Football is America’s favorite sport, and arguably its favorite entertainment industry. This mix of beautiful strategy, breath-taking skill, and brute strength has captivated spectators for decades. Fans have been falling in love with players and teams over the years, but recently a new player was introduced, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, commonly known as CTE. CTE can cause depression, suicide, impaired memory, paranoia, etc. (Omalu). Dr. Bennett Omalu was the leader in making the connection of CTE to football and was the first to take the issue to the NFL. Since this connection was made, many problems have arisen for the players, teams, team owners, and the league itself. Much controversy and many opposing sides have surfaced in the decision of how to address these problems. Also, players argue over whether health is more important than the love of the game. Some players retire early such as Calvin Johnson (Byrd) while some players claim the field would be “the perfect place to die” (Sportsnet). Some call for illegalizing football while others do not care about the medical research and want to see their beloved sport untouched and unchanged. However, in order to protect the players and this sport, steps must be taken to reduce head injuries and CTE. These steps include better insurance, more guaranteed money from contracts, and teaching players safer ways to play the game at a younger age.

The CTE crisis in the NFL started a decade ago with Dr. Omalu, and arguments still go on today about what should be done. There are some who believe that the NFL should just be abolished, Including Dave Bry. He is a columnist for the guardian, and even goes as far to call football and football’s fans “immoral.” Bry states that fans of football are putting their own entertainment and pleasure above the safety of the human beings playing the game, and he finds it barbaric. While it is easy to understand where Bry is coming from, it is important to look past this view to see all the positives football has on these players’ lives. To many players, football is more than just a job, hobby, or career; it is their passion that they have worked at every day of their life so that they could make a living doing what they love. For example, Jamal Adams, a rookie safety for the Jets, was quoted this past summer saying, “If I had a perfect place to die, I would die on the field” (Sportsnet) This quote proves that players such as Adams truly care more about playing the game they love than they care about the risks the game poses to their health. Destroying the league would destroy the next generation’s dreams and aspirations with it. So before getting rid of the passion of countless fans, players, future players, coaches, and many more, there should at least be an attempt at making the game safer for players’ short and long-term health.

The polar opposite view of some fans is that CTE should not bring on any changes at all. Not only should football still be legal, but it also shouldn’t change to compromise with safety of the players. The players that are at risk know full and well what they are subjecting themselves to and it is their fault if they get hurt. This is the type of fan that does not respect the game they claim to love. Fans should recognize the blood, sweat, and tears put into the game by these players and should want the best for them. It should be sad to hear about a CTE related death of a former player; it shouldn’t be just another typical case of CTE. Everyone who loves the sport should want the players to play in the safest environment possible, even if it slightly has to take away from the entertainment value of the sport. Sports go beyond the field they are played on; all of these players have lives outside of their sports and the least we can do as a thank you to them is support any change that would better their lives after their careers end. The safety of players should be thought of in a more practical sense as well. If the game is not made safer, less and less people will play the game because of the dangers it poses and eventually, the sport may just die out from lack of participation. In order to protect the future of the game and the future of the players, safety should be a number one concern for everyone who follows football.

The debate is no longer whether or not CTE, head trauma, and concussions are a risk to football players; that has already been established as common fact. Countless studies and examinations of deceased NFL players’ brains have led to the undeniable conclusion that football players have a higher chance of getting CTE than the average person. The NFL has even admitted that there is a connection between this life ruining disease and the game we all love. Thankfully, they have also started making changes to the game in an effort to protect the players (NFL.com). However, some naysayers believe that football is simply too brutal of a sport to be made safe. No amount of technique training or rule changes can change the brutal nature of football. Patrick Hruby is a strong critic of the sport and believes in this view. He thinks the terms “safer football” are a paradox because it is impossible for football to be safe. He quoted current and former football players to saying that they don’t believe any rule change can change the way players will tackle and collide in the game. Football plays require so much instinct and unconscious reactions to events that any “safe” techniques will be thrown out the window in a real game situation (Hruby). Additionally, these instinctive plays also mean any rule changes trying to prevent “dangerous” hits are pointless because no matter how much the hits are discouraged by these rules and fines, instincts will always kick in and cause these hits to occur (Hruby). I disagree with this point of view because according to Richard Wood, his tackling techniques have reduced the amount of dangerous hits his high school team are involved in (Culverhouse). More importantly, a study by the NFL done after the 2015 NFL season showed results that the amounts of these hits have been decreasing for the most part since some of these rule changes have been implemented (NFL.com). This study alone is enough to disprove the notion that rule changes cannot make the game safer, assuming that it is an accurate and unbiased study.

As mentioned earlier, that the NFL has already made the first steps towards making the game safer and they have already seen some progress. David Geier, an orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine specialist, likes the changes he has seen from the NFL. He points out many steps the NFL has taken in reducing head injuries such as requiring teams to have a healthcare providers and trainers at all games, working with companies such as GE and Under Armour to come up with ideas to further reduce injuries, and the targeting rule. The targeting rule is an in-game rule that prevents head on head collisions with defenseless players. Geier’s favorite rule change so far has been the requirement to have health officials on the sidelines of every game. These health officials include orthopedic surgeons, physicians, athletic trainers, chiropractors, neurosurgeons, dentists, ophthalmologists, x-ray technicians, etc. All of these specialists are ready on site at all times to help with injured players. This gives the players much better on-site health attention than ever before, and has been a huge contribution to helping players. Apparently, some of these rule changes have already had a positive impact according to studies conducted by the league. Since 2012, in-game concussions have decreased by 35%. Concussion causing helmet to helmet hits have dropped by 43%. Hits to defenseless players have dropped by 68% since 2013. All of this is according to the 2015 NFL Health and Safety Report (Geier). This report proves that football, a sport known for its brute force, can be made safer. However, if further changes are not made, more and more players and parents will turn away from the game because of the danger it poses to the human body.

 One change that can be made that would have an immediate impact on players would be to give players more guaranteed money in their contracts. While this obviously would not decrease the rate or severity of injuries, it will be more reasonable to the players since football is such an injury-prone game. Guaranteed money in a contract is the amount of money a player receives even after a season ending or even career ending injury. According to Mason Storm Byrd, football has relatively low amounts of guaranteed money in their contracts compared to other major sports such as basketball and baseball, despite being a much more dangerous sport. In layman terms, this just means that injured players in football receive less of their contract value than injured players in other sports get, although football players get injured at a higher rate. Guaranteed money essentially acts as insurance for players that get hurt, although they cannot do their job anymore, they still get payed because they are unable to do anything else. It must be a slap in the face for a football player to know that he is more likely to get injured than a baseball player, and make less money than the baseball player if both were to get hurt. So not only are football players subjecting their body to more damage and more likely to get injured, they are also making less money once they are out. This without a doubt turns potential players away from football in favor of a more lucrative and less dangerous sport. The simple fix to this is to give players more guaranteed money in their contracts. We all know that the league, teams, and team owners have millions of dollars to spare and the only thing stopping this positive change from happening is their greed.

A long-term solution to the CTE crisis is to teach safer football habits to youth players. I was drawn to this approach when I noticed the decline in youth participation in football around the country. A Chicago Tribune article by John Keilman talks about declining youth participation in the Chicago area. The Chicagoland Youth Football League reported roughly 2,500 less kids signing up for football than from 10 years ago. The president of that league cites head injuries as the main reason for the decrease in participation. In order to make youth leagues safer, safer techniques must be taught to kids across the nation. This can kill two birds with one stone; if all youth leagues are made safer, this should make the NFL safer in the future since these kids will grow up with the same safer techniques. In an interview with Gay Culverhouse, Richard Wood, a current high school football coach and a former NFL player himself, believes that his team does not get injured often because of the habits and techniques he teaches them, and the conditioning they go through. Good conditioning better prepares the players’ bodies to withstand more hits and makes them less susceptible to injuries. His habits, most importantly not leading hits with the head, also cut back on injuries by preventing players from putting themselves in dangerous situations. So basically, his habits and techniques reduce the amount of dangerous hits the players endure, and his conditioning increases the amount of hits that his players can tolerate. I believe that the NFL should assist youth leagues around the nation in teaching their young pupils these safe practices in an effort to make these safer techniques more widespread and common. If these new techniques become part of the basic fundamentals of football, then safety will be ingrained into the game. The hits can still be hard, but less threatening. Players can still play their hardest without fear of abusing their bodies.

If the league or teams do not make the necessary changes, it is in the hands of the football players themselves to make this change happen. Byrd believes that the NFLPA (National Football League Players’ Association) can use its collective bargaining powers to attempt to force guaranteed money and possibly other beneficial rule changes out of the league using CTE and other issues as strong points in their case. The prominence of CTE coupled with other issues such as declining youth participation and early retirements can give players the leverage needed to litigate the league into making these changes. Even former players are putting pressure on the NFL to make this change and others by filing lawsuits claiming they were not payed enough for what they went through, or their health issues were neglected by the league which knew about the head injuries. According to McCauley Williams, 4,500 former players reached a settlement which is costing the NFL $765 million. The league has been known in the past to hide what they know and not put forth the best effort when it comes to protecting their player, but financial pressure of this magnitude can potentially force the NFL into working with players better in the future.

The NFL has been taking hits over concussions, CTE, and overall player health. I as a fan would love to see the players taken better care of so that the game can be watched with no precautions. However, I do not see many more conventional rule-changes the NFL can make to help the game, rules such as targeting. Additionally, the NFL has and is still working with companies to make better equipment so that issue is also taken care of at the moment. In my opinion, the best ways to continue to go about making this beautiful game safer is for the league to work with youth leagues to spread safer practices across all groups. That will fix the game in the long run, but until then I firmly believe the NFL should help players by giving them more guaranteed money in their contracts to make sure players can financially support themselves in the event of a major injury or concussion. Whatever the NFL and even other leagues decide to do, player safety must be the number one concern going forward so that America’s game will survive.
