Football fans the season is going to begin soon, as I expect all of your are excited for another season of football. I can’t fault you for that, being excited for the sport you love is natural. Despite that excitement though it’s important to leave yourself open to understanding that your favorite sport has flaws that need to be acknowledged and addressed.
The NFL has one main issue facing it right now, with that issue being player safety. Safety is a big problem in football obviously, no amount of padding or helmets is going to make the game safe without risk. For a long time the NFL played dumb about the long term health effects of football on the players, in recent years they have been more open to the dangers of the game. More so by force then choice as they have received many lawsuits over their tendency to turn a blind eye to the health of their players. The NFL has enforced rules like no more helmet to helmet hits to reduce concussions but thats not enough, even though concussions are a problem it ignores the bigger problem of CTE(also known as Chronic traumatic encephalopathy). CTE is not only caused by concussions but also by normal pedestrian tackles you see in every game. When the body comes to a sudden stop the brain stretches which causes damage to its internal structures. Over time the amount of damage piles up and causes serious long term damage. CTE symptoms include memory loss, anxiety, depression, aggression, and a lot of times can end in the person committing suicide. Unfortunately CTE for years could only be diagnosed after a player has passed away, although recently in 2016 their have been some breakthroughs in diagnosing it in the living. If diagnosing CTE in the living becomes a successful endeavor its a game changer for current and former NFL players.
The thing is though even with progress in diagnosing CTE thats not going to help in preventing it. The only way to do that would be to completely change the game and make it safer. Now I understand they are adults and can make their own decisions to risk their body, but their are thousand of kids playing pee wee football and high school football risking their health and future. While it may be fun it doesn't make it any less dangerous. A thing people need to realize is football is an Americanized sport it doesn't have much popularity anywhere else. As science progresses and we become more and more aware of the dangers of football its possible that less and less people allow their kids to play football and rightfully so. With that happening the fear then becomes that football would lose its popularity and lose its mainstream appeal. Sports don't always keep popularity and it may be more beneficial now to make a change now then to be reactive if popularity does slip. Star players like Calvin Johnson and Marshawn Lynch retired before they reached 30 if that proves to be a trend instead of a fad NFL could continue to lose some of their most polarizing and marketable players which could decrease the popularity. Making football safe to play isn't easy it could to prove to be very awkward and hard. Bottom line though, the game has changed before to make it safer and if their is any desire in protecting its players more changes need to be made. People probably won’t agree with the changes it won’t be easy but nothing worth doing ever is. We cannot let the cycle of ignorance continue where we see what the problem is yet still continue to ignore it.
