In late July, a study was published in which the brains of 111 deceased NFL players were examined. This study found that all but one of them had the brain disease known as CTE. Here is a link to the summary of the said study.

This is obviously problematic, as the livelihood of football players of all ages is at stake. It also is extremely disappointing as someone who grew up loving and playing this great game. America loves its football, as evidenced by the fact that television ratings show the NFL is essentially the most watched show on TV. Combine this with merchandising, ticket sales, and copious other sources of revenue and the $13 billion the NFL made in 2016 makes a lot of sense.

It seems to me the NFL has been afraid of the brain trauma issue at its doorstep. As stated in the linked article above, Jerry Jones, arguably the NFL’s most powerful owner, has denied a connection between CTE and football. It's an issue that, until recently, they’ve tried to sweep under the rug. While the league has funded multiple studies on the disease and its connection to football, their public stance could be far stronger.

We live in a capitalist society, and the NFL is a business first, and so it makes sense that they don’t want to bring light to an issue that could hurt revenue. If things don’t change, profit margins won’t be the only casualty. Already, Junior Seau and others have committed suicide as a result of their brain trauma. While a correlation between CTE and suicide has not been established, I’m of the opinion that a degenerative brain disease is dangerous regardless.

With such a complicated issue, what can be done? While the issue of brain trauma in football is not exclusive to the NFL, it’s the highest level of football and the business that drives all lesser levels of competition. Due to this, the responsibility of this predicament falls on the league’s shoulders.

While I don’t know how to make football safer without getting rid of it completely, I do know of some steps the NFL can make to take better care of its players.

For example, the NFL only provides health insurance to its players for 5 years after their retirement. After pulling in $13 billion last year, I think they can afford to take care of their employees better than that.

Secondly, the NFL needs to have its own doctors on the sideline to diagnose concussions and keep concussed players off the field. Former superstars like Brett Favre and Calvin Johnson have spoken on the trend of team doctors providing strong painkillers to athletes in order to keep them on the field. This had led to addiction in many cases, and doesn’t have any long-term merits as a way to treat an injured athlete.

To be clear, there is risk of injury in any sport. Asking football to rid itself of head injury isn’t realistic, and is a losing battle to fight. However, I feel the way we treat athletes who do get concussed needs to change, or else the same sad story will be told over and over again.