The most popular sport in all of the United States, football, is known to be dangerous. People are aware that the participants take big hits while participating in this sport but what will this do to the players in the long run? There is more at hand than just torn ACLs or broken fingers; players in the National Football League (NFL) are at serious risk of losing their life due to head trauma sustained during their athletic career. In examining the current issues of head trauma in the NFL it is found that the league is not doing enough to protect its players. 

The Problem

The NFL was founded in 1920 and has since been regarded as the most prestigious of all football leagues worldwide. As was stated before, people knew that a sport that was as physical as football would be dangerous, but until the 21st century the most prominent danger of them all went unnoticed, head trauma. The repeated abuse a football player takes can lead to Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) which is described by The Boston University CTE Center as "a progressive degenerative disease of the brain found in athletes (and others) with a history of repetitive brain trauma, including symptomatic concussions as well as asymptomatic subconcussive hits to the head" (Marcin). CTE or sometimes referred to as Dementia pugilistica used to be mostly associated with boxing. It was called "punch drunk" as to describe boxers who took too many shots to the head and their brain began to deteriorate, but more recently has become one of the main talking points in the NFL due to the problems it is causing. Some of CTE's symptoms include confusion, aggression, and depression. There are countless cases of players killing themselves or dying early because their brain simply cannot function properly. In Vox's "The NFL Concussion Crisis, Explained," the real problem is unveiled, you can't get rid of concussions. Simple as that. The NFL went great lengths to repress research up until they were sued several years ago. Now they make some changes to the rules such as no helmet-to-helmet hits and shortening the length of kickoffs to decrease the chances of players running full-speed into each other but that will never be enough. Vox refers to this as the NFL targeting "the lowest hanging fruits" because these are simple changes. While they may help a little bit, concussions are still just as, if not more common as they were prior to the changes. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnAmddi52Y8

The Past

I grew up watching football as many people living in the United States did such as my dad. My father and I would spend every Sunday watching the games and he would tell me all about the players he grew up watching. Whether it was the hard-hitting safety Andre Waters, or the legendary quarterback Ken Stabler, I always loved hearing about it. Sadly, these two players along with many others have passed away. I was always curious though why all the legends in the NFL that my dad talked about were commonly deceased, often not even at that old of an age. 

CTE was discovered to be extremely detrimental to these former players lives and sometimes even fatal. This only was put into the spotlight following the death of Mike Webster in 2002. Webster was a nine-time pro-bowler and won four-time Super Bowls with the Pittsburg Steelers. While he was one of the most beloved players in his later years he suffered from amnesia, dementia, and depression. He was only 50 years old when he passed away, however, his brain showed damage that resembled a brain that was far older. This was the first time an injury of this sort was ever connected to football. When the autopsy of Mike Webster was conducted by Dr. Bennet Omalu, Omalu believed the NFL would want to know about the study, but he was mistaken. His findings were assailed by the NFL and they even attempted to make him retract his statements regarding CTE (Breslow). That was over a decade ago and the discoveries have not stopped. Normally, to find out if a former or current player has CTE they must be deceased to have their brain examined. Recently though, former players have taken standard memory and cognitive test and their results were compared to that of a normal person. The results showed that the former players performed worse all across the board further proving that their brains have been damaged (Park). CTE changes these players, damages their brain to the point where they are prisoners of their mind until they die. Since 2002 more and more studies have been conducted and progress is finally being made to help prevent the head trauma that results in CTE. 

The Present

Since the connection between the NFL and CTE has been proven, the league has not done nearly enough to protect its players. The NFL has put its focus on changing the rules of the game. Penalties and possible fines are now in place for intentional head-to-head plays. Using the head as a weapon on defense or leading with the head on offense are now not allowed in the game. These are changes I agree with but some of their other changes are not viewed to be as reasonable. Some people believe the NFL has gotten "soft" because of their changes to the kickoff. The kickoff can make or break games and is the site of some of the most memorable moments in NFL history, yet the NFL is attempting to get rid of it. The league has a point; the kickoff is an extremely dangerous part of the game but also one of the most important. They seem to be willing to remove a whole portion of the game instead of looking for solutions off the field. One example of this is simply changing the concussion test. The current concussion test is flawed and often has concussed players sent right back onto the field. An example of this was during the 2014 regular season when Detroit's Ziggy Ansah hit Chocago's Jimmy Clausen. Not only was this probably the biggest hit of the game, but it also was blatant head-to-head contact. Clausen ended up not only coming back into the game but he still played the whole game before being diagnosed with a concussion the next day. The NFL tells the public when the issue is addressed that they are doing all they can to protect their players, but test such as the King-Devick Test are not used despite being quicker than the current concussion test. The concussion test for the NFL right now is based upon orientation, concentration, balance, and memory. These four areas are condensed into questions, surveys, and reading. While this seems fairly in-depth, players are still constantly returning to the field after being checked out. With the King-Devick test, eye movement is measured simply by having the players read off numbers from three cards. While this is quick and simple, it has proven to be more accurate. From studies alone it seems obvious that the King-Devick test should be used but this is more likely to take players out of the game for their own safety and the last thing the NFL wants is its star players off the field (Armour). 

The changes that the NFL made to its rules, while it may be a step in the right direction, they are not necessarily progressive. In fact, the only few years it seems that the NFL has made major changes were 2011-2012. These two years also seem to be right around the time of the lawsuit against the NFL regarding the life changing or even ending effects of CTE caused by trauma sustained in players' football careers. This lawsuit that finally came to a close in 2015 will end up costing the NFL over $900 million. Another part of this settlement is that the former players or their families do not have to show the conditions of their CTE were related to NFL football  (Mihoces and Axon). To me it seems once the NFL realized it might be in legal trouble they did what they could to fix their act and since then not much has changed regarding head safety. Since then, no major rule changes have been implemented regarding safety or head protection. Luckily, this lawsuit brought a lot of attention to the issue of head trauma in the NFL and some players have even put themselves into early retirement because they are aware of the dangers. 50% of players who receive a concussive blow don't even know the dangers it causes them in the long run. Sometimes, even if they do know the dangers, they still ignore them. Defensive player of the year, JJ Watt states "I'm not one of those guys mad at the world because I'm getting my head hit. I play football. That's the way it goes" (King).  He has a point, any football player knows you are going to get hit in the head, but maybe he does not have his personal well-being in mind like former 49er Anthony Davis. Davis who was only 25 years old decided that he needed "time to allow my Brain and Body a chance to heal. I know many won't understand my decision, that's OK." Despite a successful career and the opportunity to ear millions more from the league but he fears for his health and wants his brain to be functioning properly when he is older. Along with this Davis's teammate Chris Borland also chose retirement at a young age in an attempt to protect himself (Bostick). 

What Now?

The NFL made its changes ...  almost 5 years ago. They boast about the fact that that the amount of concussions in the league decreased from 261 to 229 in 2013 then to 206 in 2014 as a result of the rule changes implemented earlier in the 2010s. Then why were the number of concussions last season 271? That is a rise of approximately 32% which is nothing to be proud of, and is higher than the amount of diagnosed concussions has ever been. Even co-chairman of the NFL's head, neck and spine committee Richard Ellenbogen states, "we've lowered the threshold for diagnosing concussion, for pulling players out and evaluating them" (Seifert). Even with that acknowledgement the league has not made any large efforts to fix the problem since before the lawsuit. The NFL has been a target for criticism regarding domestic abuse or child abuse the past few years, and it almost seems as if media has moved on from focusing on the NFL's neglect of addressing the issue of player safety when it comes to head trauma. If this continues more players will die, and maybe even more will die than were previously. The NFL has become more of a passing game, putting more of a burden on the wide receivers and corner backs. It has been proven in studies that players who are moving faster in their position are more likely to have their head seriously damage. This means the contact between receivers and corners or safeties are that much more dangerous. More than half of the time a player returns next game after receiving a concussive blow (Breslow). 

Without proper sideline testing or safety precautions players will keep on getting hit and keep on slowly losing control of their brain and have to live in the nightmare that is being stuck with CTE. No one knows how to stop concussions but we need to try and do our best to prevent them and the NFL has not done its part. The only major rule changes were in preparation for a lawsuit and who knows how long it will take for something else major to arise and make the NFL address the issue once again. More and more discoveries are being made about CTE and hopefully the NFL will be able to pay attention to these discoveries to protect the lives of the athletes. 96%. That is the amount of former players that show signs of CTE (Beck). And looking at current statistics related to head trauma currently this number doesn't seem to be going down much. The NFL is simply not exploring their options. They need to remove the focus of making sure the starters play and let them recover if they take a hit to the head. Too many times are players sent back out on the field. This could be a problem of the medical professionals not doing the test, or simply the test is not working. Other options are present, they could switch the concussion test as was stated before, but even then whose to say that the sideline won't send the back in regardless? Also there are around 27 medical professionals on the sideline or watching the game at a time, while that seems like a lot, there could be more. Adding more medical professionals for concussions and head trauma could further protect the players. Another option is changing tackling methods or greater punishments for flagrant fouls regarding hits to the head. Options are everywhere and while there is no way of curing concussions, they still can help prevent them. So is the NFL doing enough? Not even close. How many players will have to die for the NFL to finally take action again and invest more into the safety of its players that worked their whole life to become a professional athlete only to fall victim of a condition they cannot do anything about? When my dad talked to me about football legends, they were no longer with us. I want to one day be able to talk to my son about football legends and how they are still alive and well. 

