Entering NFL Oblivion

Have you ever been in a car accident once a week for 8 years straight? I have. Well not actually, but I can name 1,696 other people that have.

Dating back to the 1930s, leather football helmets were worn to protect these brave players from ear and head injuries, yet lacked a face mask. Finally, some people realized the dangers the game was having on their heads and by the 1950s, plastic helmets were used nationwide with the inclusion of face masks.

There are 32 teams in the NFL with 53 players on each team’s roster. It took roughly 2,000 players and the entire National Football League 20 years to realize that they needed better protection for their heads, ears and face. Unbelievable. Or is it?

 Fast forward another 65 years and research is finally surfacing on the effects of these weekly NFL games. A study done by NPR estimated that a typical hit by NFL greats can be compared to a 30 mph car crash without a seat belt on. After years of players enduring these “weekly car accidents”, previous NFL players started experiencing symptoms such as memory loss, anger, violence and other symptoms that caused researchers and doctors to study the brain of deceased NFL players. What they found is astonishing.

In 31 out of 34 deceased NFL players, a brain disease labeled chronic traumatic encephalopathy, CTE for short, was found. CTE is the result of tangled protein clogging brain tissue and causing the destruction of brain cells in these professional football players and other athletes that endure multiple concussions. Why wouldn’t these football players stop playing the game if they knew their brain was essentially deteriorating? Well, they didn’t know. As of February 2015, there is still no way to detect CTE in living patients.

Yesterday was Super Bowl XLIX and as well as a 28-24 New England Patriots victory over the Seattle Seahawks, this game was the most watched show in US television history with 118.5 million viewers. How many of these viewers were worried about the multiple headaches these players would have this morning? Did any of these players endure an undetected concussion last night? Does the NFL care about the safety and well-being of each of these individual players or are the people behind this game going to continue to pretend to be oblivious?