Football and Violent Contact

I've been putting off writing this blog until somebody other than me says it.

Yesterday, Ravens safety Ed Reed said it. He says he does feel for all of those NFL players who have had major concussion syndromes and are having to deal with it now that they are retired.

BUT, and I agree with him here, he also added "you signed up for it when you joined the NFL."

Remember the old saying. "Football isn't a contact sport, it's a collision sport." That saying has been around for at least 50 years, and everybody who has ever played in the NFL KNOWS the reality of it.

I'm not saying I don't feel sorry for those players, what I'm saying is that they KNEW going in that this game was potentially health-threatening. They all talk to older players. They all notice the slurring of words. Yet they now want to blame the game itself for not being safer, even though the game itself is always trying to improve player safety.

The days of clocking a wide receiver from behind just to take him out of the game is long gone. There are no more Fred "The Hammer" Williamsons roaming the defensive backfields.

Helmets have improved. New rules are constantly being added to protect players. And players themselves are getting more instruction on what to look for in cases of brain trauma.

But guess what? Football is still a collision sport and its best players aren't leaving the game when hundreds of millions of dollars are at stake.

They KNOW the risks. No one FORCES them to play the game. They are literaly trading long-term health for money that that they could never hope of getting anywhere else.

Those are individual decisions.

How about this rule? You get a concussion of ANY kind or type and, for your long-term health, you must retire and forfeit your contract. You no longer have the choice. The league makes it FOR you.

IF players want to be protected, they can be protected. It's just that NONE will give up their job for long-term health. How do I know this? NONE have quit so far.

Coal miners continue to mine coal despite the risks. NFL players have much better working conditions and salaries. They signed up for it. The problem is that they don't want to take responsibility for their decisions. They want the right to blame others for the consequences of their decisions.

I don't think they should have it both ways. Play the game or quit the game. Football IS a collision sport. And some of those collisions are really, really dangerous.