Football is a violent sport by nature and injuries are an unavoidable part of the game, especially at the professional level. The recent spike of injuries in the NFL raises the question of whether the National Football League should be more focused on limiting concussions or limiting lower body injuries. All different types of injuries are part of the occupational hazard that comes along with playing in the NFL, however some injuries are worse than others. Based on research regarding the short term and long term consequences of both lower body injuries and concussions, I believe that the NFL and all of the athletes that compete at this level of football should be much more concerned with limiting concussions. The long term effects of concussions are much more dangerous than any other injuries seen in football and the fear of these effects have parents withholding their children from playing football. Eliminating all injuries from the football is utterly impossible. However, making the game safer and reducing the amount of concussions is an attainable goal. With new rule changes and improved equipment for protection, the NFL can find a way to limit concussions while also keeping the game of football enjoyable for both fans and players.

Regarding injuries in the sport of football, many people have their own personal opinions on the matter. These opinions influence the way people perceive the sport and the willingness of people to get involved with the sport. In today's day and age of modern science, people have become much more educated regarding their health and lasting effects of injuries. The recent explosion of media coverage and speculation on injuries in the game of football has caused some parents to hold their children from football, instead opting to have their children get involved in less dangerous sports. Between 2010-2012, Pop Warner, the nation's largest youth football program, saw a drop in participation of about 9.5% due to parent's fear of injuries (Fainaru and Fainaru-Wada).  This drop resulted in the loss of 23,612 kids, the largest two-year decline in the organizations history, which is a huge loss for the NFL given that estimates show that 60-70% of current NFL players began playing football in Pop Warner (Fainaru and Fainaru-Wada). Not only has Pop Warner seen a decline in participation due to fear of injuries, USA Football, the national governing body of youth football, noted that participation of players ranging from ages 6-14 fell over 200,000 resulting in a 6.7% decline in 2011 alone (Fainaru and Fainaru-Wada). These studies have shown that due to the widespread fear of injuries, youth football participation has been dropping steadily over the last few years, a trend that many believe will continue to occur. Although a miniscule percentage of youth football players make it to the professional level, this should be a cause for concern for NFL executives. Youth participation will continue to decline if changes aren't made to improve the safety of the game, potentially resulting in a decrease in the amount of professional players, quality of the athletes, and overall popularity of the NFL in a few years.

NFL players have begun to openly criticize NFL rule changes and oppose the new trend of player safety, specifically regarding concussions. The players' thoughts are important given that they are major stakeholders within this argument, given that they are the ones effected by rule changes. Many players have openly stated that they are more worried about their knees than a concussion. According to a USA Today Sports survey, 293 NFL players from over 20 teams were asked what body part they were most concerned with injuring: 46% said knees and other parts of the lower body, 24% said the head and neck, and 26% said they had no worries regarding injury (Barzilai and Brady). Miami Dolphins tight end Dustin Keller stated, "100% I'd rather be hit high ...  just like anybody else ... you get hit high, say you get a concussion: That's tough to deal with, you may miss a game or two or something like that. But you still get to go home walk home to your family (Fainaru-Wada and Baumgart)". According to Chicago Bears running back Michael Bush, "Anytime you can avoid hits to the head it's great, but if you get hit in your knees, that's your career (Barzilai and Brady)". Surprisingly, Tennessee Titan's safety Michael Griffin and Washington Redskin's safety Ryan Clark both said that they have had offensive players frequently offer to pay their fines for high hits if they hit them high rather than low (Fainaru-Wada and Baumgart). These statements by players whom oppose low hits sway most people into siding with athletes and thus opposing both the NFL rule changes and the argument that concussions are more important to prevent than lower body injuries. 

However, when looking at the big picture instead of viewing the issue through the narrow-minded perspective of the players you will see that the NFL is correct regarding the controversial topic at hand. The majority of the athletes who oppose the NFL rule changes use flawed logic to justify their position. Looking at this argument with an open mind, you must consider many different factors regarding these statements by players opposing the NFL. First off, the players that spoke out against the recent rule changes were either defensive players or offensive players that suffered severe lower body injuries like Dustin Keller and Michael Bush. This raises a few red flags because these players have a strong bias regarding the argument. Defensive players don't have to worry about high hits, however the rule changes regarding head hits have effected them negatively because defensive players, such as previously mentioned Ryan Clark and Michael Griffin, have each been fined and suspended because of their status as repeat offenders (Fainaru-Wada and Baumgart). Michael Bush and Dustin Keller, the two offensive players that spoke negatively regarding the rule changes, both suffered severe lower body injuries that altered the trajectory of their career path. These factors definitely result in bias that would lead them to publicly oppose the rule changes.

 In order to see the topic for what it is, you must consider that many of these athletes are in their twenties and have made numerous sacrifices to make it to the professional level. These players are concerned with reaping the benefits of stardom, they are essentially celebrities in modern day culture and aren't concerned with life after football. Instead, they are concerned with playing the game of football and living lavishly. According to Kevin Guskiewicz, a research director for the Center for the Study Retired Athletes where he studies concussions and interviews hundreds of former professional athletes, "These guys who are 50 and 60 years old tell me that when they were playing they were only concerned about next week, not 10 or 20 or 30 years down the road. They were always thinking about the next game (Barzilai and Brady)".  It's hard to fault these players for their logic, however flawed it might be. 

Despite the widespread illogical stance many NFL athletes have regarding this issue, there are still some players that have enough sense to recognize and respect why the NFL is implementing these rule changes. Regarding the recent rule changes, Green Bay Packers offensive tackle Bryan Bulaga stated, "I still think the game is great ...  I don't think it's done anything to the game. I just think the NFL has taken steps to really hammer the player safety home. And I think all the guys appreciate that, and everybody wants to be looked after by the league (Barzilai and Brady)". Also, consider that most NFL careers last are only a few years and are at most ten or so years for the small percentile of top tier players, a relatively short time compared to the many years of life these athletes have to live post-football. Players should not jeopardize the quality of their life after football for only a few years of fame and glory.

Lower body injuries in the NFL are a cause of concern for players, teams, and fans alike. The most notable lower body injuries are a torn meniscus or a torn Anterior Cruciate Ligament, commonly referred to as a torn ACL. The short term consequences for an ACL injury are not life-altering, a player is out of action for an extended period; however, if the damage to the knee if devastating enough a player can be forced into early retirement. There are a few ways a player can go about rehabilitation depending on whether they suffered a torn ACL or a torn meniscus and the extent of the tear (Kremer). If the tear is only slight, they have the option to let the ligament naturally repair itself. However, if the ACL or meniscus is torn badly the player must undergo an ACL reconstruction or a meniscectomy, respectively (Kremer). Regarding the period of time of a torn ACL rehabilitation, NFL Network Health and Safety Chief Correspondent Andrea Kremer stated, "Every body is different, every knee heals differently. And every ACL injury is unique because there are different amounts of damage that has been sustained to the knee (Kremer)". Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson made a full and complete recovery in an unheard of eight months, meanwhile Arizona Cardinals quarterback Carson Palmer took a little over a full year to recover (Kremer). According to a 2010 study, the average recovery period for an ACL injury is 11 months and there is a 5% chance of a recurrent injury to the same knee within two years of the initial injury (Kremer). The long term effects of a torn ACL are well documented within the medical community. A study conducted by the Hospital for Special Surgery that involved taking an MRI of 40 patients with a total of 42 ACL tears in which fourteen knees were treated conservatively and 28 were reconstructed for 11 years showed that patients who suffered a torn ACL were likely to develop osteoarthritis and cartilage damage, both conditions worsening over time ("ACL Tears: MRI Reveals Long-Term Impact"). According to the 11-year study, patients without ACL reconstruction were six times more likely to have cartilage degeneration in the shinbone, five times more likely to have degeneration in the kneecap, and had a slower rate of progression of osteoarthritis, thus concluding that ACL reconstruction can slow down the rate of osteoarthritis and progression of cartilage degeneration ("ACL Tears: MRI Reveals Long-Term Impact"). A separate study regarding long term impact 10 to 20 years after tearing either the ACL or Meniscus yielded similar results; these results showed that 50% of these patients are diagnosed with osteoarthritis with associated pain and functional impairment, dubbed "the young patient with an old knee (Lohmander, Englund, and Roos)".  In another separate study conducted solely on NFL athletes, doctors studied the impact an ACL reconstruction and/or a meniscectomy has on the length of an athlete's career in the NFL; the study was conducted on 54 athletes that underwent a meniscectomy, 29 athletes that underwent an ACL reconstruction, and 11 that underwent both surgeries (Brophy, Gill, Lyman, Barnes, Rodeo, and Warren). In order to yield the most accurate results possible and eliminate variables that could alter the results, a database containing injury history and career statistics of NFL players from 1987-2000 was used; this database was used to match the test subjects with the players not included in the study that had only underwent either a meniscectomy and/or an ACL reconstruction, test subjects were matched with former players based on the surgery each test subject had underwent,  year drafted, round drafted, and position played (Brophy, Gill, Lyman, Barnes, Rodeo, and Warren). The results showed that solely undergoing an ACL reconstruction did not significantly shorten career length, only undergoing a meniscectomy reduced career length, and that undergoing both surgeries is most detrimental to not only career length but also durability throughout a season (Brophy, Gill, Lyman, Barnes, Rodeo, and Warren). These studies all show that ACL and meniscus injuries that the short term consequences have the ability to sideline a player for a year after the initial injury; the long term effects include shortening of career length when tearing either the meniscus or both ligaments and potential osteoarthritis, cartilage degeneration, and functional impairment.

In the last couple of years, constant media coverage regarding the long term effects of concussions within football brought widespread attention to the issue. Despite its only recent exposure, it has set off a wave of change regarding player safety within football. This is because only now do we truly know the very real danger that multiple concussions can have years after their occurrence. Concussions are an inevitable part of football due to the constant collisions of players. There is a certain amount of gravitational force, better known as g-force or G's, required in order to suffer a concussion. The average concussive impact is 95 G's, which really does not sound so traumatic to those who don't understand gravitational force (Gorgens). To truly understand how much force 95 G's is, take into account that a 40mph car crash into a fixed barrier yields 35 G's and if a heavy weight boxer punched you straight in the face it would result in 58 G's (Gorgens). Putting the gravitational force required to suffer a concussion in perspective, you begin to see that a concussion is a very significant blow to the brain. At the professional level, concussions are even more devastating due the simple fact that every player at the elite level has an elite blend of strength, speed, and explosiveness, thus resulting in more devastating collisions.  Concussions have the ability to take a player out of a game or two if it is severe enough, resulting in most people overlooking the long-term impacts because players are able to recover so quickly. This constant downplaying and overlooking has all changed due to the recent discovery of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, better known as CTE. CTE is a progressive disease that effects the brain, occurring as a result of repetitive mild traumatic brain injuries, such as concussions (Fainaru-Wada, Avila, and Fainaru). In a study of the progression of CTE, the doctors broke the symptoms down from stages I-IV; with the symptoms worsening as the disease progressed into the next stage (Mckee et al.). In stage I, CTE symptoms included migraines and loss of attention and concentration (Mckee et al.). Stage II symptoms included those from stage I and additionally depression and short-term memory loss (Mckee et al.). Stage III included all previous symptoms and the onset of cognitive impairment; stage IV results in the onset of dementia, word-finding difficulty, and aggression (Mckee et al.). CTE and the mental illnesses that come as a side affects of the disease can lead to such things as murder or suicide given that people suffering from CTE are hardly themselves. One such case is Junior Seau, a 20-year NFL veteran, who shot and killed himself on May 2nd, 2012 at the age of 43. After his death doctors discovered that he suffered from CTE (Fainaru-Wada, Avila, and Fainaru). The effects of concussions are not limited to CTE and studies show that among NFL players with three or more concussions are much more likely to develop early-onset dementia than the general population. Concussions are a dangerous part of football and the long term consequences of concussions is downright terrifying.

The question of whether the National Football League should be more concerned with limiting concussions or lower body injuries is a serious topic. Although lower body injuries are serious and important to take note of, concussions are a much bigger issue. Lower body injuries have the ability to alter careers and the ability of players, but concussions have the capability of completely changing someone's personality. Since the most important thing to athletes is the ability to compete, not their mental health years after retirement, if we leave the daunting task of protecting players from concussions to the players, no change will occur. In order to spark significant change that will result in serious strides in player safety, the movement must come from people who don't compete and see the big picture instead of solely thinking about athletic performance. The only real way to protect football players from concussions is if the executives of the NFL come together and take a firm stance on player safety, regardless on the outcries of athletes. This stance can be made by creating rules that will protect more players and by investing in better equipment that could protect the players from concussions. Most people would not take this argument seriously, assuming that this issue only impacts NFL players. These people must understand that the NFL's actions will impact athletics as a whole. The rules and protocols the NFL implements will trickle down and change the way every level of football is played. In addition to football, the stance the NFL takes on player safety will impact every major sport and every level of the respective sport. As the most popular sport in the United States, if the NFL takes a stand now on promoting player safety and limiting head injuries it will start a wave of change that other contact-heavy sports, like hockey and wrestling, will follow. Thus creating a safer environment for all athletes to compete and have fun without fear of concussions or jeopardizing their mental health later in life.

