The NFL is Killing Their Employees

The topic I will be discussing in this draft is the debate on whether the National Football League should be held liable for injuries that their employee’s sustained while playing professional football. The injuries that I will discuss are concussion and traumatic brain injuries related to multiple concussions. In years past this injury wasn’t know n to be as prevalent because that game was played at a much slower speed. Players in todays’ game are bigger, faster and stronger than ever. It has been documented that the players themselves willingly know the risk they are taking yet still take the chance at playing the game. Players and player group representatives are now seeking compensation for their player and player’s families.

While the NFL is putting new rules and regulations on equipment and which type of tackles are allowed, living retired NFL players are found to already have symptoms of CTE (Fainaru, 2013). Through brain scans and research done by UCLA, they have identified proteins in player’s brains that cause CTE, which as Dr. Julian Bailes, co-director or North Shore Neurological Institute said, is the “holy grail” to studying CTE and finding ways to cure and prevent it (Fainaru, 2013). While this is a break through, there is still no cure or way to treat CTE (Fainaru, 2013). But this research also raises questions about CTE and the NFL. Will players be required to be tested for CTE? Can players be denied playing anymore if CTE is found? Will this greatly affect the way that football is currently played? As the research is still being collected, there is still no definite answer to any of those questions, but the NFL has acknowledged the correlations of CTE and concussions caused by playing in the NFL and assures that they will do all they can to help prevent severe brain trauma to their players, including donating $30 million to the National Institutes of Health to conduct further research on CTE (Kroll, 2013).

Here is why. In 2015, the NFL diagnosed 271 players that had concussions. There has continued to be an increase in the number of concussed players over the past several years. With the continual increase in concussions over the years,it is a reasonable question to ask whether the NFL is doing enough to protect their players or not. I am going to start this issue by discussing a movie I am sure you have heard of. Concussion. A Forensic pathologist named Dr. Bennet Omalu was the first doctor to discover chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in the brain of former Pittsburgh Steelers' center Mike Webster, who was 50, when he committed suicide. Dr. Omalu made the bold statement that football is the reason that Webster had mental issues, and ultimately the reason for his death. There continued to be a trend of NFL players passing at a young age due to mental health issues, and Omalu was certain that all of it was because of football. He examined the brains of these players and found correlations in their brains that suggests that the repeated blows to the head they received during their career caused severe damage. As you can imagine this discovery was a huge threat to the NFL as people and players saw this evidence and couldn't help but be scared about the outcome football has on an individual. The NFL basically just tried to cover up clear facts stated by Omalu, but eventually it became to evident to ignore. This movie made a large issue in the NFL apparent to many people and creating a film to do so was a very effective platform for displaying it. To make a long story short, since this discovery in 2002, there has been a drastic change in player safety rules, concussion protocol and guidelines, and strictness of teams to follow such protocol and guidelines. In

Many memories are made in football, but sadly some of the greatest players cannot recall them. The National Football League has been associated with concussions and brain traumas throughout the years, but lately it has been exposed by media and NFL veterans. The league recently “reached a $765 million preliminary settlement with thousands of former players who were suing the league over its treatment of concussions…” (Waldron). Many former players are experiencing the effects of taking hard hits over and over again; they were not properly treated, which makes the injury worse and long term. The concussion issue in the NFL is more prevalent today, because it affects not only the players, but the league as a whole.

The documentary, The League of Denial examines the issue of brain injuries in the National Football League. The film devotes most of its attention to the story of Mike Webster, who died at the age of fifty as a result of severe brain injuries suffered throughout his playing career. Webster’s story highlights the devastating effect concussions can have in a short timeframe. Because brain injuries are known to develop quickly it is important that the NFL responds quickly to this concussion crisis. The NFL is the most popular professional sports league in the world: according to Forbes Magazine the NFL generated over $9 billion in revenue this past year. Despite this success the NFL faces a legitimate threat against brain injuries and concussions. Although the NFL is popular, they should still be proactive in their fight against concussions because of the amount of money they generate, the health of their former players, and lastly the willingness of future athletes to play their sport.

However, in 2013, the NFL and the NFLPA entered a dispute on how to allocate the $100 million. The NFLPA vetted several research proposals and invited the NFL to participate in the entire process, so they believed the NFL would comply with the research proposal they selected. The NFLPA decided to allocate the funds towards a 10 year Harvard initiative that would examine at least 1,000 retired players to use as long-term subjects on a wide range of health issues. The project aimed to discover approaches to diagnosing, treating and preventing injuries and in both active and retired players. However, the “joint contribution” would not pan out as the NFL refused to sign off on the grant. The two sides would eventually agree to allocate their $50 million funding towards separately selected medical research. The NFL has allocated most of its medical research funds to entities such as the National Institute of Health, the U.S. military and private companies. Examining the allocation of medical research funds from the NFL and examining how the NFL refused to allocate money towards the Harvard initiative, suggests the NFL is steering away from research specifically from the link between football and CTE. Although, the NFL is now addressing brain trauma as a health hazard for players and are trying to diagnose and mitigate the impact of brain injuries, the NFL is also not addressing the link between CTE and playing football, perhaps because the

Over the past several years, the NFL has faced numerous lawsuits involving former NFL players and their families ranging from negligence, fraud, and wrongful death conspiracy from related head traumas suffered while playing professional football. Several studies have shown that there are long-term and devastating effects on football players who consistently experience concussions during regular season play and practice. There is

A concussion is an injury suffered in the brain of an individual that can affect and alter a person’s ability to perform not only mentally, but physically as well. The New York Daily News reported on one of the finest cases of how serious the NFL is taking the issue on concussions, the current lawsuit that reached a “$765 million settlement reached between the two sides, 18,000 concussion suffer and the NFL” which states causes for important untold information the NFL refused to report to players about the prospective dangers concussions had for their long-term health, though this was later shot down by a federal judge claiming that it was insufficient sum. An NFL player may succumb from thousands of hits to the head playing football all

For this reason, there has been a lot of research suggesting that the NFL is not doing enough for it’s athletes to shelter their brains. They have struggled with reporting and correctly diagnosing

The NFL has decided not to directly address the mental health problems of current and former players in fear of negative publicity and financial consequences league wide. Also, they have not compensated players for their injuries or put in enough time or effort to improve the conditions for players. These things are deemed unethical, because in a sense by being injured, these players are being stripped of their freedom to do things the way that they want. Also, the NFL is putting the greed for money over the health and well being of the community.

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?”

The NFL attempted to hide the truth and resolved to a biased decision that was unethical. The most important unethical issue was the lack of clarity for the players involved. The players were uninformed about the risk factors of their career. The NFL did not compensate for the injuries acquired during their career. Lastly, the issue broadens beyond professional football to different sports, even those involving many American youths, who are affected by CTE. The three main concerns led to the ethical question which examines whether or not it is ethical to allow players to continue participating in sports activity that would result in long-term damages to the brain. Facts from journals examine cognitive impairment related to concussions, methods that NFL took to handle the cases, and application of the study results to sports beyond the NFL.

Science says concussions are inevitable; 96 percent of all NFL players and 79 percent of all football players test positive for brain disease (Source: Frontline League of Denial 9/18/15 Concussion Watch Article). Prior to 2002, the NFL’s approach to preventing, treating, and managing concussions and CTE was very different than it is today. My essay will explore what some of those differences were and whether or not changes in the NFL are improving the outcomes and quality of life for current and former NFL players.

One corporate social responsibility fear that the NFL is up against is the care of the former players who have transformed the league. The problem at hand is that former players feel that they don’t get the proper medical, emotional, and financial support they earned once they are no longer playing in the league. In July 2012 the “NFL Life Line” was created in an effort decrease the number of suicides that former players have filed against the NFL. There have also been about ten to twelve known players who have committed suicide because of symptoms from a condition called Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. The condition can come from too much blunt force trauma to the head.

New surveys and data reports showing that repeated trauma to the head can cause CTE which seriously affects the brain and human body overall. Symptoms such as dizziness all the way to the most extreme like loss of motor function, dementia, etc. With all of the recent buzz about this phenomenon, The NFL, NCAA and state sports committees such as the WIAA have been trying to prevent the future generations of athletes and sports players suffer from these diseases. Acts such as reducing practice time allowing full contact and also schools buying the best helmet protection available shows how schools are really working to help kids across America. In addition, the NFL has publicly shown responsibility for head to head injuries and the lack of supervision and serious along with them. The organization is actively pushing technology to protect the brain as best as