It seemed like just another brutal football practice in the middle of August with temperatures exceeding 90 degrees.  My body was weak from the countless number of sprints we had run, and I was sweating more than ever under the weight of my pads.  The coach blew his whistle three times and everyone on the team knew what that meant, the nutcracker drill.  The nutcracker was a drill in which players collided heads in an effort to knock the other player down.  My name was called first, followed by "Royster," our starting left tackle who seemingly lived to hit people.  The whistle blew and the next thing I knew I was lying on the ground with a medic asking me questions.  I went head on with Royster and immediately went unconscious.  I could not remember the beginning of the practice; needless to say I had suffered a concussion.  I spent the next two weeks in my room with the lights off.  If I even tried to look at my phone or a television set, my brain would start hurting.  I was scared for my life and wondered if I would ever be the same again.    

Every Sunday, millions of Americans are glued to their television sets.  Whether or not we have a good day is based on the outcome of our favorite team's game.  The fast paced, colorful game of football is an American born form of entertainment that has taken over the sports world.  In 2012, there were 1.1 million concussions suffered by football players at all levels. (headcasecompany.com) 61% of former professional football players suffered at least 1 serious concussion during their time in the league. (CBSsports.com) Today, over 100 former NFL players have lost their ability to think clearly and have died at an early age because of the numerous amounts of concussions received while playing football (headcasecompany.com).  Several thousand former NFL players and families have sued the NFL over head injuries (headcasecompany.com).  Men are committing suicide as a result of living a life as a football player.  Today, football players are faster, stronger, and bigger than ever before.  Now more than ever, football is becoming an extremely dangerous game.  Football needs to make a major change, and I believe that change is fully adapting the rugby style tackle into the game, ultimately getting rid of the way football players are used to hitting.  This would limit head injuries because rugby tackling consists of the defender placing his head behind the runner and using his shoulders to stop the runner instead of using his head.  

Dr. Bennet Omalu was the first to discover chronic traumatic encephalopathy, most commonly known as CTE, a brain disease found in several former NFL players. (Ott, Tim) Dr. Omalu is a forensic pathologist, someone who performs autopsies.  He discovered CTE when he dissected Mike Webster, a long time center for the world champion Pittsburgh Steelers (Ott, Tim).  In 2006, tragic news broke out that left the football world in shock.  Former Philadelphia Eagles star Andre Waters committed suicide by shooting himself.  After Omalu dissected Waters, it was evident that he suffered from CTE. (Ott, Tim) Many NFL suicides followed, including Dave Duerson, Ray Easterling, and Junior Seau, who by one estimate suffered as many as 1,500 concussions in his career. (Avila, Jim) On May 2nd, 2012, Junior Seau shot himself in the head.  This came as a complete shock to many but not to his loved ones who saw a dramatic change in Seau's everyday actions.  Junior's ex-wife, Gina said "The difference with Junior from an emotional standpoint was how detached he became emotionally.  It was so obvious to me because early, many, many years ago, he used to be such a phenomenal communicator.  If there was a problem in any relationship, whether it was between us or a relationship with one of his coaches or teammates or someone in the business world, he would sit down and talk about it." (Avila, Jim) His son Tyler saw his dad lose his temper in many occasions saying "He would sometimes lose his temper; he would get irritable over very small things. And he would take it out on not just myself but also other people that he was close to. And I didn't understand why." (Avila, Jim) Seau played 20 seasons in the NFL and was credited with over 1400 tackles, yet he was never credited with suffering a concussion.  Never once did Seau miss a game because of a head injury, but ended his own life after suffering serious brain damage.  (Avila, Jim)

Even though the problem of head injuries is increasing, so is the time and money being put into new equipment.  The NFL has sought help from the US military, who has studied and done much research on designing the perfect helmet (Foster, Tom).  The Military has come up with highly advanced helmets, able to sustain a bullet.  Some helmets today are designed with a head impact telemetry system, a device that can measure the degree of the hit sustained. (Foster, Tom) The Riddell Speed helmet is a newly designed helmet that is said to lessen concussions. (Foster, Tom) The problem with these new helmets is that they are much more expensive.  NFL and college football teams will be able to afford them but they are too expensive for some high school and most youth football programs.  The low income, inner city football players are barely able to pay the base fee.  They will certainly be unable to afford helmets that can cost upwards of $500. (Foster, Tom) Not only that, but I believe the helmets are a huge part of the problem.  More often than not, the helmet is used as a weapon instead of protecting the player.  Therefore, this cannot be a realistic solution to the problem.  The only true solution is a change in the way the game is played, that being to eliminate the way football players are taught to tackle and learn to tackle like rugby players instead.

Rugby was created in 1823 in London, England (Wikipedia.com).  It was hugely popular in England and still is to this day.  When our ancestors immigrated into this country, they brought with them their rituals and the games they played.  Rugby was played at university's in the United states during the mid 1800's.  In 1880, a great rugby player from Yale, named Walter Camp, pioneered rule changes that slowly transformed rugby into the new game of American football. (profootballhof.com) In rugby, for a player to successfully score a try, he must touch the ball down in the end zone.  From this came the term "Touchdown," which we hear all the time in football.  Most people do not know that the game of football originated from rugby.  The addition of pads and coaches teaching their players to stop the runner with their heads and necks only made this new game much more dangerous.  A football helmet is not used for protection but more so as a weapon.  Rugby was the only contact game being played and there was only one, safe way to tackle which consists of the tackler placing his head behind the runner and using his shoulders to stop the ball carrier instead of placing his head and neck in front of the ball carrier.  The sport needs to take a lesson from its ancestor and bring back they way in which they used to tackle.

When the concussion crisis rose to the surface a few years back, Pete Carroll, the head coach of the Seattle Seahawks, decided to change the way his team played in an effort to keep them safe (Clegg, Jonathon).  Carroll began teaching his players to execute rugby tackles instead of football tackles, which is simply the only way players know how to tackle.  A rugby tackle is much safer in that the tackler places his head behind the runner instead of in front or across the body.  This essentially prevents head injuries because the shoulders and upper body is what is receiving the impact, instead of the head.  Carroll was very vocal in teaching this, releasing many videos to the public demonstrating the tackle.  Carroll realized that this was a much safer form of tackling and would reduce his team's injuries.  His team not only practiced this new form, but they did so without helmets or pads.  Practicing without a helmet forces the player to learn to hit without using his head.  A few years later, the Seattle Seahawks won the super bowl and were credited with having one of the best defenses in NFL history (Clegg, Jonathon).  Not only were these players relentless on the field, but they were able to stay healthy. They went the entire season without one member of their defense missing a game because of a concussion (Clegg, Jonathon).  

Carroll came up with a great idea in doing this and that is to practice without a helmet or shoulder pads.  An article from consumer.healthday.com explains how and why this could be the change in the future that the sport of football needs.  "We've found a way to decrease the number of impacts in the sport of football," said study author Erik Swartz, chair of kinesiology at the University of New Hampshire (Dotinga, Randy).  "It's natural, by doing these drills without helmets, we take advantage of their vulnerability when their heads aren't protected.  They'll naturally keep their heads out of contact." (Dotinga, Randy) In this study, researchers randomly split 50 NCAA division 1 football players from the University of New Hampshire into two groups of 25 (Dotinga, Randy).  One group practiced as normal with helmets, while the other spent five minutes once or twice a week doing tackling drills without helmets or shoulder pads. (Dotinga, Randy) Researchers studied data from sensors the players wore on their skin.  The study revealed that those who went through the helmet-less practices had 30 percent fewer head impacts over the season compared to those who practiced with helmets (Dotinga, Randy).  This article says that this demonstration was simply a football practice without pads, but it is exactly the same as a rugby practice.  I have been playing rugby my entire live and have been through a few hundred practices.  During rugby practice, we go through tackling drills anywhere from 20-45 minutes in which we practice using our shoulders to bring the runner down and stop his momentum.  I know from experience that the more repetitions a player goes through, the more the tackle becomes second nature.

In 2014, Chris Ash was hired as the defensive coordinator for the Ohio State football team (Briggs, David). Months after he was hired, Chris came across a 15-minute instructional video which featured Pete Carroll teaching his team to execute only rugby tackles. (Briggs, David) Chris proposed to the veteran coaches of Ohio State to not only alter the way his team tackled, but to begin teaching a new sport. (Briggs, David) A year later, the buckeyes went on to win the National Championship.  That year they were known as the best tackling defense in college football.  It was not only successful because of the lack of injuries but because it is a more effective way to tackle a powerful running back.  Ash said "The goal is to stop the leg drive of a running back.  You get a big running back against a smaller defensive guy, and he's going to run through a lot of tackles.  But by stopping the leg drive because you're wrapping the knees and thighs, you're able to stop ball carriers a lot easier that way." (Briggs, David) Ash is now the head coach at Rutgers University, where he has changed the way the Rutgers players tackle (Briggs, David).  Ash is now known as a very successful football coach, only teaching his players to perform rugby tackles.  He has eliminated the very dangerous football tackle from the game of football.  

When trying to find evidence opposing my argument, I would search google for "Articles supporting the safety of football and the NFL."  The first article to come up jumped out at me; It is titled "Study reveals that playing high school football is just as dangerous as being in the band, glee club, or choir." (Samuels, Doug) This article caught my attention because this is a very bold claim and I have not heard anything like this before.  The article's main piece of evidence comes from a study done by Ed Riley.  The research conducted was done in a medical lab in which doctors studied the brains of non football players and said that they found some examples of brains that had been damaged. (Samuels, Doug) Ed Riley is brothers with Mike Riley, the head coach of the Nebraska football team.  The Riley family is a football family, all of Ed's children play football and the game is a major part of his life. (Samuels, Doug)) Obviously Ed wants to give off the impression that football is safe and has done so without specific evidence. The article also comes from footballscoop.com, a website that generates all of its revenue talking about football and everything that is great about football.  There is obviously a strong bias in this article.  I do not believe that any of this is true.  1 in 5 high school football players are diagnosed with a concussion. (headcasecompany.com) Relatively no members of the band or glee club are ever diagnosed with a concussion while participating in their activity.  This was one of the only articles distinctly arguing that football is a safe game.  

I have played rugby my entire life.  I quit football my senior year of high school, a season in which I was anticipating starting both ways. I quit because my school hired a new football coach and because of his mentality regarding hitting, I felt it was unsafe to play under his leadership.  I have played both sports my entire life and experienced the difference in hitting first hand.  When I am on the rugby pitch, I always feel safe.  Even when I know I am going to be tackled I do not worry because I know that the tackler was taught to wrap up my legs and place his head behind me, making for a smooth fall to the ground.  The NFL is one of the most popular enterprises in the world, but the game of football is becoming so dangerous that former players are dying and the youth rate of participation is decreasing significantly.  Football coaches need to take a lesson from the sport of rugby, the game in which football originated from, and teach their players the proper way to hit.  If all players were taught to tackle properly, the game of football would become much safer and the ongoing dispute of whether or not this game should be played would end. 

