In a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, “110 of 111 National Football League (99%) players” (Mez) whose brains were studied after they died were found to have CTE, which according to the Boston University CTE Research Center is,” Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) is a progressive degenerative disease of the brain found in people with a history of repetitive brain trauma”, (BU). CTE is mainly associated with people who play contact sports where head injuries are likely such as football, the most popular sport in America. Super bowl 51 according to the Nielsen company drew in “111.3 million viewers” (Nielsen) and according to Forbes revenue for the NFL was projected to have over 13 billion dollars in revenue in 2016. Football is obviously not just an extremely popular sport but a massive business for the 30 cities that currently are home to an NFL team, many being major metropolitan areas. With this massive amount of revenue and money switching hands it is obvious to see why football is so important to many public and private officials, even with a hidden crisis emerging in recent years. In the past decade and a half evidence has come out that football, something as American as the flag or the Bald Eagle, is killing people. Even with the NFL trying to make some reparations to former players and the efforts to make the game safer such as eliminating helmet to helmet hits the game will never be able to get rid of the violent hits to the head and damage the game does to players. I would know this because even though the game changed a lot from my first year of pee-wee football to my senior year of high school and the fact I didn’t even play professional or college football, the sport left a physical toll and emotional toll on me. I tore my left ACL twice and cracked my rib my senior year yet those are mild compared to the concussions I suffered from football. I had three during my football career and after my last one I must take sleeping medication to help me fall asleep most nights and I can’t stand bright lights at all and must wear prescription sunglasses to help cope with this even at night. I also started having emotional problems and although I cannot be 100 percent sure football caused them directly I started to have panic attacks and fits of rage and now I am forced to take medication every night which makes my hands shake and prevents me from sleeping but also regulates my mood. I am writing this essay to help prevent anyone else from getting their lives ruined by a form of entertainment like I believe mine in many aspects was. Football is too dangerous of a sport for people to play because it is associated with CTE, has been shown to cause behavior problems in children, and there are other sports that people can play that are not associated with CTE.

According to Dr. Bertrand Huber, “Repeated concussive and sub concussive trauma is associated with the later development of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a neurodegenerative disease associated with clinical symptoms in multiple domains and a unique pattern of pathologic changes. CTE has been linked to boxing and American football” (Huber). Although we know now about the dangers of football concussions were not taken seriously in football until recently. In the year 2002 according to the PBS documentary “League of Denial” Dr. Bennet Omalu went to do an autopsy on former Pittsburgh Steeler’s center Mike Webster. According to “League of Denial” during the 1970’s Mike Webster led the Pittsburgh Steelers famous offensive line in its effort to protect quarterback Terry Bradshaw from opposing defensive linemen and help lead the team to four Super Bowl titles in one decade, a feat unmatched to this day. His toughness and overall great play endeared himself to city of Pittsburgh and helped him get inducted into the Professional football Hall of Fame once his career was done. 

 Even though he had a Hall of Fame career, he did not have nearly as glamorous of a retirement. Before his death his wife had left him, reportedly suffered fits of rage and memory loss, and during the last few years of his life lived out of his truck with his teenage son. He died of a heart attack and subsequently an autopsy was performed. His body had all the signs of a former NFL with the years of battling opposing defensive linemen obviously taking its toll. However according to Omalu his brain on the outside was perfectly normal. It was once he searched the inside part of Webster’s brain he came to discover evidence of CTE. 

Dr. Bennet examining Mike Webster’s brain became an important moment in NFL because according to the documentary that was the beginning of the NFL’s concussion crisis. In the years since the autopsy, players such as Junior Seaua, Hall of fame linebacker for the formerly known as the San Diego Chargers who are now called the Los Angeles Chargers, and countless others post-mortem have been diagnosed with CTE. The saddest thing though is according to PBS the NFL didn’t admit publicly that football can cause permanent and total brain damage for many years even though in Mike Webster’s disability application acceptance notice the NFL states privately (the letter was not released to the public for many years) that football can cause brain damage. The NFL didn’t admit publicly that they believe in a link between the CTE and the sport of football until 2016 when according to an ESPN article,” The admission came during a roundtable discussion on concussions convened by the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Energy and Commerce. Jeff Miller, the NFL's senior vice president for health and safety, was asked by Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., if the link between football and neurodegenerative diseases such as CTE has been established. "The answer to that question is certainly yes," Miller said” (Fainaru). Even the NFL knew that concussions were a problem in professional football and ever since the discovery of CTE in a former NFL player the game of football and sports science has reacted. Articles and studies have been published on the science of CTE and how football could cause it and the league has since banned helmet to helmet hits to reduce concussions while also encouraging below the waist hits when making a tackle.

According to Dr. Rosemarie Moser, author of “Ahead of the Game: The Parents’ Guide to Youth Sports Concussion”, CTE, also known as gridiron dementia, has symptoms that include,” headaches, insomnia, memory loss, behavioral and mood disorders, violence, and suicidal thoughts.” (Moser 5). Many prominent NFL players such as Mike Webster and Junior Seau were found to have CTE diagnosed post-mortem. Former Chicago Bears safety Dave Duerson shot himself in the heart and his note asked for his brain to be studied and after death his brain was noted as,” Duerson suffered from a neurodegenerative disease linked to concussions, and that played a role in triggering his depression” (Farmer 1).

Even though the league and doctors have tried to make the game safer in “League of Denial” it is stated that every time someone is tackled their body moves back but their brain is still moving forward. These hits add up over time and according to the concussion foundation the biggest cause of CTE is,” the best available evidence points towards sub-concussive impacts, or hits to the head that don’t cause full-blown concussions, as the biggest factor” (Legacy). This means that CTE is most likely caused by repeated hits to the head that don’t cause concussions, which is a staple of football. If even the most common hits to the head and normal tackles cause CTE then why are we letting people play football. You can’t take out tackling in football and still have it be football. Therefore, football should be banned because CTE is commonly found in former football players of all different skills level, even children and teens playing football who don’t play professional can still develop brain problems from football, and there are other options to football for sport entertainment.

According to a study published in Translational Psychiatry," In this sample of 214 former American football players, those who began playing football before age 12 had >2 × increased odds for clinically meaningful impairments in reported behavioral regulation, apathy, and executive function, and >3 × increased odds for clinically elevated depression scores, compared with those who began playing at 12 or older” (Alosco). This means that of the 214 former football players studied they were more than two times as likely than a person who did not play football before they were 12 to have trouble regulating and controlling their behavior and more than three times as likely to have elevated depression scores. This quote shows us that putting children out into a dangerous game, one where contact and hits to the head are inevitable and even the most regular looking hit puts children’s emotional state at risk and makes them less likely to be a functioning member of society and robs them of an emotionally healthy life that all people deserve especially children who.

In a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association researches found that,” Among 202 deceased former football players (median age at death, 66 years [interquartile range, 47-76 years]), CTE was neuropathologically diagnosed in 177 players (87%; median age at death, 67 years [interquartile range, 52-77 years]; mean years of football participation, 15.1 [SD, 5.2]), including 0 of 2 pre-high school, 3 of 14 high school (21%), 48 of 53 college (91%), 9 of 14 semiprofessional (64%), 7 of 8 Canadian Football League (88%), and 110 of 111 National Football League (99%) players.” (Mez). This information shows us that a high percentage of football players at all levels from professional football to college to high school were diagnosed post mortem with CTE. The most astounding statistic is that of 111 former NFL players brains studied 99% were found to have CTE. This shows that once you get into the highest rank of football in the world since you are playing against amazing athletes and therefore receiving spectacular hits your risk of CTE increases exponentially. Also, of 53 college players brains studied 91% were found to have symptoms of CTE. This shows that even if you quit before you get to the highest levels of the sport football can have such a horrific effect on one’s brain. However, one important statistic to note is that people who quit football after high school were much less likely to have CTE showing that quitting football earlier and not playing professional or heading to play college football might dramatically reduce your risk of developing CTE.

Some people will read the above information and offer rebuttals. One rebuttal towards criticism of football is from John Harbaugh, coach of the Baltimore Ravens and a Super Bowl winning coach, states,” Football is hard. It’s tough. It demands discipline. It teaches obedience. It builds character” (Harbaugh). While these statements might be true as football is a very tough sport with all the physicality involved and it does teach discipline and obedience as the amount of work and skill needed to make even the college level is astronomic all these traits can be taught in other sports and its not like other sports are not tough. Basketball players must run up the court constantly for 48 minutes and it takes a massive toll on one’s body especially at the professional level where you must do it for 82 games in a few months span. However even though it builds toughness the toll on one’s body, especially the brain and upper half, is nowhere near the toll football does and basketball is also not associated with possible life-threatening diseases like CTE. You might tear a ligament or break a bone but the chance of you getting a significant neurological disorder because you played basketball is miniscule compared to football. Also discipline and obedience can be taught in every sport. To make the NBA, PGA Tour, or US Women’s National soccer team, you need to have put it in a lot of hard work to get to the level and have the mental toughness to compete in a playoff or championship series. You must shoot thousands of shots, kicks, or strokes to make it to one of those leagues. These sports require just as much mental focus and precision as football, yet none are associated with the risk of death or otherwise horrific bodily injury that football is associated with. When you have a plethora of options to build the same amount of character and toughness, do you really need football?

Another common argument about football and head injuries is that to prevent concussions we should just make football helmets safer, which is a good idea in theory as the reason we wear helmets when playing football is to prevent head injuries and if they are not doing it adequately the why don’t we improve them. The problem with this idea is not that a concussion proof helmet cannot be made but as stated in article by Mark Wilson a quote from Dr. Timothy Gay, a helmet industry consultant says,” You can certainly make a helmet that’s concussion-proof,” Gay tells me later, countering his own argument that had just sounded so convincing. “All you have to do is put 15 inches of foam rubber on the outside of the helmet” (Wilson). This is obviously impossible as the helmet and the facemask is the hardest piece of equipment to deal with as it blocks some of your vision and playing with fifteen whole inches extra of foam rubber would just not be feasible. It would ruin the game of football as no one would want to play with a massive headset that you have to put on every time. There really is no way to feasible way to prevent concussions with helmets and have players who currently play willingly adopt helmets which will make them play worse. Also, if CTE is mainly associated with repeated blows to the head and not just concussions you will still not be solving or preventing the main risk factor for CTE.

I hope I have convinced you that football as a sport is too dangerous because of the head risk that are associated with it. Brain injuries from football are an important subject to talk about because according to Tom Farrey of ESPN,” A total of 1.23 million youth ages 6-12 played tackle football in 2015, up from 1.216 million the year before,” (Farrey). This means that for the most recent estimate of the number of football players the number of football players is increasing which is going to put more people at risk for CTE. CTE and football causes young children to lose control of their emotions and those children become grown men and living beings having lives ruined by a horrible disease that could have been prevented. There really is no other option to prevent concussions and repeated blows to the head than to ban football as you could not get people to adopt the massive foam rubber concussion proof helmet.
