Football, as you may have heard, is having a rough go of it lately in the media. And yet, the NFL managed to slip a heinous bit of data right under the noses of the American public with nary much of a peep.
From Ken Belson of The New York Times:
The National Football League, which for years disputed evidence that its players had a high rate of severe brain damage, has stated in federal court documents that it expects nearly a third of retired players to develop long-term cognitive problems and that the conditions are likely to emerge at “notably younger ages” than in the general population.
And there's a reason why Anheuser-Busch, a peddler of a fuel for domestic violence, isn't wringing their hands over this: an army of former players wallowing away to hallow husks of humanity by their 50s isn't a 15-second clip captured with an elevator camera.
In the end, Roger Goodell, a man who made $44 million last year to head a non-profit, can be dumped and the NFL can move on. It's a lot harder to dump facts like CTE.
"Those were professionals who chose their path," one might cry, but Chad Stover was just a 16-year-old from Missouri playing a game he loved.
From Sean Gregory of Time.com:
It was halloween night, and the Tipton Cardinals needed a tackle. trailing 27-18 in the opening round of the Missouri high school playoffs, a stop here—on first down and 10 with less than seven minutes to play—would help keep Tipton’s fading season alive.
As the running back took the Handoff and sprinted right, Tipton’s Chad Stover, a 16-year-old defensive back, dove at his legs with arms outstretched. Chad’s head collided with the runner’s right thigh as the back dodged the tackle to gain another few yards. Chad went down, and his helmet smacked into the ground.
Chad wobbled to his feet, and after a time-out, he jogged to the sideline. twice, a Tipton assistant coach asked if he felt well enough to return to the game. twice, Chad said he was good. He went back in, and Tipton huddled up. “Something’s wrong,” Chad told a teammate before lining up for the play. Suddenly, his legs turned soft.
Football is an inherently dangerous game. And people say "Well these boys know the risk." Do they? Is all the research in on football? And is it that well known?
For example, neurologists say kids shouldn't play contact sports until 14, yet there are still parents still strapping their kids up in rudimentary helmets and pushing them out onto fields across America.
There's a reason most aren't sending their kids down to the boxing gym, and in the end, it could prove the two sports have more in common than NFLs gatekeepers would like to admit.
Because I am a hypocrite, I go against my better judgement and still actively love and follow football. But, (thankfully for me and society), I don't have a kid.
