The NFL and head injuries

There is a fantastic article by Malcolm Gladwell ((Outliers, The Tipping Point, a great author) in the latest New Yorker -- http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009 ... rentPage=1

It is about head injuries and the NFL, and really is worthy of 5 minutes of your time.


You know, it's interesting. I am from a football (pointy) family. HSFB was king in my corner of eastern OH where I grew up, and still is. I catch occasaional grief from my family for liking soccer more than any other game, and with my size, I certainly look like a linebacker than a midfielder flying down the wing. Once, while I was wearing a Pittsburgh Steeler T-Shirt out of town, I was asked if I was indeed a Pittsburgh Steeler -- I should have told the guy I was, but I digress. The point is, that I had more of an exposure to futbol Americano than any other sport.

With that in mind, I have come to look at football and the NFL a little differently in recent years. I was a huge Steeler fan growing up, and although the degree of intensity is a lot smaller, I still am. In this case, I view my military experience as something which enables me to say, as fact and not opinion, that I have played for higher stakes than any athlete. Obviously not in the monetary sense, but overall, I was higher up on the totem pole than they are. Yet, when I wake up in the morning at age 40, the worst thing I have to deal with are ankles that are usually sore. It only slows me down a little, I can still chase my son and go about my day just fine. I would not want to have to deal with the migraines or headaches that these guys have to endure for the rest of their shortened lives.

When I see someone like Kyle Turley, or hear of someone like Mike Webster and how miserably he died, or someone like Wayne Chrebet who can't navigate from his house to his place of work, that just makes me stop. The overriding sentiment I see when I watch an NFL game now is of sadness I guess, mixed in with a little pity. The people who are having the mangled bodies and brains are a few years younger than me now, and I just look at what they do on their field, and I think, "What a waste."

I remember last year when the Steelers won the Super Bowl, I was thinking about the grade 2 concussion Ben Roethlisberger sustained in the playofs, and playing through pain and all that, to come back for the Super Bowl. I remember thinking, "Congrats on the second ring Ben, I hope it is worth the Alzheimer's disease that you are very likely to have before your 50th birthday". Personally, I don't think a Super Bowl ring is enough for me to make that trade.

Today, I see my 3 year old son, and physically he is absolutely huge, a relatively little sweethearted monster, who one day will have more size than his old man. He honestly looks like he is 4-5 years old. When I see him at his preschool with his friends, I am surprised that they are so much smaller; it's like he is a different species or something. He already is getting talk from other people about playing football. I am certainly not going to forbid him from it if that is what he wants to do, but I will try to steer him from that kind of physical abuse. You only get one body in this life. High school kids may not be physically strong enough to bruise someone's brain to the degree to which Gladwell describes in his story, but their central nervous systems are still growing and are more susceptable to injury than adults are.

Is it really worth playing that game to do this to yourself? There are so many other sports in HS that you can play, is it really necessary to put yourself into pads and literally beat up your brain? Is it really worth it to have your HSFB coach say to you, "You are a man!!! You are outstanding!!!" Aren't there other ways you can achieve this?

I don't think I will be watching the NFL this Sunday.

 

It certainly seems to me like there should have been more advancements in helmets up to this point. For instance, why does the outside of the helmet necessarily have to be hard? While protective, it also turns it into a very formidable weapon. Why can't we have helmets that are of a more absorbent material?

 

Quite thought provoking Steve. I grew up playing and loving our version of football as well. The amount of collisions combined with the speed and size of these men at the NFL level is staggering.

 

I played American football in high school, and then rugby in college and for couple of years after. Upon learning that I played rugby, I frequently get comments along the lines of "ouch...isn't it painful/dangerous/ridiculous playing with no helmet and pads?"

But in my experience football was far, far rougher, more painful and more dangerous than rugby. As others have pointed out, those helmets and shoulder pads become weapons. Football banged me up much more than rugby ever did.