If an NFL player is killed at the end of a long career — and we all know what’s been happening in recent years — this would raise the question on whether football is gradually dying, even when the league is a growing enterprise worth a billion dollars. But there’s nothing to worry about. The NFL won’t ever die. In other words — to be precise — the game isn’t going anywhere, as long as it continues to profit and bring in plenty of revenue.
There’s no need to lose any sleep, no need to lose your mind over this and no need for a defibrillator. There’s just no need. Popular as football is here in America, fueled by top star players and strong marketability, people’s affinity for the game is mind-blowing when a billion-dollar industry is the most recognized symbol of patriotism. The growth in popularity is rapidly on the rise, and even if baseball had the America’s national pastime label until the NFL fascinated many of whom are engaging fans, especially for our generation, football is now America’s curiosity and the biggest social activity.
It would figure, in the number of head trauma injuries, that the league’s main priority is player’s safety and handling concussion-related lawsuits. It’s too often, particularly after incidents of brain damage, that players sadly suffer from depression and bad health. Nearly a week remove from the untimely death of former NFL great Junior Seau, which wasn’t an isolated incident, concussion lawsuits are often noted in lieu of purging the lousy Pro Bowl that keeps on humiliating the NFL and commissioner Roger Goodell, as well, whose accountable for what happens in the league under his watch.
Good-bye, football. This is really happening. Talk is talk. Rumor is rumor. Over the years, screaming in anger, sharing experiences of memory loss or temporarily loss of consciousness, NFL players have testified. It’s persistently a growing list of players suing the NFL for short-term memory loss and mood swings from multiple concussions that could caused permanent brain damage. The rash of suicides by players have stemmed from mild traumatic brain injuries suffered over the years, at least for what studies have found. The victims of concussions, barely able to remember — to some degree — are mad and feel they are treated unfairly.
Never once, in a million years, has the NFL appeased retirees and litigants, disrespectfully ignoring the well being of one’s health condition. The lawsuits are not an indication that Goodell is culpable for young men dying. He’s innocent. He took over at a time when the NFL now understands the type of symptoms that later touch the minds of ex-NFLers. In every way, that is, this is not good for the most popular game in Americana. It needs to simply address what solutions could be implemented to prevent frequent brain trauma. In the midst of a crisis, an unpleasantly difficult situation, the NFL is catching hell after three NFL players with severe brain trauma have killed themselves in the past year.
But this, though, shouldn’t deprive the audience of pro football. It has been another turbulent mess, another dilemma, and this increasingly broach debates of pro football slowly approaching death. This game — mind you — won’t ever rest peacefully, at least not for decades and generations. It’s fairly a healthy sport, to be exact, although players’ mental health threatens to alienate many fans from the game with hyperbole in a league endangered by all the concussions that may have taken the lives of ex-players.
In this moment when the NFL is battling in court these days — at least for now — it must evaluate specifically on ways to change the game. It has already enforced harsher punishments, for those who violate the helmet-to-helmet rule, banned with a penalty of 15 yards during the game and suspensions for players responsible for such a vicious hit. It’s the one rule that could be named after Steelers linebacker James Harrison, for as many times as he has been suspended for illegal hits. There’s roughly much attention on concussions when head injuries results in long-term health dangers, after medical experts have studied the brain.
Over the years, we’ve seen many players suffer from concussions after being diagnosed with a serious, gruesome injury, which is so common in today’s game. In the case of the NFL being hazardous to someone’s health, given that numerous players have been victimized by the symptoms of brain damage, the loyalty of fans is what keeps the game alive. Even though we wonder what the future beholds for the NFL — all while one shouldn’t have to wonder when the league is wealthy — fans all over still buys tickets and jerseys.
With that in mind, fans build a player’s ego and celebrity just as much as they help triple existing revenue. If the sport is dying, as to where some people actually buy into the gibberish, it’s hard to tell whether we are witnessing a receding period. Maybe we are in a hapless recession, but we’re not on the verge of losing the National Football League anytime soon. It’s the one sport embraced heavily, that fans pitch in their massive dollars on tickets, merchandise, cable and satellite sports packages and spend ample time at bars to drink and reminisce with their drunken peers.
If we support football, we are fruitfully expanding the growth and longevity of a well-respected game that has occupied our lives on Sundays, inclined to sit and watch games as people throw aside their usual housework while deeply engrossed in football. In the aftermath of several death sentences, Super Bowl Sunday will still traditionally be considered a national holiday. There are names mentioned — and maybe even familiar ones – so be warned. But the noise of players like Seau and Dave Duerson, for me, are glaring signs of troubles.
That is every reason to worry about the state of the NFL, of course, hearing the weary subject every season it seems on the possibility of brain damage ousting the sport. The bad part of all of this now is that there’s much to criticize in the wake of Seau’s death, which he apparently died from playing a game he truly relished. The even worst part of all of this is that there’s constant court fights.
This all comes well after Andre Waters, a retired Eagles safety, shot himself in 2006, at age 44. This all comes well after former Houston Oilers linebacker, John Grimsley, accidentally shot himself. This all comes after Justin Strzelczyk, a former offensive lineman for the Pittsburgh Steelers who had a nine-year career in the NFL, died driving a car 90 mph against traffic in 2006. This all happened after Tom McHale, a nine-year veteran, died from drug overdose not long ago — and then Canadian pro wrestler Chris Benoit horribly killed his wife and children and himself.
There’s a part of me that feels bad, but these players know what’s at risk when they forge their signatures on contracts. The game of violence is something players commit to playing, basically signing their lives away, and a decision they chose. The fear of bankruptcy is a concern with lawsuits from players, suffering from mood disorders, paranoia, confusion, memory loss, irritability, anger, reduced concentration and apathy. But today, players sue, quick to hire attorneys to represent them as they seek money from a league that once fed their families. The NFL may lose billions by next decade with all the court battles.
The negative publicity of lawsuits can kill the brand of the most admirable sport. The deterioration of the game is unlikely to happen as everyone has kept an eye on it, since Michael Jordan retired from the NBA and since performance-enhancing drugs shamed baseball. The union can’t even be trusted — skeptical and stubborn — while the owners are just as incredulous, refusing to reach a consensus to improve the balance of the league.
The father who is a former NFL player, which oddly discourage his kids from achieving their dreams, took a stance by saying he’s not sure if his kids should play football in the wake of the Saints’ bounty scandal. Kurt Warner was the person to say such a thing, by the way, and opened himself to criticism by members of the media and former and current NFL players.
It appears there is just too much violence in the game of football, while others complain about Goodell being too soft. You can’t please everyone. The NFL is not in the best state right now, as litigating is seriously drawing publicity for the measure of violence to threaten someone’s health.
It’s something to strongly think about, but football will and should survive.
