In America, tens of millions of people watch the sport of football. Many of these viewers tune into the National Football League (professional) or NCAA football (college) every weekend to watch their favorite teams compete for victory. Football has been one of America’s favorite pastimes since the early 20th century, and its popularity has been growing stronger ever since. Everyone from children to the elderly has at one time either played or watched a game of football, and the game has bridged many gaps in American society. Being the most popular sport in America has its flaws, and there have been many questions and concerns when it comes to how fair gloves are in football.
Football is a game in which only a very slight advantage can be abused and alter the course of an entire game. The current rules of the NFL are manipulated almost
…show more content…
Every position from the linemen to the punters can find a use for gloves. Though linemen and other players may not use the gloves for their increased friction, the gloves offer a fair amount of protection and protect player’s hands from cuts or bruises.
Not all football fans are supportive of the advantages gloves can give. Such as the NFL Hall of Famer John Madden, who said “Pretty soon, these gloves are going to be able to catch a ball without a hand in them.” (Madden, 2015) Madden is not the only former NFL affiliate to express his dissatisfaction with the NFL’s rules on gloves. Former NFL receiver Cris Collinsworth said, “I think if they took the gloves completely away from the guys, including the quarterbacks at this point, it would have a major impact on what the game looked like on the field” (Collinsworth,
In the 1920’s, football players actually died on the field! Insufficient protection and rules against hits, which are banned today, resulted in the death of players. Football rules have changed drastically from the 1920’s through 2016. In the past few decades, NFL owners meet annually to discuss and vote to implement new rules. Three changes to the 2016 NFL football rules, Point After Attempt (PATs), coach to player communication, and chop blocks affects the way the game is played.
Football over time has changed. Such as the equipment, rules, and ownership. The sport has drawled lots of popularity and to this day football is one of the most famous sports. Despite being so popular some players still get injured and draw controversy.
After the NFL commissioner came under scrutiny from Washington lawmakers on whether or not the injuries in his sport were the cause of traumatic brain disease. The commissioner enacted a policy that players had to pass a series of test by a neurologist prior to them being allowed to return to play( Grove, J) This policy change is similar to a normal employee passing a physical from their primary Doctor before they could return to work. The Commissioner enacted this policy to prevent players from returning to the game to soon. The current NFL commissioner Roger Goodell wasn’t the first recognize that his sport had a problem taking care of its players. In 1962 the rule of no “Face masking” was enacted. This rule prohibited a player from grabbing another player’s facemask (Grove, J 657). In the late 1970’s an additional rule was enacted. The NFL finally passed a rule prohibiting players from using their helmets to
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.
Football is one of America’s favorite sports. It originated from soccer and rugby. This kind of sport is very competitive. The main point of the game is to score points by carrying the ball from a starting point to a 100-yard long by 53-yard wide field into a marked zone. Each team has a Y-shaped structured called the field goal the players. The game is divided into timing sections ranging from 12 to 15 minutes quarters. Often times, the players become violent during the game. This happens when they have to tackle each other for the ball. During this tackling period, players injured, but like anything in life it possesses risks known to the athletes before signing a contract with the NFL’s (National Football League) owner.
I think a bigger change that we could make is having players learn to tackle at practice without helmets on. There was a study done by the University of New Hampshire football team and The National Athletic Trainers Research and Education Foundation where they tested the impact of players practicing with helmets and some without. The goal of this study was to see if helmetless practice would teach players to not tackle using their heads which currently is a main reason why players get concussions. They had the control group practice with helmets on, while the intervention group did not wear shoulder pads or helmets. They completed a five minute drill and the purpose of not wear pads or helmets was supposed to teach the players to learn to tackle without using their heads in a way that they could be injured. They found substantial evidence that this helped prevent head injuries, it resulted in a 28% reduction in head injuries over the course of the football season for
The spectator of this sport has an obligation to the players of the sport, to make sure that the organization is protecting and looking out for them. Yet not only should the viewer be held accountable for the lack of communication in consequences between the player and the pro scene, but the organization of the NFL needs to make sure that their players have a full understanding of what is going on and how they need to protect the players. The current situation that is understood, contents contain implied knowledge that all parties of this table are in uniform knowledge and agreement to what comes of playing football. Finally, this should also happen at the youth level when kids are just getting into the sport, as it would better inform the parents and the kid if they understood the full
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?”
Rule changes in the NFL have been made throughout the history of the league to improve the game, make it more exciting and reduce the risk of injury. Safety rules are one of the most important and effective ways in which the NFL and its owners can help protect the health of players. By helping to identify, promote and enforce safe on-field conduct (in concert with off-the-field education and policies), the league seeks to preserve both the health of players and the integrity of the game.
An increasingly popular topic in the realm of sports fans has begun to unravel. The National Football League recently has begun to introduce new rules and regulations for their athletes to start abiding by to ensure the continued safety of the player’s health. Although most find this change in the game of professional football as a positive step forward, others see this as a diminishment of the sanctity of NFL football. New rules and regulations that have been introduced into NFL are vital to athletes involved in the sport and help them to play with lowered risks of long term injuries that could possibly affect not only them but also the league in the future as well. The reasons for these
NFL doesn’t come to a conclusion to try and make safer equipment and legal hits
The leather helmets seem like a bad idea with all the concussions in football today right? Well some think they should be brought back due to the fact modern helmets might be doing more harm than good. Think about it like this, if you know you have protection on your head and you can do a lot of damage to your opponent with a head on hit you're probably going to do it. When wearing leather helmets the idea is you're going to injure yourself when tackling with your helmet so you will protect your head and tackle with your shoulder. This will reduce the amount of concussions. High school and college teams practice HUT tackling or Helmet off tackling to reteach form and to protect your head during a
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).
Football can be a very dangerous sport. And although those who play the game believe that they are being protected by the helmets that they wear, the truth is that this may not be the case. In a recent study released by the American Academy of Neurology it has been found that “protection against concussion and complications of brain injury is especially important for young players, including elementary and middle school, high school and college athletes, whose still-developing brains are more susceptible to the lasting effects of trauma”(Science Daily, 2014). The study also found that standard football helmets worn by the majority of players on the field today, only reduce the risk of traumatic brain injury by 20 percent compared to not wearing a helmet at all (Science Daily, 2014).
In order to truly appreciate the overall beneficial influence football has had on American culture between the 1890’s and 1930’s, we cannot turn a blind eye to the negative obstacles football has overcome. In the early years of development, football was played similarly to rugby and universities played by different rules, making standardization within the sport a difficult task to accomplish. One of the major problems observed during the infancy of football was the sheer violence witnessed on the field. Mass play was the common play style during the first years of football in which the entire offensive force would focus on one spot of the defense; the offense was determined to go through the defense rather than go around them. The raw power behind these plays lead to serious injuries as well as the death of a player in the early 1900’s. This disastrous event deterred numerous universities from playing football out of fear of a repeat of events. Following more serious injuries