The recent campaigns to raise awareness of the long-term repercussions of repetitive mild traumatic brain injury have succeeded in opening the eyes of many, but has also failed to plenty making their living within the guidelines of the National Football League. Never have we seen such conflicting parties at work in the past establishing sides that put forth the future of their lives, as well as the lives of their families, in opposition to those who maintain the ‘old-school’ mentality that generally supports the commandment in which “pain is weakness leaving the body.” Never have we seen such a deflation in the all-around machismo of the game of football, where there has been even the slightest consideration of one’s future after the game of football.
In an article published by Alan Schwarz of the New York Times, such an extraction of the changing culture of the game is depicted through a conversation between Donald Driver and Aaron Rodgers after the quarterback had sustained a concussion following a collision against the Detroit Lions on December 12, 2010.
“I went behind him and told him that this game is just a game,” Driver recalled this week. “Your life is more important than the game.”
Heresy! Planting a seed of long-term consideration for Rodgers’ health is an unwritten offense in the culture of the NFL. You can imagine that as Driver approaches the end of his career, he has given much thought about the long-term issues that may or may not be in his future. But even so, there are a handful of players who are open towards criticizing such an issue.
Hines Ward and James Harrison of the Pittsburgh Steelers have been two outspoken individuals about the faults of the league’s attempt to limit the occurrence of head injury through serious enforcement of helmet-to-helmet hits, which led to a series of fines for the ‘tackling’ that James Harrison put on display this season. As Schwarz puts it:
The hard-hitting linebacker James Harrison mocked the N.F.L.’s crackdown on head-to-head tackles, suggesting that the league “lay a pillow down where I’m going to tackle them, so they don’t hit the ground too hard.”
Insight to the stance that Hines Ward holds…
Receiver Hines Ward questioned all the fuss about brain injuries, and said that advising his own oft-concussed quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger, about health was all but preposterous.
Schwarz also goes to make a very valid point through the voice of Dr. John P. Sullivan, a University of Rhode Island sports psychologist, upon the actions of the Pittsburgh Steelers regarding its own reprecussions in affecting the decisions made by players at levels below the NFL, entitling it as modeled behavior:
“If the Steelers players do what they’re saying, high school and youth athletes will do the same thing. If you have someone at the top of the game say not to risk it, like the Packers guys did, that’s powerful.”
A main issue in the structure of an NFL game is the athletic trainer’s inability to, by his own power, declare a moment in which he can freeze play in order to properly assess a player who is suspected of having sustained a concussion- quite possibly an idea to be considered in the near future (amongst many other suggestions).
According to the Green Bay Packers athletic trainer, Pepper Burruss:
“It’s not like I can put my hand up and say: ‘That’s it! I need an injury timeout!’ ” Burruss said. “There’s a red flag for a video review, but I don’t have anything to throw out there to check a player out.”
So again, football falls upon this cyclic nature of the unknown, or even the undone, with regards the culture of the game in relation to the actions executed upon the playing field. The NFL must not hold back on their actions taken against the concussion crisis, for the more that they allow evidence of future potential to the exposure of neurodegenerative disease, the more they will see players thinking about their own lives above the television ratings or ticket sales each game provides. It is a necessity to place the decisions of medical professionals above a culture infected by ignorance.
SOURCE- “Two Teams Show Divide in Debate on Safety” by Alan Schwarz, New York Times
I believe that the “laws” that are to be made should primarily be directed at the “non-professional” athletes. That is where the most damage is made because at the younger age the athletes body/head has not fully developed yet. If the “multi-million dollar” athletes want to put thier own lives in danger, then so be it. If we can get the coaches to start teaching the “correct way” to make a hit/tackle from day 1, and instill strict safety rules/precautions and even possibly a rule of “banning” them for repeated offensives. (That was/is used in H.S. for spearing just once). It all has to start from the bottom (5-6 years old) and up and it starts with coaching & safety/precaution.
Michael G, I agree.
I also have to wonder, given their history of head injuries and sub-concussive impacts, if many pro football players are fully capable of assessing the risks they assume. A lifetime of steeping in the ethos of football, as a character-building and teamwork exercise that’s critical to personal development, not to mention taking so many hits to the head and body, is going to leave a residue, at the very least. As for capable risk-assessment, mild traumatic brain injury has a way of telling you that you don’t need to worry about sissified things like dizziness and nausea and memory blanks — just get back out on the field as fast as humanly possible.
I totally agree that adults should make adult decisions. And that kids should not be put in harm’s way intentionally — no matter how important the win. I think it will take time over the course of the next generation or two for the game to change permanently. There’s just too much investment — and history — in the violent version, for everyone to roll over and switch to flag football.
How about this — what if an additional league were created that didn’t rely on collision? What if, rather than getting rid of collision football, another option were created, so that kids who want to play, have more choices than getting knocked around or not playing at all?
Why completely get rid of ‘gladiator football’ when so many people genuinely love it, including the players who accept the risk? Maybe we should keep our “gladiator football” like we have MMA and WWE, and give people who crave the violence a steady supply. At the same time, we should offer an alternative for folks (kids and adults alike) who just want to participate in and watch a well-played game with strategy and athleticism.