Football, Entertainment and the Greater Good

Americans are projected to bet $1.39 billion¹ on the Super Bowl, on everything from who the MVP will be, to whether a coach or a player will cry during the National Anthem to whether or not a player will have to leave the field — and not be able to return — due to concussion symptoms.

A 30-second ad in last year’s game cost $7 million.²

There’s a lot of money to be made off men who might get permanently injured.

The Super Bowl is the cathedral of American violence where we worship competition. We love our dichotomies — good and evil, us and them, home team and rivals. From gladiators to bullfights to Bolivian Cholita wrestlers, many cultures consume violence as entertainment. Humans like violence so much they even pay to watch simulated violence. But we prefer it when it’s real — and even deadly.

In American football, the research is unequivocal — traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) are threatening the long-term cognitive, physical, and psychological health of football players. Side effects and permanent symptoms can include: memory loss, depression, impaired judgment, impulsivity, suicidal ideation, headaches, irritability, slurred speech, balance problems, dementia, and even death.³

Some gruesome facts:

• The likelihood of a CTE diagnosis increases by 15% for each additional year of football played.⁴
• Contact sport athletes and military veterans are at the greatest risk for CTE and the myriad symptoms and diseases associated with it.
• Every year in the U.S. players sustain an estimated 1.2 million injuries⁵ and are almost seven times more likely to get injured during a game than during practice.⁶

How will injuries affect their post-football career prospects after their bodies can’t play the grueling game anymore?

As with so many traditions, we have to ask ourselves if the costs outweigh the benefits. And more importantly, who’s paying those costs while others benefit? Who’s worth saving? Whose bodies are worth protecting?

Boys start playing football young.

Much of the harm of football is nonconsensual or it involves problematic consent. Children cannot understand or consent to the potential long-term harm they are inflicting on their bodies or others. Consent also is compromised for the many young adults who view college and professional football as their only way out of poverty. In essence, many of these young players have been socially coerced into a deeply damaging form of labor. — Dr. Rogers S. Walker

Dr. Walker’s compelling case for repudiating the physical damage American football inflicts on young boys and men focuses on those with limited financial opportunities.

What are the true economics of consent? What are the ethics when others earn money from your dangerous labor? Particularly minors and students who dream of making it to the NFL.

Dr. Walker is right. Poverty isn’t true consent or “choice”. Neither is the “consent” of any minor. Even when they want to play. And for young boys with limited options, financial imperatives can underpin this pursuit of traditional masculinity as a scholarship opportunity and a potential career. The circumstances can be coercive.

Here’s how the dominoes fall. Poverty creates economic disparity. Economic disparity creates income inequality. Disparity and inequality always create a power differential.

Just because we’re on the winning end of an economic equation doesn’t mean we have to exploit someone else’s vulnerability for our own entertainment. Even if you’re not in a position to topple a juggernaut like American football you can still protest its disparities. What if on Super Bowl Sunday we didn’t boycott the game? What if we used our individual and collective platforms to call for safer regulations?

The NFL has instituted more than 50 safety measures in the last 20 years to reduce the risk of injury,7 including better concussion management, biomechanical monitoring in helmets and mouthguards, banning high-drop tackles, and reducing the distance between teams during kick-offs to reduce high-speed collisions.⁸

“If we cut both the number of head impacts and the force of those hits in practice and games, we could lower the odds that athletes develop CTE.” — Dr. Daniel Daneshvar, Massachusetts General Hospital⁹

We’ve come a long way since the NFL first started requiring helmets to be worn in 1943.

Regulation can evolve with the research to mitigate potential harm.

“ … researchers determined that 87% of all players exhibited evidence of CTE, while an astounding 99% of all NFL players showed evidence of the disease.”¹⁰

“Moving forward, however, I fear that I will lose an important connection with him when I stop watching football games. For this reason and others, most Americans are not going to stop watching football anytime soon.” Dr. Walker reflected on how giving up watching football would affect his relationship with his father. But the research motivated him to take a stand against traumatic brain injuries like chronic traumatic encephalopathy and how they disproportionately affect low-income players and players of color.

But not all players can afford to quit playing as a form of protest. Most players, I would assume, love the game and want to play as long as they are able. And fandom is only growing.

I still can’t explain it but somehow I became a Duck football fan after deeply despising football and football culture from the enclave of my university town. The Coach Kelly years made me come to love college football. Now, close games make me palpitate. Good sportsmanship makes me cry. My mom and I often watch the games or text during football season. We lament bad calls, pray for injured players, and cheer for great plays. And year after year, my dad consistently praises the running backs, not just the quarterbacks.

“If you want to move that ball get it to Verdell!”

We talk strategy. Was that really pass interference or just good defense? How a win should never come down to a placekicker — where was the offense the rest of the game? How could a final score ever come down to one field goal?

But did I ever stop to really think about these boys? The safety of those babyfaces under the helmets? Their long-term prospects beyond my entertainment for those precious few months every year?

Dr. Walker’s story is heartfelt with a higher calling. His decision to quit watching football is understandable but rather than abandoning football altogether, what if we lobbied for amended rules that reduce the risk of permanent injuries? Given that injuries are less common in teams with experienced coaches and a higher number of assistant coaches, what if we required a minimum number of years of experience for head coaches and more assistant coaches? What if the NFL keeps making improvements to safety measures?¹¹

Football is a bastion of entertainment. It is hugely engaging for consumers but can be irrevocably damaging for the producers of this dangerous entertainment.

Absolutes won’t solve this growing crisis. So on this Super Bowl Sunday, while we’re snacking on guacamole with Mexican avocados that have become an unaffordable luxury for many in Mexico, (the top global producer of the “green gold”), let’s think critically about how we can better protect our young men by better regulating one of our favorite sports.

1. https://www.investopedia.com/how-much-americans-are-expected-to-legally-bet-on-the-super-bowl-8787191

2. https://gridironexperts.com/10-ridiculous-super-bowl-prop-bets/

3. https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/how-football-raises-risk-chronic-traumatic-encephalopathy

4. https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/how-football-raises-risk-chronic-traumatic-encephalopathy

5. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1947533/

6. https://twinboro.com/sport/football-injuries-nj.html

7. https://www.nfl.com/playerhealthandsafety/equipment-and-innovation/rules-changes/nfl-health-and-safety-related-rules-changes-since-2002

8. https://www.nfl.com/playerhealthandsafety/equipment-and-innovation/rules-changes/nfl-health-and-safety-related-rules-changes-since-2002

9. https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/how-football-raises-risk-chronic-traumatic-encephalopathy

10. https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/I-love-the-49ers-but-I-refuse-to-watch-the-game-16813870.php

11. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1947533/