The American Professional Football Association (APFA) was founded in 1920, with ten teams from four different states. After several attempts to start a respected football league in the United States one finally caught on, but with baseball and basketball dominating the market football operated largely in the background. However, over the next ninety years this small group of teams and players would evolve into the most popular and profitable league in the United States, the NFL.  Back in 1920 when the league was founded the average size for an NFL player was about five foot eleven inches, two-hundred and ten pounds. At this size, running full speed into one other with no padding or protection was surely back-breaking work, but now almost a hundred years later the game has changed. Players now average six foot three inches, over two hundred and seventy pounds, and with advanced training and conditioning technology, are faster and stronger than ever before. So, although the rules and equipment have changed dramatically since 1920, with the force of a car crash on every hit, players are being injured more frequently than ever before. The most serious of these injuries being concussions. Concussions in the NFL are nothing new, but as players have been increasing in size and strength, so has the number of concussions. Concussions have risen from 143 in 2000, to nearly double by 2016 (244) (Polnerow), progressively increasing with each season. As the players’ employer, the NFL is responsible for protecting them, even if it means the NFL takes a hit to their 13-billion-dollar annual revenue. The NFL needs to make rule changes along with investing money into CTE research and improving their equipment, to further protect its players from concussions and lifelong brain diseases.  If they do not make changes, they will continue to hinder their players for life with CTE and other concussion related brain diseases. 

Unfortunately, it is not just a week-long headache that these players need worry about when receiving a concussion. Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) is a progressive degenerative brain disease that is found in people who have sustained repeated blows to the head or concussions, and is very common amongst former NFL players. Symptoms begin eight to ten years after experiencing the repetitive brain trauma and includes headaches, deafness, dementia, and often suicide. Recently, Boston University administered a study where they examined the brains of 94 former NFL players to see what effect the game had on the health of their brain, and discovered that 90 of the former 94 players had CTE (Daniloff). Out of these 90 that had CTE 33 of them committed suicide. Players like Hall of Famer Junior Seau or Dave Duerson, who were both among the suicides, left notes explaining that they shot themselves in the chest to preserve their brains for CTE research. The NFL denied claims that football had ties to CTE from June 2002, when the illness was first discovered, all the way up until December 2009 when public outrage forced the NFL to acknowledge their part in CTE. Since 2009 the NFL has donated a total of 30 million dollars to CTE research, a minuscule amount compared of their 83.44 billion dollars of revenue since 2009. The NFL needs to contribute a higher percentage of their massive profits into research and treatments that can help protect their players after they leave the league. If the NFL were to contribute even a small fraction of the billions of dollars in court settlements, they have given out to former players with concussions they could save themselves a lot of money and protect their players much better. 

But unfortunately lack of research on CTE is only a part of the problem that the NFL has with concussions, and will only help those who have already received repetitive blows to the head. The NFL has a couple helpful rules and regulations to try and reduce the risk of concussions, yet they are still steadily on the rise. Clearly, there needs to be a change, but many around the NFL do not know what to do since there have already been=hyt rules added to the game that have been largely unsuccessful in the prevention of concussions. But the NFL’s problem may not be with a lack of rules, but a simple lack of acceptance and enforcement of the rules and protocol already in place. The NFL has a very specific concussion protocol which is enacted whenever one of the NFL’s “concussion spotters” sees a possible concussion on the field (CNN). The protocol dictates that the player be removed immediately from the game to undergo a focused neurological examination. Yet players are constantly hit hard and wander, stumbling and stunned on the field and go unchecked by team doctors and without undergoing the proper concussion protocol. Most recently it was Matt Moore, who suffered a devastating hit in the Wild Card round of the 2016 playoffs (Jacobs). Moore, who was clearly unconscious on the field was taken out for one play and then immediately returned to the game. Although the NFL claims that Moore went through all the necessary protocol to return to the game, many were concerned with how all the tests could be done in the span of one play. And if the protocol was followed how thorough could it really be if a concussion could be ruled out in the span of 30 seconds. If the NFL would follow their own rules and protocols more seriously and issue out serious punishments for teams and players who do not abide by the rules in place, then they would prevent a lot of players from sustaining serious head injuries.

But it is not just that the NFL does not fully enforce the rules they currently have in place. There must be new rules incorporated into the game that protect the players more efficiently while keeping the traditions and integrity of the game intact. But this is not as easy as it sounds. The complexity of satisfying the fans, protecting the players, and keeping the NFL profitable is a puzzle that NFL is yet to solve. But there a few easy changes the NFL could make immediately that would help reduce the number of concussions without effecting the integrity of the game. 

One of the easiest ways to help prevent concussions in the NFL is to simply require players to wear mouth guards. Mouth guards are currently optional in the NFL because players find it harder to call plays and find them uncomfortable. It seems like a small thing but many do not realize how large of an effect mouth guards can have on concussions.  Wearing a mouth guard “takes pressure off the jaw and lowers shock to the brain" (Blair) which can dramatically lower the risk of concussions. A 2014 study published in General Dentistry found that high school football players who used custom made mouth guards “suffered half as many concussions as those who didn’t” (Kubota).  The NFL needs to place more value on players health over their abilities and make this a requirement, and fine or penalize players for not abiding by the rules. The NFL already has countless equipment and uniform rules involving cleats, gloves, and jerseys so adding one more rule that may actually help protect players from long term head injuries should be an easy fix.

Another viable and simple solution for assisting in the reduction of concussions in the NFL would be eliminating kickoffs.  Kickoffs are considered the most dangerous play during an NFL game, as players barrel down the field at full speed ramming into each other head to head.  Often for no reason as almost 50 percent of the time the returner does not even bring the ball out of the end zone. The NFL has already eliminated the three-man wedge, shortened the distance tacklers can run before the kick, and moved the kickoffs from the 30-yard line to the 35. Causing the number of touchbacks to triple “going from 16.4 percent in 2010 to 46.9 percent in 2012” (Chadiha 2).  But with players forced to hit each whether the returner decides to take it out or not it is often an unnecessary chance for a concussion.  Kickoffs are the most high risk play in an NFL game and are slowly being ousted through rule changes, but these changes are not enough. Instead of keeping this frequently pointless and dangerous situation in the game the NFL should simply remove kickoffs, to spare viewers from this often-boring play and further protect their players from concussions. 

Next, the NFL needs to mandate a specific set of equipment that all players must wear to make sure they are protected as efficiently as possible. The NFL spends millions of dollars every year on research for head, shoulder and leg protection but does not mandate that players wear the safest equipment. They allow the players to wear whatever helmet and shoulder pads they want, even when they know that the padding they are wearing is not as protective as others. They also do not mandate the use of leg padding at all. Many times players choose lower quality shoulder pads that are far too small and light to try and improve their speed, but do not cover their shoulders completely. Head to shoulder contact causes about 20 concussions every year (Tracy), which could be highly reduced if players were required to wear proper fitting high quality shoulder pads that cover their entire shoulders. Additionally, head to knee contact causes about 15 concussions per year, and many of those are because players bare knew bones are crashing into the heads of other players.  If players were mandated to wear knee pads many of these concussions could be easily avoided by softening the blow to the head.   

But even with the proper equipment concussions can still happen all over an NFL football game as players are running around crashing into each other head first. But one of the highest chances for a concussion that many people do not think about is when a player’s head hits the playing surface. About one in seven concussions during an NFL game occurs when a player’s head strikes the ground (FieldTurf), and it is often because poorly maintained grass fields. Grass fields require constant care, whether it is seeding, mowing, or fertilizing it is often quite difficult to keep a grass field completely even and soft. So hard spots form, where one patch is not as plush and soft as other spots in the field. These hard spots cause many of the concussions from head to playing surface contact, but could easily be solved if the NFL were to mandate that every team play on synthetic turf. Synthetic turf is softer and more absorbent than natural grass, especially in cold climates when the moisture in the natural field freezes causing an icy rock hard playing surface. A report conducted by the Concussions Legacy foundation found that players are 44 percent less likely to receive a concussion on a turf field compared to a natural grass field (Belson). If the NFL were to invest in safer more high quality playing surfaces they could save a lot of players from concussions and reduce maintenance costs dramatically.

Although there are many ways that the NFL could help fix the concussion problem many argue that the players need to take action to protect their own bodies, and should pull themselves from a game if they know that they have sustained a concussion. But this is an extremely unfair thing to ask of players, who are being forced to choose between protecting their bodies and being able to provide for themselves and for their families. In 2011, the NFL’s leading rusher Maurice Jones Drew was asked about whether he would pull himself from a game if he knew he had sustained a concussion and he said “You have to be able to put food on the table… I know there will be a day when I’m going to have trouble walking. I accept that” (Drew). This is a tremendous burden to put on players, who feel they must sacrifice their long-term health in order to make a living. If the NFL were to better protect their players then players wouldn’t have to make this sacrifice, and would feel far more comfortable with their long-term health. 

But it is not just for moral obligation or fear of lawsuits that should make the NFL want to change. Ultimately it would raise popularity and income of the NFL dramatically if fans knew their idols, favorite players, and community leaders were being taken care of and protected. When fans see their favorite players suffering and being treated poorly by the NFL it lowers their public image greatly, and makes it so fans do not want to spend their money on a company NFL tickets or jerseys. The Atlantic newspaper conducted a survey on former NFL fans and many off them claimed that concussions were the reason they stopped watching the game. Many of them saying things like “We’re watching men get brain damage for our enjoyment.” and “Modern-day gladiators. My guess is we as a society will look back in the future and view this game in a similar way.”(Vasilogambros). If the NFL were to invest more money on top of the line research and equipment for their players, and ensuring the public that they are taking care of their players then it would improve their public image and ultimately help them earn more money than ever before.

Football has changed a lot over the past 100 years but the one thing that has not changed is the risk of concussions. As more science and research is coming out every year players are beginning to learn more and more about what will happen to them if they play in the NFL. The NFL is a corporate giant and makes billions of dollars a year, but if they do not improve the way they treat their employees then people are no longer going to want to work for them. Without its player’s, the NFL is nothing, so they need to begin protecting their players better before they stop wanting to play in the NFL. Even without the threat of loss of fans and income the NFL needs to make a change because it is the right thing to do. They are endangering the lives of hundreds of community leaders, and role models and they need to make a change. 
