The punishing crack of helmets crunching together on a football field is one of the most dangerous and yet most common occurrences in the game of football and something must be done to eliminate these injuries and make the players, our loved ones and family members, safe while playing the game we as Americans love. There has been a lot of discussion over the past couple of years regarding the debate over how we can eliminate concussions from the game of football. How can we make the game of football safer by reducing the risk of concussions while keeping the excitement in the game and ensuring that player safety is a priority? Many people believe that contact should be taken out of the game so that players cannot collide causing these head injuries. The threat of losing the sport that has become America’s pastime has become a harsh reality in recent years. However, I think that we can make football safer while holding on to the game we love. I believe that we can make the game of football safer without making major rule changes by educating youths about how to correctly tackle, how to know when to report a concussion, investing more money into medical training and personnel, and advancing our technology to create safer equipment such as helmets and shoulder pads so that we can enjoy the game we know and love without worrying about the safety of the athletes playing.  

After decades of football players smashing skulls the brain disease CTE has been recently discovered by Dr. Bennett Omalu sparking a debate over whether or not football is a safe sport to play. “CTE is a progressive degenerative disease of the brain found in athletes (and others) with a history of repetitive brain trauma, including symptomatic concussions as well as asymptomatic subconcussive hits to the head.” (BU CTE Center) The disease was first found in ex-Pittsburgh Steeler football player, Mike Webster, who was diagnosed with the disease that causes extreme brain failure and early death. (Landesman) I am calling for parents of football players, NFL executives, and current football players to come together and work to make the game of football safer as I feel that with safer equipment and better safety education, head injuries will be greatly reduced in football. For example, concussion protocol has recently been implemented in the NFL and followed by all levels of football to ensure that athletes take the proper amount of time and pass certain tests before they can return to the field. Concussion Protocol is defined by ESPN as “A graduated exercise challenge, followed by a gradual return to practice and play, is initiated when the player returns to baseline status. The RTP protocol following a concussion follows a stepwise process to be outlined in the NFL Head, Neck and Spine Committee's Return to Participation Protocol.” (Weinfuss) I believe that the game of football as experienced a serious uptick in attention over concussions and is in trouble of becoming extinct. Alternative ways that we can make the game of football safer without changing the rules are taking more initiative when a player is hit in the head, having better access to medical care at games and practices, and improving equipment so that head injuries are less likely to occur. I believe we have taken the proper starting steps to control the concussion problem in football as concussions in the NFL decreased from 2015 to 2016 after extra measures were taken to increase attention to concussions without drastically changing the rules. (Smith) This argument is one of the most highly debated topics in the sports world as parents have disallowed their kids to play the most popular game in America as well as the overall game of football is being threatened. 

The reasons I believe that there are alternative ways to improve the safety in the game of football other than making drastic rule changes are very reasonable and are already being pursued. First, the lack of medical attention that is given to all youth and high school sports, particularly football, is shockingly low and it seems as if it is common sense to ensure that every football game has a trained professional on hand to evaluate all injuries especially head injuries. Second, we must improve the equipment that is currently being used, particularly in helmets. We must invest more time and money to create a product that is concussion proof. It is absurd that in our day and age that athletes play such a violent game with a helmet that doesn’t guarantee them safety. Next, we must educate athletes at a young level on the symptoms of a concussion as well as how to know when to report a concussion. As humans, I understand that sometimes our competitive nature overtakes us but we must ensure that from a young age kids understand that head injuries are nothing to hide and that they must be taken care of as soon as possible. Finally, as Americans we do not want to lose the game we love. Football has grown into a national pastime as it brings together millions of people every fall and winter. The reasons I have listed should be required and are very feasible to ensure the game we crave does not become extinct in the near future. 

This topic is a very controversial one and many people, including formal players, have publicly spoken against football because of head injuries. I understand that concussions have impacted countless people’s lives whether it be the football player themselves or their families. This is why I understand that there may be opposing opinions to my argument. For instance, there is the realization that there will be head on collisions no matter how good our technology is or how well we train our athletes to tackle. As long as the rules are how they are, it will remain a part of the game. There is also the scientific fact that the human body is not built to protect the brain from a head injury. There is no cushion or stabilizing force in our bodies that prevents our brains from smashing into our skulls upon impact. (Giles) People may argue that our bodies were not physically created to handle the violence the game of football. I also see the opinion that transforming tackle football to resemble similar rules to flag football will still allow players to showcase their athletic abilities while eliminating all of the harsh physical contact and injuries that are a regularity in today’s game. These are all examples of reasonable facts, ideas, and opinions of reasons of why we should change the rules of football and do away with the game we play and watch today. 

One of the biggest problems surrounding the debate with concussions is that there is not enough actually being done to prevent the injuries at all age levels. All of the blame goes to the NFL over the recent bad press about the lack of attention and precaution taken to players who have reported symptoms of concussions in the past. However, they are not the only ones to blame. As a former youth football player myself, I never once experienced a head injury but if a player encountered a possible concussion, we always had a doctor on hand to examine the player and there was never an issue. The problem in our society is only 42% of high schools in the United States have access to an athletic trainer on site at practices and games. (Faure) The lack of medical attention at the field for all sports for all ages under the age of eighteen is a major red flag as a majority of athletes have no way of being treated correctly for injuries as hard to detect as concussions. Annually, there are over 23,000 football related head injuries to youths reported per year. (Johnson) As big of a number as that may seem, that doesn’t even include the ones that don’t get reported. Considering the amount of athletic events that occur with no medical personnel, there is no telling how many head injuries there actually are. We must stress the importance of having athletic trainers at every athletic event especially football games. This starts with encouraging more people to pursue a career in athletic training. My roommate this year in college majors in Athletic Training and has told me that there are only about 30 students in our whole class who chose to major in the field. This is just one example but it shows the lack of people entering the field. Parents should be fully invested in making this happen as no parent of a child wants to see their athlete go down with a serious head injury and have no one on scene that knows how to treat the injury. Without proper treatment, a youth athlete could go from living the life of a normal child to having their life altered forever and never being able to participate in sports ever again or even worse. It is imperative that we require qualified personnel at every football game to be able to test for head injuries and diagnose concussions before any further damage can be done. 

As important as investing time and money into improved personnel is to lowering the risk of head injuries, there is also a huge need of improved technology and equipment. As our technology is ever improving, we have begun to develop helmets such as the Vicis Zero1 Helmet which crumples on contact because of a softer exterior that absorbs the impact so that when there is head to head contact, the collision is not as violent and taxing on the brain. (Kubota) This new equipment is very important as there are many hits in football that involve the player’s head that go unnoticed. Ex-NFL player Cornelius Bennett is an example as he said he medically was diagnosed with six concussions but he realistically thinks he suffered around fifteen. (Schmidle) This is just one example of why we must improve football equipment, specifically helmets.  

I feel that this is one of the major problems of the generations of football of old as players would try and cover up injuries so they could continue playing. I believe that now that the culture is changing, the number of concussions will reduce because of the caution taken. 

Another piece of technology that has been created to enhance our grasp on the concussion problem has been the implementation of concussion base line testing in youth and high school sports. The Concussion Base Line Test is a test created to have athletes take a test including many problems that cause the brain to think to see how a person responds before ever experiencing a concussion and then if a head injury is suffered and a concussion is suspected, the athlete takes the test again to compare answers to determine whether there is damage to the brain. (Trahan) This is another way of preventing head injuries before they happen by creating data to easily allow medical personnel to detect whether or not an athlete has sustained a concussion. Our enhanced technology is our biggest asset in preventing and treating concussions on and off the field.

In my experience with competitive sports especially football, our competitive nature often causes us to not want to miss time on the field. Children are often taught from day one to “man up” and play through injuries. (Cook) While that may be reasonable for minor injuries such as a scratch or a bruise, head injuries are nothing to just shake off. Players must be taught at a young age to report head injuries as well as be taught the symptoms of a concussion because sometimes they can be less apparent. (Mayo Clinic) Especially in youth football because children’s brains do not fully develop until much later so a head injury could inflict permanent damage if not treated correctly. (Gibbs) It is also important so as they grow older they are not afraid to put their personal health ahead of on field results. Many kids today see big hits as an impressive play and are even more excited to see those players play through the collision and stay on the field. One high school football player said in a GQ article, "I was always shorter than a lot of other players and learned to put my head down so I could have the edge and win every battle.” (Forgave) That type of culture needs to be changed. I don’t believe big hits should be eliminated as they create an exciting aspect to the game, but if the players feel any sort of symptoms of a concussion they need to report it immediately. To help implement this concept without changing the rules of the actual play of football, fines could be implemented to players who don’t report their head injuries to ensure that everyone is kept safe. Even though I love the exciting big hits in football, I firmly believe that the idea of playing through injuries as serious as concussions needs to be eliminated from our culture.

Along with all of the other reasons I have listed, one of the simplest yet more important reasons I believe we do not need to catastrophically change the rules to football is the simple fact that as a country the game of football brings us all much closer and is an important piece to our culture. Each Thanksgiving, families gather together to celebrate each other as well as the football games that are on that day. One of the most historic holidays in our country carries the motto “Family, Food, and Football”. We simply cannot live without football. We must take the way that football brings us all together and collectively work to eliminate the terrible concussion injury that puts a dark shadow over football and more importantly, the families that are affected by these head injuries. The problems have gotten so bad that even former players are against playing football. Former NFL quarterback, Kurt Warner, has publicly spoken out that he would prefer that his sons don’t play football. (Florio) This type of conversation from the football community is not what is needed. To begin to limit the problems with concussions, people must come together in the football community to bring a more positive attitude so that progress can be made to implement the ideas I have listed to make football safer. 

I realize that there are negatives that arise in this debate and differing opinions about how we should handle the concussion problem in football. Concussions will always occur no matter what if the rules remain the same because accidents happen and when competitive athletes are in the moment, anything can happen. We can have better helmets and we can educate players on how to report concussions and safer ways to tackle. However, when head on collisions occur, there is no way to stop it. There is also the reality that human bodies do not have anything to protect the brain from smashing against the skull when our heads collide with something which is very dangerous for our brain and causes concussions. Rules that resemble flag football which take out head on collisions are much safer. They also still allow athletes to show off their abilities without putting them at as much risk. Even current NFL players feel that football as we know it will be gone before we know it. Bernard Pollard of the Baltimore Ravens believes that football will be extinct in the next 30 years. (Florio) However, these arguments are not valid because I understand that head injuries are a real problem but there is risk in every sport. Also, the number of concussions has reduced each of the last two years in the NFL ever since there has been increased attention paid to potential head injuries. If we continue to increase our carefulness with head injuries, this injury will become a thing of the past. Also, I understand that there is no scientific way to protect the brain from smashing into the skull, but with our ever improving technology such as the new helmets, our skulls will not reach the point where brains will be smashing the inside of the skull. By moving to more of a flag football rules format, football will lose all of its intrigue from fans as the game the way it is now is how we love it. It can be a violent game but we love the physical and tough mentality of the players. We are improving in our ways of protecting our players and we are only getting better. As long as we work together to find solutions to head injuries like the ones I discussed, the game of football will be here to stay for years to come. 

Football is a physical game that has become a national pastime in the United States over the last several decades. Head injuries such as concussions are horrible injuries for players to suffer as they can cause long term problems for people such as the recent discovery of the CTE disease. If we can continue to come together as the football community has for the last couple years, then we can resolve this problem by educating our parents and young players how to know when they may have a concussion as well as teach them how to tackle correctly, continue to develop our technology so that we have safe equipment and better concussion detecting technology such as the concussion base line test, and if we focus more on ensuring that there is medical personnel at every football game and practice to ensure that every injury, especially head injuries, can be treated correctly. As long as we can come together to accomplish these tasks, we can save the game of football and continue to embrace it as an American pastime and lifestyle.