Within the world of professional sports in the United States, football is king. No sporting event in all of North America comes close to rivaling the National Football League’s (NFL) Super Bowl, based on its media coverage, ratings and, of course, the overall spectacle of the game itself. Professional football receives the highest ratings draws for live sports programming in the United States. The popularity of the game is unrivaled. According to a 2015 Harris Poll, 33 percent of Americans chose football as their favorite sport. 

Professional football is also a big business. The NFL is the world’s richest sporting league (Isidore Paragraph 1). It is estimated that the NFL earned nearly $14 billion dollars during the 2016-2017 season (Belzer Paragraph 2). This does not take into consideration the revenue of the television and cable outlets broadcasting the games. And the sport’s popularity continues to grow. Not only for those fans who watch the games, but for those who play the game.

According to data from the Sports & Fitness Industry Association, a total of 1.23 million youth ages 6-12 played tackle football in 2015(Statista). In 2015-2016, nearly 1.1 million American high school athletes and over 70,000 college athletes played football in the United States (Jeffery Paragraph 1). All of these kids are chasing the dream of becoming an elite NFL player and earning the fame and fortune; the average NFL salary is $1.9 million a year (Belzer), that comes with it.

Despite this popularity, the sport has come under fire recently. Researchers and other pundits claim that America’s favorite sport may not be safe, and could seriously be affecting players’ lives. Specifically, those who play in the NFL risk injury every time they step on the field. One single hit can dramatically alter their quality of life. Many times, these injuries force them out of the game entirely; sometimes by choice and other times because a team refuses to pick them up because of a perceived injury. Injuries are not the only factors that force a player out of the game. There are other factors affecting football players’ lives after they leave the league, including the media, and financial woes. In order for the sport to maintain its popularity and viability, the NFL and fans of the game need to determine if the risks to playing the game are worth the potential long-term negative effects. 

It is not new news that football players, especially those in the NFL, get injured often and easily. In fact, over the last 100 years, researchers have been examining and discussing football players’ safety. Countless studies have been conducted to see if there are links between severe brain injury and playing football. A recent survey done by the AAN has concluded, “more than 40% of retired National Football League players… had signs of traumatic brain injury based on sensitive MRI scans called diffusion tensor imaging” (Andrews paragraph 2). Along with these results, the study also demonstrated the correlation between brain damage and how long the player participated in the NFL (Andrews paragraph 4).  Forty percent is a significant number of players with severe brain injury, considering approximately 2000 men are playing in the NFL every year, who play for 3.5 years on average (Holstein 45). In another study, researchers stated that over forty percent of former NFL players had irregular brain structures. They also concluded that half of those players studied had problems with executive functions; the more time they played in the league, the less efficient their executive functions were (Park paragraph 2). Therefore, the lead scientist recommended that the NFL should find ways to reduce trauma to the brain. It is likely to be concluded that the expert would recommend to players to stop playing in the NFL, but a total ban on the sport is very unrealistic. Thus, the scientist decides that trauma just needs to be reduced (Park Paragraph 3). This resolution seems like it should not be difficult for the NFL, but it is proving to be quite challenging to take responsibility and change the way of the game even though players are getting hurt as it is.

Players are running at each other full speed, doing all they can to get the ball and score a touchdown for their team, so it is no surprise injuries, including those to the head, occur. According to ESPN, in 2015, 271 NFL players were diagnosed with concussions; that translates to 16% of total players in the NFL at that time. There are few other sports, none nearly as popular as football, with concussion numbers so high. Getting concussions, which occurs when the brain hits the skull, seems like no big deal, as players from little leagues to the NFL get them on a regular basis. In their football career, each player in the NFL will receive an estimated 900 to 1500 sub-concussive impacts every season they play football (Bennett Paragraph 1). Repetitive head trauma such as this is likely to cause significant and permeant brain damage. While one can consider head injuries such as concussions to be a mildly serious injury if only occurring once, over time, the repetition of concussions can lead to severe brain damage. 

The number of concussions taking place in the NFL should be considered alarming. Sometimes, concussions go unreported because players do not know that they are suffering from a concussion. Other times, players ignore them because they don’t want to lose their spot on the roster. Playing through a concussion can cause greater damage to a player’s brain. Long term effects of concussions, which can last for decades, include depression, memory loss, (Abreu et al. Long-Term Risks Associated with Concussions) and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) a degenerative brain disorder. (Hogan). While 16% of players every year suffer “reported” concussions, many other players will most likely be affected in the long run by life altering symptoms such as those. 

Although injuries to the head are making the headlines these days, they are not the only type of harm that prevents former players from living healthy lives. There were over 4,500 injuries in the NFL during the 2011 season, averaging more than two injuries per active player (Holstein 106). Frequently, players will do whatever they can to continue playing their favorite game, football, which can lead to further injury. Often, players have multiple major surgeries and joint replacements. In fact, Holstein reported that 86 percent of NFL players underwent orthopedic surgery as a result of a football injury (Holstein 106). More times than not, these grave injuries play a role in ending athlete’s careers. These injuries can also prevent players from natural movements, such as walking and regular muscle use because they are so worn down from aggressive use. In specific cases, players have lost the use of their hands or fingers, and a handful has even lost their limbs (Holstein 3). While some injuries such as limb loss, are not very common, joint replacements and scar tissue from multiple surgeries are common. Therefore, the majority of players are affected in their everyday lives by their injuries, whether the injuries start big or small.

Many argue that when NFL players sign a contract to play football for x amount of years for x amount of pay, they are consenting that they understand the risks involved with playing football. But some youth football players are also facing these life damaging injuries, and they did not sign for money, or to consent their lives’ away like critics contend NFL players do. Over the course of a football season, football players between the ages of 8 and 13 were studied to see how head impacts would affect their developing brains (Hamblin). The athletes had brain imaging done before and after their football season. The results of the boys’ brain scans after the season revealed that there was a correlation, “between head impact and decreased Fractional Anisotropy in white matter tracts” (Hamblin). Consequently, from a young age, in a not so rough league, football players are being damaged specifically to the head and brain region. Hamblin reports, “’The numbers here are pretty staggering. You have fewer than 2,000 people playing in the NFL, which gets all the media attention,’ Stitzel told me, ‘But about 2,000 kids are playing for every NFL player—3.5 million kids playing youth football in the U.S. About whom there is very, very little information’ (Hamblin paragraph 10). This data is unacceptable for a sport of this caliber. But even with this information, researchers are not saying kids should just quit playing football, even with these startling results. Instead, they believe safety just needs to be a bigger concern within the game (Hamblin). This claim is similar to what Park reported in an article regarding head trauma in the NFL. While it is more concerning observing children, this safety issue should not just stop at the lower and younger levels of football. For the NFL to make changes to increase safety, the problem needs to be addressed and made a bigger deal. 

The length of the players’ career varies based on their position, the round of draft pick, and some appearances in a pro-bowl. On average, a professional athlete plays for the NFL for 3.5 years (Holstein 45). Before they even get to this point, which is usually the roughest of their career, they will have played approximately 12 years, or more, of football.  Researchers estimate at this time, “53% of high school athletes have sustained a concussion before participation in high school sports, and 36% of collegiate athletes have a history of multiple concussions” (Abreu et al. paragraph 3). These are scary numbers. This study proves that while the NFL might be the most dangerous for players, young athletes are also severely affected. Those younger players, who have not chosen to play football their entire life, risk having their lives’ changed. It is not just professional players who are affected by the serious long-term effects, including depression and memory loss, associated with concussions (Abreu et al. Long-Term Risks Associated with Concussions). It is every player who has gotten a concussion, which is a significant portion of those who have played at least a season of football. It is unacceptable for a sport this popular to be dangerous when young athletes are participating and being affected.

Media attention surrounding health and safety in football has grown drastically over the past decade, causing researchers to investigate media framing. Media framing is a theory that suggests the media focuses attention on specific events or people and then places them within a field of meaning, in response to injury situations (Sanderson et at. 2). For example, while playing in the National Football Conference Championship Game, Chicago Bears quarterback, Jay Cutler endured a knee injury late in the second quarter of the game. After struggling to continue playing after halftime, Cutler made the decision to quit playing, because he knew he could not perform successfully. Cutler watched his team, the Bears, on the sidelines. Likely because his team lost, the media criticized Cutler for his decision. Current and former NFL players, all who doubted his toughness for choosing not to participate in the rest of the game, also weighed in on social media (Sanderson et al. 5). Culter's story is just one of many examples that show media framing, “the process by which mass media organizations report news stories in specific ways that shape particular public interpretations” (Sanderson et al. 7). Specifically, in this case, the media framing of injuries is triggering a shift in football culture to value players who put their health first. This claim suggests that sports journalists could have an effect on players who play through the pain, thus allowing for a cultural change in the game of football. The framing of a story also influences public perception about an issue and is a particularly salient tool when examining health and safety matters such as football injuries. Particularly, in the NFL, given how much impact football has within American culture, journalists use media framing regarding injuries in ways that minimize their seriousness or in a manner that mitigate the NFL’s liability (Sanderson et al. 2). 

While injuries are a significant factor in what prevents former NFL players from living healthy lives’ after playing the game, their financial state when they hang up their cleats can also impact their retirement. Sports Illustrated claims, “that over three-quarters of former NFL players are in desperate financial straits within two years of retirement.” After signing their first NFL contract, players usually become rich overnight; often they have more money than they know what to do with, which causes problems. Many players do not have the experience to handle the amount of money they are suddenly making. For example, despite his lucrative contract, Warren Sapp, a seven-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle, who was once making millions of dollars, has recently filed for bankruptcy (Holstein 146). Warren Sapp is one of many players who face this problem of lacking money management skills. Sociologist Elijah Anderson suggests that losing money is often caused by the fact that, “urban street values discount prioritized spending and future-oriented saving. Ostentatious displays command respect, whereas reserve or prudence may be taken as weakness” (Holstein 147). 

The NFL’s players are known for encouraging a “spend it while you got it” lifestyle. Players feel they need expensive cars, jewelry, houses, and clothes, to be “properly” living their life, so they are not looked down on by their teammates. This obligation to “live large” comes from the surrounding players who show off their cars, houses, and bling and ridicule those who are not “keeping up the Joneses.” Players feel everything is a competition whether they are on or off the field, or in this case about of material items they can purchase. Those primarily affected by this lavish lifestyle are individuals from economically impoverished circumstances. They are not inclined to save any income, causing them harm when their income stops coming in. This frequently happens in the world of football, especially as players get injured, or cut from their team (Holstein 147).

Football players have two reasons to stop playing their game, by choice or by force. Most commonly, both of these reasons are due to injuries. When players get injured, either they will choose to stop playing, or their team will cut them; either way, they are no longer able to play. These injuries are likely to affect players’ lives for the rest of their retired days, as many continue playing despite their injuries. Even with recent revelations regarding the safety and well-being of players, the NFL is and will still be considered America’s favorite pastime as it has been since the 19th century. The NFL needs to determine the value of its players’ lives and if it is worth to them to continue playing when many are unable to live their lives’ fully after they stop playing the game. In the majority of the results presented from researchers, studies disclosed that they do not recommend to stop playing the game. Instead, football needs to be performed in a safer manner to protect all players from peewee to the pros so that America can keep its favorite pastime.
