Case Study: Former NFL Players

Although there is a growing feud between National Football League (NFL) players, their families, and the league itself concerning claims that management should be held responsible for the physical deterioration of former players, others claim that players knew the risks involved when they decided to play the game, therefore the NFL should not be held accountable for their injuries. Given the fact that there are not many sports as physically demanding on the human body as football, NFL players should be allowed to sue the NFL for concussions sustained while playing football. It would seem that NFL players that are retired should not sue just because they could have been at risk for head injuries. Instead they should have addressed this while

American football has been around since the early 1900's. The players tackle each other until one is on the ground. Football has always been a full-contact sport. Throughout the years injuries have stayed part of the game and the NFL has taken their time to increase player safety. The NFL should increase player safety because of the injuries have occurred. Some of the injuries may be lifetime injuries. Serious brain injuries have been linked to football as, well as heart issues and other permanent heath problems.

Player safety has been an issue for the National Football League since the start of the league, but has taken on a greater importance in recent years. Now, when a player is injured after a play, he must sit out for at least one play to allow the team’s trainer to assess his injury and make sure he is fit to return to play. Many say the NFL is very invested in player safety, and the protocols recently introduced have drastically changed the way athletes are assessed and eventually released to return to the field. These changes were necessary in order to protect players from serious injury and long-term health issues. There are many possible reasons the NFL has increased its emphasis on player safety, including, many people are disturbed by the violence of the game, fewer kids are playing football at the youth and high school levels, league sponsors are worried about bad publicity, and there are lawsuits against the NFL dealing with the long-term effects of brain damage. These reasons make many ponder, “Does the NFL really care about player safety, or are they just saving themselves from bad public relations, and the detrimental economic effects that may result from them?”

There needs to be more safety in the NFL because of the immediate dangers of concussions. According to the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, “a concussion is an injury to the brain that results in temporary loss of normal brain function.”(AANS) The most common symptoms are confusion, dizziness, headaches, memory loss all of which can have lifelong effects. Concussions are a serious injury because it can do a lot of damage to the brain; therefore, there needs to be a way to limit the blows to the head that causes them. If one gets a high number of concussions, then there is a high chance of their life being affected in a negative way. A report published by the NFL states that the number of concussions in 2016 was 244. That is a decline from 2012 when there were 261 concussions. The decline shows that there has been some progress in reducing the amount of concussions in the NFL, but there still are 244 players being exposed to the symptoms that can be an occurrence for their whole lives. The NFL needs to do more to protect its employees from concussions via safety rules. A major problem is the concussion protocol. The NFL states that if a player exhibits symptoms during a game, then they “must be removed and evaluated by the Club medical team,” (NFL Concussion Protocol 4). This seems like a good rule, but there is a lot of gray area in this rule because a team can have an examination, but they can falsely claim that the player does not have a concussion and place him back in the game. In an article for USA Today, Jarrett Bell writes about a play where Indianapolis Colts quarterback, Jacoby Brissett, was hit in the head and it seemed that he would not come back, but the Colts cleared him after one play with no concussion. In the article, Chris Nowinski,

The lack of knowledge that the majority of athletes enter the league with causes experts on the NFL’s policies to believe that the front office does not see the injury as a serious problem in the game today. “With the subsequent deaths of several relatively young retired NFL players, the autopsies of their brains, and the newly minted diagnosis chronic traumatic encephalopathy, we know the problem is real” (Carroll). This quotation intensifies the emphasis on the true problem the National Football League seems to be avoiding. Every injury, no matter how small or seemingly unimportant, needs to be addressed. “Even the only game that matters doesn't matter as much as your brain” (Flynn). There is nothing wrong with a person participating in the sport he loves, but when a blow to the head occurs, quick and efficient action must be taken to address the situation at hand. The National Football League and its policies do not suffice in relation to this area of concern. The fact of the matter is that no game, activity, or sport is worth a person’s

Should athletes be able to play even at the risk of permanent head injuries? Recently, concussion ratings have went up in some sports. Due to this increase, many people are trying to find out what they can do to prevent these injuries and what damage it can cause. Every player would like to play the sport that they love as long as they can but, playing with a head injury is not safe. Many players don't think of concussions or are unaware of the serious damage that it can leave on them. Therefore, all athletes should not be able to play or practice when they have suffered from three concussions because of the potential harm concussions have on the body. Also players should not have the option of playing or going back into

One of the most controversial discussions in sports today is concussions and how the athletes who play sports are being protected. Concussions in the NFL has been a constant argument over the past decade because of not only the number of players who were diagnosed with concussions but also in addition to the number of retired NFL players that reported having depression problems, drug addictions and eventually taking away their own lives by suicide. Football is know to many as “Americas game” and because of this fans live for and look forward to these hard hitting brut athletes that suit up and take the field for battle each week not knowing the facts on how concussions not only ruins the athletes chances of playing again but affects the brain

But recently we’ve also seen and heard more of a disease that is hurting players within the NFL. It’s causing present and former players to file lawsuits against the NFL and Riddell- NFL’s official partner and the largest football-helmet manufacturer. The real issue with concussions is that lives are at stake. This tragic fact become clear in 2006 when former Philadelphia Eagle star Andre Warner committed suicide by shooting himself. Studies on his brain later showed that he suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). A form of brain damage from repeated blows to the head and results in demetria. This disease was first seen from pathologist Bennet Omalu who tried to spread the awareness throughout football players even though the NFL had tried to block his research and “deny the existence of the disease.”(NFl’s answer to concussions: Sports science) The NFL has now even estimated the one-third of its former players will develop dementia, Alzheimer’s disease or other types of debilitating neurological disorders such as Parkinson”s disease and ALS. But head injuries can be found in young children up to major league players. According to Game Changers Stefan Duma has recorded more than 150,000 head impacts that football players have endured from the age of seven to the Virginia Tech Hokies football team. In The Helmet That Can Save Football professional football players may receive up to 1,500 hits to

Herm Edwards former football player and coach told SB nation, "If you're injured, you can't play. Hurt? The only guys who don't hurt in football are the ones who don't play,” (Bien). Although Herm Edwards does make a good point, there is a major difference between getting some bruises and permanent brain damage. Football players will not protect brains but a better protocol will. The protocol should reduce the risk of brain damage (Kilgore). Concussions have enough of an impact that they can affect someone long term. It is evident that this is something that in the future a former athlete would regret. Protocol needs to be enforced and more strict if there is any hope of saving these football players from doing something they might

Could you image you having a mild concussion? Or even your kid having one? Thinking that it will be gone in a few days, but not knowing that you could have life threatening injury to your brain, just by a blow to the head, by playing a sport. According to Sports Illustrated, in July 2014, a federal judge approved to the NFL, $765 million settlement, after 4,500 former players filled lawsuits against them, but recently, that settlement has been raised to $1 billion, covering more than 20,000 former players for the next 65 years. Professional organizations try there hardest to make the game as safe as possible, but like anything, there's flaws. Organizations like the NFL, NBA, NHL, and even the MLB, are trying to make sports as safe as possible

NFL players vs concussion should we stop football because of concussion or should we let the players make their own decisions? A concussion is a temporary unconsciousness caused by a blow to the head. The term is also used loosely to describe the aftereffects, such as confusion or temporary incapacity. Many players who stuffer a concussion have memory loss, and some have personally. Even committed suicide like Junior Seau he was a NFL player who suffer many concussions, by playing football. There are many cases of the NFL getting sued by former players who suffer from the traumatic brain injury like how is the NFL preventing concussion in the games. Dr. Bennet Omalu stated that there are no equipment that can prevent such injuries.

The NFL isn't doing all they could to help fix the reoccurrences of the traumatic head injuries that . The NFL could up the spending on the advances of the medical field in the NFL. They could make better post NFL insurance policy plans. The problems with the NFL they do enough while the player is playing but not after the injury happens. Once it's to late it's to late. Most Head Injuries cases don’t prepare monetarily before they play because they already can barley afford to keep up.

As I said, football players risk injury, “ Football players are nearly seven times more likely to be injured during a game than in practice”(Burris 1). Some of the injuries they may fall to are concussions. It is known that “Concussions make up 7.4 percent of all injuries in college football players” (Burris 1). Many of the football injuries can affect their lives forever. “The athletes also reported more limitations in daily activities and more major and chronic injuries” (Burris 1).

Football is a rough sport. Many fans of the game watch it for the hard hits. These hard hits and the potential for injury is part of what makes the game so exciting. Some people say that football is too brutal and should be banned. Parents all over the United States don’t allow their children to play because of the risk of head injuries. Others allow their sons, and every now and then their daughters, to play and risk injury for a chance to earn a college scholarship and for a small percentage of players, the chance to play in the National Football League (NFL).

Well the NFL makes the extremely smart decision of taking them out of the games…sometimes. If they are taken out of the game into the locker room, more often than not they are encouraged to take it like a man and to play for the team being doused by drugs to mask their symptoms which is partly due to the pressure put on their trainers by their coaches to get them playing as soon as possible. The rehabilitation and surgical approaches for injuries are often decided by team doctors and trainers who are paid by the organization and have no vested interest in the long-term health of the man who is hurt (Jackson, 2011). This is how the NFL works, just like a train only pausing to draft new players and dumping the dead weight of broken bodies, just for the sake of money. Despite the “extensive” research done by the NFL on concussions, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell refused to acknowledge the existence of a connection between head injuries, sustained during a football career, and debilitating brain diseases, such as CTE, that develop later in life (Drysdale, 2013). By stating this, it only serves to further prove how the NFL just does not care nor take responsibility for their players as they suffer these possible life threatening injuries which is mind boggling. People like Dr. Bennet Omalu who bring upon legitimate evidence to back the fact that repeated head trauma suffered to the head during a typical NFL game causes diseases like CTE are attacked, with their research being discredited (Dodd, Herbst, & Boudin, 2016). Eventually enough players will get to know of these alarming facts about the dangers of head trauma warranting a change throughout the entire league which is what exactly