There is a movie that will be showing in December of this year. It’s called Concussion , a dramatic thriller based on the incredible true David vs. Goliath story of Dr. Bennet Omalu, the brilliant forensic neuropathologist who made the first discovery of CTE, a football-related brain trauma, in a pro player. I do hope America watches it.
The list of NFL players with chronic traumatic encephalopathy is long.
Just last month, former National Football League quarterback Erik Kramer tried to commit suicide by shooting himself at a motel in the Los Angeles area. It was not a big story, so you probably missed it while you were focused on “Deflate Gate”.
And on Thursday, at 8:30 PM, the slaughter begins again. No, these gladiators are not ripped to pieces before our eyes. There are no guts floating in blood on the Coliseum floor. There are no screams in agony as men die for our amusement, as was the case in ancient Rome. No, those people were uncivilized, ignorant, and barbaric. Today, we have found a way to delay the slaughter, the blood and the screams in agony after the gladiators are no longer in our sight, or our memories.
But hey, are you ready for some football?
My dad played in the NFL for 7 years in the 70s. My older brother was a 6’6″ tight end who got a full scholarship to a division 1 school, and with his speed, strength and height, may have gone further had he not needed an organ transplant that ended his football career.
So, I’ve certainly seen the opportunities that football can bring. Even for those who aren’t monstrous behemoths with the athleticism to match, like my father and brother, working hard in football can get fairly normal people into better schools or on a team where people gain friends and confidence that could last a lifetime.
All that said, even with all the wonderful things sports like football can do, if I ever had kids, I’d try very hard to keep them from playing football. I’d even consider banning it outright.
We, as a public, simply know too much now — and we know the dangers of CTE aren’t just for guys who’ve had 7 year careers in the NFL, and another 8+ in college, HS and likely beyond… but also kids playing pop warner and high school ball.
Kids as young as 17 have been documented with early signs of CTE, and there are thousands of football players who get concussions every year, many of whom are getting their second or third concussion since they joined that team. Even more scary, CTE can happen even without ever getting a concussion.
The safety gear not only fails at making players safe, but actually makes the game MORE dangerous for head injuries. It doesn’t protect against head impacts — but wearing it makes players hit harder, much harder, greatly magnifying the damage it does to the head.
That’s the fundamental thing all parents need to understand: The pads and helmet make football more dangerous, and more likely to cause your child permanent, lifelong and incredibly difficult to diagnose brain injuries.
Ironically, football would be safer if it was more like rugby — without pads. Rugby doesn’t have nearly the same kind of number of cases where players either have had CTE or shows signs of it.
The NFL, NCAA, high schools and Pop Warner all need to dramatically change how the game of football is played, with changes that are specifically designed to drastically reduce head impact in a systematic way, looking at where hits happen at all levels of the game.
They need to look at pads (and whether they’re helping or hurting), look at the type of hits that are allowed, the number of times teams should be allowed to practice with pads and full contact, and they need to ask themselves what alternatives can be had to special teams play and whether play should stop at any change of possession.
And parents are going to have to take the lead on forcing these changes to happen, because it sure as hell isn’t going to be the NFL or the NCAA, which has far too much profit incentive to want to make important changes to the game.