Dear Commissioner Goodell and Combined Owners of the NFL,
We are losing our
national sports treasures at an alarming rate.
Dave Duerson. Ray Easterling. Junior Seau. All three men have died in the last eighteen
months. What makes this even more
alarming is that these men-these warriors of the gridiron- all showed symptoms
of early onset dementia, and all took their own lives. Dave Duerson had Chronic Traumatic
Encephalitis (CTE); time will tell if Ray Easterling and Junior Seau suffered
from the same condition. The NFL, if it
is going to continue to thrive, must make changes: changes in technology and
changes in culture, to ensure player safety on the field, and later in life, once
players’ gladiating days are over.
In his testimony before a house judiciary
committee on brain injuries in sports, Dr. Bennett Omalu, the leading
neurologist in the research of Chronic Traumatic Encephalitis, testified:
“The concept of permanent brain damage
and dementia following repeated blows to the head is a very well established
and generally accepted principle in medicine. The first cases of dementia and
brain damage in contact sports athletes were first described in boxers and the
disease was named dementia pugilistica. Dr. Harrison Martland, a forensic
pathologist, like myself, and the chief medical examiner of Essex County,
Newark, New Jersey, described dementia pugilistica in 1928. However, it was not
until we examined the brain of Mike Webster in 2002 did we identify the tissue
evidence of a similar disease in football players, CTE” .
Common sense tells us that a sport like
football, in which players suffer repeated blows to the head, should cause some
sort of detrimental long term effect; since 2002, medical science has supported
that idea.
While the NFL has a
legacy as a hard-hitting league, and NFL fans want “smashmouth” football,
something needs to be done. Yes, the
desire to maintain the status quo is there, but the status quo is killing
young, healthy, athletic men. Helmets,
which have seen no major design improvements since the 1980’s, need to be
improved. More than anything, the
“tough-guy” culture of the NFL that causes players to stay on the field once
they have sustained a head trauma needs to be eliminated.
Football, the way
it’s played now, is exciting. When the
players hit each other, the sound of the collision can be heard in the stands. There are certain match-ups in the league
that fans don’t want to miss because they know they are going to see a physical
game. Chad Ochocinco, a wide receiver
for the New England Patriots, in an open letter to the commissioner, said about
football: “But let’s be real... This is a nasty, dirty and violent game with
consequences. Sign up or go get a regular job. Watch it or turn off the TV and
go fishing with your kids. It is really that simple”. Ochocinco shares the view of many of the
NFL’s players and fans that football shouldn’t be changed, that at its most
basic level, football is a dangerous sport, and players and fans accept that
when they play or watch the game.
Ochocinco, and the players and fans he seeks to represent in his letter,
want the game to stay the way it is, but even he, in the conclusion of his
letter offers an admission to the seriousness of the concussion crisis in the
NFL, requesting that the monies from the fines accrued from the penalties he
will commit in the 2012 season be applied to some sort of fund to help players
affected by CTE.
While some want to
keep the game the same, helmet manufacturers are doing their part to help
protect players from suffering from head injuries. Some of the new advancements in helmet
technology include a helmet made of shifting plates that absorb the impact of a
hit, a helmet with an inflatable air bladder that can act as an ice pack to
cool the head after a concussion-causing hit, and a helmet with pads made out of pockets of air instead of foam. All of these helmets
seek to lower the chances of a player suffering a major head injury.
Whether football
remains the same or we find a magic helmet that protects a player’s brain will
mean nothing unless we can change the collective attitude of NFL owners,
coaches, and players that coming out of a game after a hit shows weakness. American
football players have a history of being tough.
They have nicknames like “Mean” Joe Green, William “The Refrigerator”
Perry, and Jerome “The Bus” Bettis.
These men, and their contemporaries, hit hard, and take hard hits. When a player suffers a staggering potential
head injury on the field, all too often he is left in the game, leaving him dazed,
uncoordinated, and exposed to the possibility of another traumatic hit. There is no one link in the chain that is
key. The overall atmosphere must
change. The player must take
accountability for his own future health and report symptoms of possible
concussion. The training staff and
coaches must be aware of, and protect players against, exposure after symptoms
of head injury. Owners cannot ask
players to play when they are injured.
The fans are guilty as well. Fans
have to accept that a player who takes a concussive, or sometimes even
subconcussive, hit to the head is out for the rest of the game.
Football, at its best,
is a beautiful game: eleven men, in the prime of their lives, with one similar
goal, combating eleven more men, also in the prime of their lives, with a
contrasting goal, battling on a field of play, for the enjoyment of the fans
and the love of the sport. Injuries will
happen, but they shouldn’t be injuries that rob the players of their memories,
families, and will to live. Football
cannot maintain the status quo. New and
improved equipment should continue to be used as it becomes available. Above all else, the warrior mentality of the
NFL has to be toned down or changed to prevent injured players from returning
to the playing field.
Sincerely,
A Concerned Fan of the Game
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