau suffered seven years of insomnia before committing suicide in 2012. After Seau’s family donated his brain to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, an autopsy revealed signs of CTE.
Though Seau is an example of how a lifetime of football can wreak havoc on the brain, even a shorter career in college can likely lead to long-term mental health degradation. The aforementioned Boston University study found that of 74 brains of athletes who played just semi-professional, college or high school football, 58 percent showed signs of CTE. Alarmingly, even players who have not experienced a concussion can still show signs of cognitive deficits. A study published in 2014 in the Journal of Neurotrauma by a group at Purdue University found that high school players who suffered head injuries but were not diagnosed with concussions “demonstrated measurable neurocognitive (primarily visual working memory) and neurophysiological impairments.”
Though coaches and the athletic staff promote a safe environment for their players, no amount of equipment can change the physics of a head-on collision. While the worst cases of the disease have occurred in the NFL, NCAA athletes are no less vulnerable, or less immune, to CTE’s horrible symptoms later in life.
A sport that puts its athletes at risk for a debilitating disease cannot exist alongside the principles of student health and wellness, unless of course we ignore the long-term consequences — which we have successfully done. It is not that fans are ignorant of mental health, but rather that they will assume disavowal amid celebration. Fans roar when a lineman sacks a quarterback with full-force. We applaud the violence, the sheer power and the athleticism that come with a tackle while turning a blind eye to the tremendous toll on the brain.
Football is a great thing for America and a student body. Trojan football especially is a grand, unifying force in Los Angeles. The event draws alumni and the entire community around USC together in celebration. Many argue that to end football would be to eliminate a powerful source of happiness and unification. But there are many ways to bring the community together besides football. Concerts, festivals, community outreach events, street fairs and cultural celebrations all overflow in a city as diverse and intricate as Los Angeles, and football games make up a small percentage of calendar events. It is time we ended our obsession with football — and change the sport before it changes the players.