Football’s Concussion Dilemma

Tyler Sansone, Editor In- Chief

Football, an American staple in sports, is riddled with head trauma and concussion related injury. According to apps.frontline.org, there were 199 players who suffered from a concussion in the last NFL season.

As mentioned on infoplease.com, on estimate, there are 1,696 players in the NFL. With 199 players suffering from concussion last season, that accounts for 11% of the leagues athletes on injury reserve for some period of time due to head related injury.

Over the course of the last decade, the NFL has attempted to reduce the amount of concussions suffered a season. The percentage has even dropped during the last five years, but the number is still dramatically large for an injury of this caliber. In 2010, according to NFL.com, the league’s concussion percentage was a high as 21%.

Now at 11% it’s clear that the actions in lace were a success-to an extent. In an NY Times article by Ken Bolser in 2014, the long term effects of head injuries sustained by NFL players will affect 1 in every 3 athletes later in their life. With the National football League’s agreement, as stated in the article: The findings are a result of data prepared by actuaries hired by the league and provided to the United States District Court judge presiding over the settlement between the N.F.L. and 5,000 former players who sued the league, alleging that it had hidden the dangers of concussions from them.”

According to this quote, the league has been sued over 5,000 times for hiding the effects of head injury from players who have experienced this type of injury during their time in play.

Continuing in this article, it’s said that both parties- the NFL and the players in suit- were both expecting several dozens of former players to receive upwards of $5 million dollars in compensation for their suffering.  

In a related piece on pbs.org, it was stated that 87 out of 91 deceased NFL players tested positive for brain disease.

Writer Jason Breslow explains this statistic: “Researchers with the Department of Veterans Affairs and Boston University have now identified the degenerative disease known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, in 96 percent of NFL players that they’ve examined and in 79 percent of all football players.”

CTE has been proven to cause anxiety, extreme depression and of course disfunction of imperative portions of a person’s brain. With football being one of the most popular sports in the nation, from youth organizations, to the NCAA, through the renowned NFL: the situation regarding head injury is evident. 11% of pro player suffering- is 11% too many.