What can be considered "real" football?

Picture this. You are getting ready for game day and you get yourself all pumped up for your favorite NFL team. You invite your friends over, while ordering food and you bring out the ice cold beer. Nowadays, since just about every person owns at least one television, get togethers for sports are not as common as they used to be. Why does someone need to go out and socialize when they can relax at home on their own recliner, in their pajamas and watch the game? You can eat whatever you want and you do not have to argue over whether the play should have been a completed pass or not. There is no need to shout at the television over a play when you are by yourself.

The game of football always begins the same way, with the pre-game predictions and team picks by the sports analysts and commenters. A tradition in the game of football that has been going on for years is that the people in the stands and on the field all stand up proudly for the national anthem. That is a falsified statement when referring to modern day football. This past year, players around the country have been sitting down or kneeling during the national anthem. It was recognized during pre-season when Colin Kaepernick, quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers was photographed disgracefully sitting down on the bench during the national anthem. He later made a statement saying that he "will not stand for a country that oppresses black people."

Thanks to Kaepernick's actions and words, now a vast handful of professional football players are disappointing millions of fans by not showing "respect" towards the United States' national anthem, along with the flag. These role models are the reason why college, high school, and younger athletes are taking the same actions. In addition, some of these football players in the NFL are standing for the anthem, but they are holding their fists up in the air during the pre-game tradition. This represents "black power," a phrase that was made popular decades ago by African Americans and Civil Rights Leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. and his advisor Bayard Rustin. The top professional football players get paid millions of dollars a year, but some are not standing in respect of the national anthem. Many true football fans see this as disrespecting the game of football, whereas other loyal fans see this as a major step in the Black Lives Matter Movement. Football is changing from a game to a symbol. Some people see these players kneeling and holding up their fists as equivalent to spitting on soldiers or burning the American flag. Others see this as a measureable step in gaining power for protecting the lives of African Americans. Even though this is a major game change in the NFL, there are a few other issues that definitely need to be recognized.

Where has the safety of football gone? When the National Hockey league first started in 1917, the players did not wear helmets and had very limited protection gear. When Major League Baseball was founded in 1869, there were no helmets and they had scarce protection gear. You might be thinking that with football they have a ton of padding and high duty helmets that they did not even think of when it first started back in 1920. Well, that would be correct on minimal terms. Believe it or not, major life-threatening injuries are still present in football at all ages. One of the main things that football players are still struggling with is a condition known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy. This disease is known to occur over time after continual hits to the head. In a recent article there were a list of professional football players who seemed to have suffered from this unfortunate disease. An example given was by the Kansas City Press which stated, "New York Giants safety Tyler Sash, 27, died of an accidental overdose of medications in September. His mother, who had seen his irregular behavior and periods of confusion and memory loss, said her son knew something was wrong. It was CTE."

Even with this being said, it is proven that the safety guidelines and enhancements in the NFL have significantly improved from many years ago. You can say that sports should be fought through blood, sweat, and tears, but that is how these traumatic and even fatal head injuries can occur. Overall, even though the helmets are literally rock solid on the outside, there has been extra padding and adjustments added on the inside every year to reduce concussions. In addition, there are resilient padding all over a player's body, whereas if you go talk to a player back in history, they will probably think of this new and improved safety gear looking like a megaperson, and they would not be referring the former wide receiver from the Detroit Lions, Calvin Johnson also know as "Megatron." They would be referring to the size of today's football equipment. It is a proven fact that injuries are not as bad as they use to be, but they still frequently occur. There are some NFL games where over three players on each team go out with debilitating injuries, but nowadays the teams are required by the leagues safety precautions to treat concussions as if it were a more severe injury. You can see this demonstrated on the graph above.

Furthermore, while safety has been increasing, is it actually destroying the game of football? Look at it this way: You are watching two teams, lets say the Dallas Cowboys and the Philadelphia Eagles, and the game is tied at 17. The two minute warning of the fourth quarter has just came and the Eagles have the ball at the Cowboy's 20 yard line. Carson Wentz (Philadelphia's new rookie quarterback) throws a lobbed passed to the right corner of the endzone as one of their receivers, Jordan Matthews, make the catch for the touchdown. One of the referees throws out their bright yellow flag. The head referee in his white cap announces offensive pass interference on number 81, which of course is Matthews. As all the Eagles fans are booing and the Cowboys fans are cheering, the replay is shown on the jumbotron and it looks like Matthews and the safety on Cowboys only had a minimal amount of contact.

A call like that can easily cost a team a football game. There have been so many new rules and regulations enforced in the National Football League, that it totally obstructs players from playing the game. If a linebacker makes a clean, sharp hit on the quarterback, then the referees find an excuse to throw their lovely flag on the field of what once use to be considered a "real" football field. The referees end up saying something like "unneccessary roughness on defense number 55...ten yard penalty, first down." With this being said, is the game of football as good as it use to be? There may be too many penalties called, but there are still blood-rushing feelings about watching the NFL. In summation, if these players are given millions of dollars a year to play, then just let them play!