Lip service not enough to protect players from concussions – NFL feature
A war of words amongst all stakeholders over National Football League (NFL) players’ safety and concussions continues, as does the number of head injuries to a worrisome level that has left many components of the issue rather concerned.
The NFL Players’ Association (NFLPA) has demanded the league office to appoint concussion experts on the sidelines during each game. They demanded that the independent experts should be those people who do not have any sort of or direct affiliation with
the teams. They will be specialised in concussions and will help in monitoring, assessing and treating players for concussions.
Already this season, a number of players have suffered concussions. For example, Jay Cutler was hit by a Houston Texans’ defenseman. The league in a knee-jerk reaction slapped hefty penalty in form of fine on the Texans’ player, and the issue was over.
It is the point where the league office is going against the concussed players. No doubt, the office has done remarkably well in making the game safer, but it is not as safer, after all, that the serious injuries like concussions could be avoided.
How much the NFLPA demand weighs for the NFL boss is a question yet, but he has repeated his mantra of keeping the players’ protection and safety a prime priority. The union is right that it has not stopped or protected players from head injuries.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell while speaking at Harvard recently reiterated his ambitious of making the game safer. He fell short of elaborating how and when. He might not be aware of gravity of the situation, but then he is aware of the number of petitions
his office is facing in front of several courts over alleged mishandling of players’ head injuries. So this should him make concerned about the gravity of the issue.
There were some hopes that the issue of head hits might come on the agenda of the NFL owners’ committee during the offseason this year, but the topic did not get enough limelight during the meeting. Moreover, no one knows the outcome of the league’s decision
of positioning trained athletic trainers on the sidelines of each game to help the teams’ medical staff in monitoring, assessing and treating players for concussions.
It pertinent to recall that the decision of trainers' positioning was implemented in urgency by the league office in 2011 when the league was hit by controversial handling of a head injury to quarterback Colt McCoy by his team the Cleveland Browns. The league
office should have done something to measure up the effectiveness of that step and take it to another level so the players could be hundred percent safe from concussions.
Concussions not only affect players’ season but they also have long-term impacts that ruin post-career family life of the players.
A number of players have accused the league of implicating them into long-term miseries by mishandling the injuries, while many of them are culprits themselves. The financial fears make many players to hide head injuries but they ignore the long-term implications
of their steps.
Now it is high time that the league office should move on from slapping fines and do something more concrete to protect players from head injuries.
Disclaimer: The views do not represent editorial policy of bettor.com
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