The NFL's Head Case

The NFL’s Head Case
The NFL and its teams have a professional medical staff that is assigned to each team. Their responsibility is to treat and evaluate players after an injury. While they claim that they only release players if they are completely free of symptoms and that also the players consent to feeling normal, the NFL should take on more responsibility with current and former players and acknowledge fact that they have knowingly allowed players to compete in games when they should have been kept on the sideline. There have been over 4100 former players who have been diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) which also includes illnesses like dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. There have been several suicide related deaths that have left many unanswered questions. Some have even left suicide notes that requested that their brain to be researched. Additionally, medical research has been able to show connection through several studies that head injuries, especially repeated, can cause traumatic brain damage. The main point of this research paper is to argue that repeated head injuries suffered by current and former NFL players are directly related to the neurological problems and the deaths of Junior Seau, Jovan Belcher and others, while also presenting the reactive measures that are taking place to prevent future occurrences in regards to rules and equipment. Every NFL football team is assigned a medical staff that is a paid member(s) of the organization. Their sole purpose is to tend to players after they have an on the field injury during a practice or game. The history behind the NFL’s medical staff dates back to 1966. They formed a society called the National Football League Physicians Society (NFLPS) CITATION Nat12 \l 1033 (National Football League Physicians Society, 2012). Their goal was to be able to establish better communication from one team to another, such as information about substance abuse among players, legal concerns and also being the liaisons with league owners and the league office CITATION Nat12 \l 1033 (National Football League Physicians Society, 2012). However, the fact that they are paid by the organization has left some to wonder whether they make the best decisions that are in the best interest of the player or in the best interest of the team in regards to keeping them on the sideline or allowing them to play. According to Guccione, “former NFL athletes accused the League of being aware of, and actively concealing, evidence linking football to mild traumatic brain injuries and their resulting pathological and debilitating neurological effects” CITATION Guc14 \l 1033 (Guccione, 2014). The medical staff receives their salary from the team and the owner that has a strong desire to win games. Knowing this it makes it too easy for one to wonder if these doctors are being heavily influenced by team owners and coaches to make sure that players stay in each and every game as much as possible, especially if the player is a huge asset to winning games and he can make big plays. While some would say that we should trust a medical professional because they have an ethical obligation to make sure players are fully healed and healthy, the public doesn’t always know what goes on behind closed doors when decisions are made about players’ health and safety.
According to Guccione, there have been over 4500 former players that have filed a law suit against the NFL in relation to head injuries CITATION Guc14 \l 1033 (Guccione, 2014). The list includes former NFL stars like, Tony Dorsett, Dave Duerson, Ray Easterling and Junior Seau to name a few. There have been over thirty former players who have publicly acknowledged that they are either showing symptoms or have been diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE CITATION Guc14 \l 1033 (Guccione, 2014). Dementia is associated with Alzheimer’s disease in that it that shows a decline in memory or other thinking skills that reduces a person’s ability to perform everyday life activities. According to Norton, “in a study of more than 3,400 retired NFL players, the researchers found that death rates from the two brain diseases were four times higher than those in the general U.S. population” CITATION Amy12 \l 1033 (Norton, 2012). Over the past decade more and more former NFL players and their families have gotten the attention of the media and raised awareness to start showing that there is a cause for concern and that the problem should be looked into further. With that awareness and attention, just recently roughly 4500 former players have filed lawsuits against the NFL for concussion-related injuries they received while playing. According to a law journal written by Guccione, “on August 29, 2013, retired Judge Layn R. Phillips announced a “historic” $795 million settlement proposal between the National Football League and over 4500 retired football players” CITATION Guc14 \l 1033 (Guccione, 2014). The NFL commissioner Roger Goodell was quoted as saying “the settlement is best for the players, and that is what is important” while the NFL Executive Vice President was quoted saying “this agreement lets us help those who need it most and continue our work to make the game safer for current and future players” CITATION Guc14 \l 1033 (Guccione, 2014). This settlement was view by some that the NFL took the easy way out by just settling with $795 million spread out over 4500 players. When you do the math, splitting up $795 million gives each player, family or estate $176600. While that may be a lot of money for some people, it still doesn’t fix the problem nor does it bring back any player that is missed by their family. It is also important to consider that the NFL’s yearly revenue is around $9 billion per year, not even a tenth of the total revenue that the NFL generates per year. While it could be coincidental that former players may have developed these diseases from natural causes, statistics are showing otherwise.
There have been several suicide related deaths of former NFL players; one of them was Junior Seau, in which he left behind a suicide note asking for a postmortem brain examination. In an review article written by Sagerian was this, “on May 2, 2012, twelve-time NFL Pro Bowler Junior Seau was found dead in his beachfront home located in Oceanside, California, with a single gunshot wound to the chest. A day later, the medical examiner’s office ruled the death a suicide. Seau’s suicide fueled speculation that the brain damage from concussions endured during his twenty-year NFL career contributed to his suicide. As a result, Junior Seau’s family donated some of his brain tissue to the National Institutes of Health’s for research and analysis on traumatic brain injury” CITATION Sag13 \l 1033 (Sagerian, 2013). Junior Seau spent twenty years in the NFL, sixteen years with the San Diego Chargers and four years with the New England Patriots. Over his career in the NFL, Junior was never publically acknowledged to have been diagnosed with a concussion. Some of his former teammates speculated that he was just a tough guy and never reported it. Back when Seau first started playing in the NFL in 1990, the culture was very different than it is now. Some injuries that are considered serious in today’s NFL were viewed as minor in those times. He played in the age of smelling salts and taking multiple injections to reduce inflammation and pain just prior to the start of a game. He was recorded as playing in the 1995 AFC championship game with a pinched nerve and still tallied 16 tackles. He was the type of player that welcomed the big hits. Former teammates and opponents remember games and practices where he would taunt the running backs and offensive linemen to bring their best game against them to show them how tough he was. After his retirement, he began to distance himself from his family. He was also reported as having addictions with alcohol and pain killers, as well as gambling away large sums of money because of bad business decisions he made that quite possibly could have been a result of the differences in thinking habits he was dealing with. Junior Seau along with Dave Duerson committed suicide using the same method, a single gunshot wound to the chest. Dave Duerson left behind a suicide letter requesting that his brain be examined. It is clear that they both committed suicide as a signal that they were dealing with a lot of pain and neurological problems, and by killing themselves using the method of which they did, suggest that they wanted to leave their brain intact as a message to everyone that there is a problem, and it needs to be dealt with. While some may argue that no one really knows the exact reasons they committed suicide, their deaths along with others have left many to speculate that there is a pattern of this type of behavior.
The common rebuttal from the public is that players should know the risk associated with playing football and they should accept the fact, that since they are compensated so generously, a player should assume the consequences to their safety and health during and after their career. Football is considered an extremely dangerous game because of all the contact involved. Football players are considered some of the strongest and toughest athletes in the world. They train and condition their bodies to build as much lean muscle as possible to make them fast to get to the football and solid on impact to stop the ball carrier dead in their tracks.
Knowing these risks, the NFL has since established rules and guidelines that prohibit defenders from making illegal hits. The NFL official rule book outlines illegal hits, which fall under the articles of unnecessary roughness, some of them include the following: “forcibly hitting the defenseless player’s head or neck area with the helmet, facemask, forearm, or shoulder, regardless of whether the defensive player also uses his arms to tackle the defenseless player by encircling or grasping him; and lowering the head and making forcible contact with the top/crown or forehead/”hairline” parts of the helmet against any part of the defenseless players body” CITATION Nat14 \l 1033 (League, 2014). A defenseless player is defined in the rule book as a player who is in a defenseless posture, for example, a player in the act of or just after throwing a pass, a receiver attempting to catch a pass; or who has completed a catch and has not had time to protect himself, a runner already in the grasp of a tackler and whose forward progress has been stopped or a player on the ground at the end of a play CITATION Nat14 \l 1033 (League, 2014). League on-field officials have the discretion to make the calls on the field and rule them as unnecessary roughness or an illegal hit. Depending on the severity, the official can disqualify them from competition. All of these rules have evolved and increased in their severity and punishment over the last decade. The punishments usually come in the form of a fine ranging anywhere between $10,000 and $150,000 depending on the severity. The players have the ability to appeal but typically do not win after further review. The rules that have been established over the last decade have been a reactive approach to all of the attention the NFL has been given because of current and former athletes.
Football as sport is changing its approach to the way it is being played and coached. In a recent article about the future of football written by William Beaver it says, “as public awareness about the potential dangers of repeated blows to the head increases, it seems likely that many parents will discourage or not allow their children to play football” CITATION Bea13 \l 1033 (Beaver, 2013). With all of the attention around the head injuries, Pop Warner football programs have implemented a “Heads Up’ coaching strategy that teaches young players specific tactics on how to tackle opponents to try and reduce the head injuries as well as hard hits. Additionally, football equipment is being modernized with technological advancements in padding and helmet gear.
Head injuries in the NFL are a serious matter, not just during a players’ career, but after their career as well. The NFL needs to invest more time and resources into making sure they are actively acknowledging that there is evidence and patterns that show the relation of repeated head injuries and the affects that follow them later on in life. Medical staff needs to be in favor of helping the player first and then the team while also keeping track of repeated head injuries and the severities. The fact that the league is taking reactive measures by implementing rules and investing in upgrading the players equipment, only suggest that the evidence proves the plaintiffs and victims have a legitimate concern and that the NFL truly has a Head Case.
References
BIBLIOGRAPHY Beaver, W. (2013). The Future of Football. Society, 50(4), 335. doi:10.1007/s12115-013-9668-7.
Guccione, J. (2014). Moving Past A "Pocket Change" Settlement: The Threat of Preemption and How the Loss of Chance Doctrine Can Help NFL Concussion Plaintiffs Prove Causation. Journal Of Law & Policy, 22(2), 907-956.
League, N. F. (2014). NFL Official Playing Rules. Retrieved from NFL.com: http://www.nfl.com/static/content/public/image/rulebook/pdfs/15_Rule12_Player_Conduct.pdf
National Football League Physicians Society. (2012). Retrieved from NFLPS: nflps.org/about/history
Norton, A. (2012, September 5). Alzheimer 's death rate higher in former NFL players. Reuters.
Sagerian, R. M. (2013). A Penalty Flag For Preemption: The NFL Concussion Litigation, Tortious Fraud, And the Steel Curtain Defense of Section 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act. Thomas Jefferson Law Review, 35(2), 229-272.

References: BIBLIOGRAPHY Beaver, W. (2013). The Future of Football. Society, 50(4), 335. doi:10.1007/s12115-013-9668-7. Guccione, J. (2014). Moving Past A "Pocket Change" Settlement: The Threat of Preemption and How the Loss of Chance Doctrine Can Help NFL Concussion Plaintiffs Prove Causation. Journal Of Law & Policy, 22(2), 907-956. League, N. F. (2014). NFL Official Playing Rules. Retrieved from NFL.com: http://www.nfl.com/static/content/public/image/rulebook/pdfs/15_Rule12_Player_Conduct.pdf National Football League Physicians Society. (2012). Retrieved from NFLPS: nflps.org/about/history Norton, A. (2012, September 5). Alzheimer 's death rate higher in former NFL players. Reuters. Sagerian, R. M. (2013). A Penalty Flag For Preemption: The NFL Concussion Litigation, Tortious Fraud, And the Steel Curtain Defense of Section 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act. Thomas Jefferson Law Review, 35(2), 229-272.