The present American culture is heavily sports-minded. Americans invest a significant amount of time and money into sports. Professional athletes are held as idols to the public, some of the most popular being NFL and NCAA football superstars.  American football is one of the most beloved sports in the country, in fact 38.8% of Americans claim football as their favorite sport. The Super Bowl is the most watched sporting event across the country by a long shot with a record of about 111.5 million viewers. Unfortunately, due to the growing concern of head trauma injuries caused by head to head contact in football, the media portrays it as if it is at risk for lasting more than a decade down the road. The NFL has received over 4,500 lawsuits from former players regarding head trauma or CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy). CTE is a disease developed by repeated head trauma and has similar symptoms to Dementia and Alzheimer's. The NFL's on going battle with its concussion litigation is a call for action to do anything possible to save the sport from extinction. Multiple former players have released statements saying that they would be hesitant to let their son play football due to the concern of concussions. While it is a growing popular opinion that the future of football is rather short, there has been a significant amount of rulebook and concussion protocol changes along with advancements in the technology of the helmet that will safeguard the future of this great sport. 

The main threat posed to the future of football comes from the NFL's concussion litigation. As previously stated above, more than 4,500 former athletes who suffer from diseases like Dementia, Alzheimer's, and CTE, had sued the NFL in complaints that they were not offered the correct treatment or concussion protocol and rushed back onto the field (NFL.com). This all arose from the discovery of the disease CTE. CTE has been linked to be a result of concussions and repeated minor head trauma. In a study on CTE, research was conducted on 100 former NFL athletes. Ninety-five percent of these athletes tested positive for Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (Breech). The information found in this research is astounding at first glance. But, also stated in this article, over 40% of patients were offensive and defensive linemen (Breech). These two positions alone are arguably the most physically demanding positions on the field. Playing the role of an offensive or defensive linemen consists of head to head contact on every play between 250 to 300 pound men. This shows inaccuracy in the study, which lightens the room for improvements that need to be made in order to save the sport. 

Many efforts are already being made in order to prevent more cases like this from increasing, including NFL rule changes. As stated in an article on Forbes.com, "39 changes have been made to improve safety, including the recent decision to have spotters who can stop the game and pull a player who might have suffered a head injury" (Diamond). The fact that the NFL has already made 39 rule changes in order to better protect players proves that the NFL is moving in the right direction on working towards saving the sport of football. These efforts are even receiving results. For example, Roger Goodell, the NFL commissioner, told 60 Minutes that concussions have gone down 35% since 2012 (Diamond). Efforts in youth and high school football are also being made nationwide to protect these athletes. Found in an article written by Jacob Key on sports law, every state, with the exception of Hawaii, has passed a form of legislation that informs parents, coaches, medical staff, and athletes about the risks of concussions and how to prevent them. There are also twenty-five states that now require coaches to undergo mandatory courses that cover concussion prevention and management (Key 444). 

Although protocol advancements and rule changes are in place, the competitive nature of these athletes will always pose a threat of danger to their personal health. For example, I played full contact tackle football from the third grade every single year ending with my senior year in high school. To put that into perspective, I played 10 straight years of football with head to head contact every single day for about 6 months out of the year. I was only ever diagnosed with one concussion, I never tried "toughing it out" when my head hurt due to a hard hit. With that being said, the fact that I have only been diagnosed with one concussion, while playing at a highly competitive level of high school football, our medical staff followed a strict protocol when dealing with an athlete that may have a concussion including exclusion from play until a full week after symptoms subside. 

The improvement of safety protocol along with in-game rule changes only accounts for about half of the effort to prevent long term head injuries. Technological advances in helmets are the biggest factor on the effort to tackle the concussion issue of football. As stated by the New Orleans Saints head coach, Sean Payton, "If you took the analogy of an automobile in the '60s and '70s and how much of the impact passengers received in a collision and fast-forward to where we are now ... I think the same thing is happening and needs to happen with the helmet that we're wearing. So what we're used to right now as a helmet, I think, is going to change at warp speed right in front of our eyes in the next two or three years" (Wilson). Advancements in technology like this are exactly what is happening, football fanatics are avidly working towards improving helmet technology. For example, a TED Talk by Juliana Maria Bain titled "Can Technology Save Football?" shows exactly how much of a difference that improvements to the helmet can make. Juliana has developed a patent-pending helmet design that she claims can reduce concussive impacts to the head by up to 80%. If this technology that she has developed can be implemented into common football helmets, then the sport will be revolutionized and therefore its future is being reestablished. Big name helmet manufacturers are putting in their fair share of work as well to improve helmet technology. Riddell is the nations #1 football helmet manufacturer. Riddell has developed a new helmet called the SpeedFlex. An article written about the SpeedFlex by Riddell states, the SpeedFlex includes a polymer-film lining that develops a charge when impact pressure is applied. To reduce severity of collisions, the helmets' crown is fitted with a flexible panel that absorbs the impact. The helmet is also fitted with sensors that record the severity of impacts to the head of a specific player and sends that information to the sidelines. So if the medical staff receives an alert that a player has received a significant collision involving the head, they can pull the player off the field and conduct protocol to ensure the athletes safety (Griggs). Technology advancements like this are skyrocketing, which proves that football is on its way up and not its way out. From personal experience, my high school football coach would buy the newest helmets available in order to protect his athletes from concussive blows. Unfortunately, not every youth or high school football program can afford to fund these new and improved helmets; which is why a growing concern of head trauma injuries in football is increasing among parents, influencing their decision of letting their sons play football at a young age.

Youth football participation across the country is the key to keeping the higher level participation in football at a steady level. If the youth stop playing football, it is only a matter of time until universities don't have enough players to have a football team which then filters into less players entering the NFL draft. This is a huge concern for the future of the sport. An article written by Charles Wheelan titled "Football Has No Future" addresses the decline in youth football participation. Wheelan is the father of a 7th grader who plays football for his middle school. Entering his sons 7th grade season, he was one of four kids who showed up for the first day of football practice. His son's middle school did not have enough kids show up to even assemble a team, and no longer have a football team for their middle school. Growing parental concern about the safety of their sons playing football can be detrimental to the future of the sport if the technology and safety protocol advancements is not sped up. If middle school football teams decline across the country, then high schools will not have football teams, therefore leading to the extinction of the sport. A TED Talk by Kim Gorgens, titled "Protecting the Brain Against Concussions" is another example of concern among parents. Gorgens is the mother of a son who is interested in playing the sport of football, but she is concerned about the overall health risk that comes with playing football. She explains that the underdeveloped brain is much more vulnerable to concussions and not nearly as suitable for recovery. Her main claim is that better protection against concussions is essential, especially for the youth. Gorgens and Wheelan are two examples of parents with first hand experience of parental concern for their children's health pertaining to participating in playing football. Although these articles may prove the uncertainty of the future of football as a whole, what they do not realize is that these advancements are, and will continue to be made in order to save the sport. 

With that being said, it may seem as if football really is at risk. But, to support my claim even further, football may not be in as much danger as the public may think. Television ratings for football is higher than ever. For example, the NFL's ratings are record breaking. Last year the NFL had 202 million viewers, while being viewed on about 80% of the nations televisions (Diamond). This shows that even though the concussion concern is a threatening issue, Americans still tune in every Saturday, Sunday, and Monday to watch their favorite sport. With that being said, Dan Diamond also stated that the NFL's finances still remain strong despite the $900 million dollars in lawsuits. In fact, the NFL had nearly $1 billion dollars in record profit last season, and will most likely continue to grow as the amount of viewers continues to increase. With that being said, many NFL players are starting to retire young in concern of personal health. Examples include players BJ Raji who recently retired at age 29, Marshawn Lynch who also just recently retired at age 29, and Chris Borland who retired at the age of 24. The growing popularity of retiring at an early age in the NFL still shows little concern to the future of the sport. Dan Diamond also stated on a Forbes.com article that, "For every one player like 24 year old Chris Borland who retires early, rattled by concussions or the fear of them, there have been dozens of others who have fought to take his place" (Diamond). This alone proves that the future of football isn't as uncertain as the public may think. 

A major reason that the future of football is to the point of uncertainty is the influence of the media. The media reports every "interesting" piece of information that deals with concussions that occur in the sport of football. More times than not, the media is going to report the negative facts about rising concussion rates in football and so on. Information about the effort to improve the safety of players is rarely reported by the media, therefore leading to parental and player concern about their health and the risks that may come with participating in the sport of football. For example, as found in an article written by Sean Dotson, concussions without treatment increase the chance of mortality of receiving repeated concussions by up to 50%. He also states that repeated head to head contact and minor head trauma injuries can lead to major problems with the underdeveloped brain, hence the growing concern by parents to let their youth play football. Also, an article written by Zack Furness titled, "Reframing Concussions, Masculinity, And NFL Mythology In League of Denial" which references the overall view of the NFL portrayed by the media. Furness refers to a documentary called "League in Denial" and refers to its contents as NFL Mythology. The major claim of this article is that the media is ruining the image of the NFL due to these concussions and adding onto the lack of protocol needed for these in-game injuries. Such as the fact that the media frequently covers formal NFL players who have developed CTE and then commenting saying that its just "part of the sport" which gives a negative connotation and infers that all players will endure these traumatic head injuries just from participating in the sport. 

At this point, you can see that footballs' future may not be as shaky as you had originally thought, but there is still a lot more to be done in order to ensure that football stays around for many years to come. In an article written by Dan Polnerow titled, "Solving Football's Concussion Problem" he writes about what exactly needs to be done to essentially eliminate the noise of football's concussion problem. Polnerow states that "Despite the best efforts of the leagues, the players, and the medical and engineering communities, the incidence of injury at all levels of the game continues to increase.  This pattern will likely continue until three crucial changes come about: the effect that different impacts have on players must be quantified, the causes of concussion need to be better understood and more reliably diagnosed by the medical community, and a more complete testing procedure for helmets has to be developed and implemented.  Until these issues are addressed, there will not be enough evidence to identify the most effective way to prevent players from concussion" (Polnerow). Polnerow is absolutely correct. The crucial changes that absolutely need to happen are advancements in concussion protocol as a whole and advancements in the technology of the helmet. If you haven't already noticed, I previously stated multiple examples of those exact changes actively occurring today. The evidence that I have given reveals that the future of football is not as "uncertain" as one may think, and that efforts are being made to safeguard the sports future and its' athletes, and will continue to be made. 

To conclude, football is America's favorite sport. Over 111.5 million people watch the Super Bowl every year and the number of viewers is continuing to rise. The popularity of this sport can only take it so far. A growing concern with the safety of football due to head trauma injuries such as concussions that can lead to more serious diseases like Dementia, Alzheimer's, and CTE pose a major threat to the existence of the sport. The NFL is actively battling its concussion litigation with over 4,500 lawsuits from former NFL players claiming that they did not receive the correct medical attention regarding head injuries. The NFL is making a number of efforts trying to save this sport from extinction and settle the concussion litigation. 39 rule changes have been implemented into the game including a "targeting" penalty and a head to head contact penalty. Along with these rule changes many more concussion protocol advancements have been made including legislation requiring coaches to undergo mandatory concussion prevention courses. Technology advancements are actively being researched for example, Riddell's new SpeedFlex helmet as well as Juliana Bain's patent-pending helmet technology that can decrease concussive impacts by up to 80%. Despite the concrete evidence that effort is being made to lighten football's concussion problem, the media and others still only report the negative things that have to due with the concussion problem. Including early retirement among NFL players due to health concern, growing parental concern, and youth participation decreasing. So, with the information that the public is given, football is absolutely a dying sport. With the correct information, one can see that improvements are actively being made in order to protect the sport of football and its' athletes. 

