The National Football League (NFL) and football in general have been a major staple in American culture for over half a century. The violence, excitement, and entertaining nature has caused the NFL to be the first corporation to own a day of the week: Sunday. However, the recent discovery of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease, in deceased football players has lead to endless amounts of debates about the end of football and its reign. On one hand, the NFL is a billion dollar corporation that provides jobs and economic output for countless amounts of people; not even accounting the millions of people who live and die by the game. Lower levels of football leagues also have major benefits and links to decreasing …show more content…
The workers get paid and spend the money elsewhere, simulating other jobs and markets. The NFL has a massive impact on the American economy, with billions of dollars being shifted every year. It is difficult to provide an exact number on how many people make money through the NFL, but the payroll is massive regardless. “The league supports about 110,000 jobs in NFL cities— not just tailbacks and punters but hotel workers and sports-bar owners. Overall, the games add about $5 billion to the broader economy in NFL cities.” This fails to account for those making money based of writing and reporting for the teams through other media sites. A new stadium is built roughly every 4 years, so add on the massive amounts of construction workers and company designers to the list. The corruption around player safety results in financial opportunity for not only others, but the players too. Over 25% of former NFL players go on to work with teams or media in some form after they retire. In addition, a lot of lower class adolescents use football as a means of earning a check, “when you look at all of those guys coming out of the South, those guys who have been disadvantaged, who have absolutely nothing, they’re going to want to play just for the money. They’ll sacrifice themselves to take care of their families and so forth” (Source C). Many of these players possess no other skills or talent, and they either die poor or die with …show more content…
Indeed, their options are limited. The consumers are the fans, and the fans have complete control on what the NFL does if they want their money. "In 2016, the NFL pledged $100 million in support for independent medical research and engineering advancements in neuroscience related topics. This is in addition to the $100 million that the NFL and its partners are already spending on medical and neuroscience research." (Source F) The NFL does not seem to care much about player safety, but instead the fear of losing out on money. Past players are all suing the league for not revealing the dangers of the game, and the league continues to lose millions. The rate of concussions has blown up over the last few years, but this might be a positive development. Just a decade ago, a player would be knocked out cold only to rejoin the game just minutes later. The modern style includes the dreaded blue tent, where if a player fails concussion tests they are not allowed to return. More concussions are being diagnosed, a contrast to sending a player back in who doesn’t know where he is due to insufficient protocol. The NFL Players association has also made a major impact on the future of the game and what needs to be done (Wire Reports). Unfortunately, the fans are opposed to simple changes in the game, and miss the blood and violence of years past. 2011 saw kickoffs almost eliminated due to the
Over the past years, many will say that football has become America’s new pastime, taking over our weekends for almost half of the year. Fans travel from all over the country to see their favorite college or professional teams play, and once the football season is over, the countdown clock for the first game of fall begins. There are many positive aspects to the sport, and the fans and players love it, but in John McMurtry’s “Kill ‘em, Crush ‘em, Eat ‘em Raw”, the reader is introduced to a side of football that some have not seen, and many choose to ignore. McMurtry believes that the game of football has become one of people just wanting to hurt other people and too many injuries are occurring to justify the fun
Throughout history in the NFL, head injuries and fixing those problems have always been hidden from the athletes because of the NFL striving to make a large profit instead of caring for the players. With this being an ongoing problem between NFL players and the NFL itself, many past and current players are digging deeper to find the truth and statistics continue to show how serious this problem actually is. When the lawsuits first began to come known to the public, the NFL agreed to pay over seven hundred million dollars to compensate former players suffering neurological injuries. Many believe the NFL offered this so quickly, hoping to avoid a potential public relations nightmare. The NFL, a ten billion dollar annual business, couldn’t take any type of guilt, or legal discovery, which some inside and out of the industry expected could have caused a fatal blow to the game’s future (Thiel). The settlement may have prevented the public from learning much about the past, but the issue of head injuries is a danger to football and won’t just go away because NFL wants it to (Waldron).
Playing football comes with several risks factors that players’ acknowledge prior to playing the game starting a young age. Regardless, these players still chose to play the game, which they end up loving and cherishing despite all the risks accompanied with it. Football is one of the toughest sports in the world; it takes a certain amount of strength, speed, and aggressiveness to play 48 minutes of hard-nosed football. However, the National Football League (NFL) is in the midst of a controversial issue. Is the NFL getting soft? This has been a debatable issue for several years. While some believe that implementing all these rules in the NFL is progressively turning the game soft, others say that the NFL is not getting soft; it is just trying to make the game safer for its players.
By abolishing the salary cap, the Department of Justice ruling has had a substantial impact on the competitive balance of the NFL. Because the salary cap was removed, over the past 10 years teams from big markets, or who have deep-pocketed owners, have been spending money rampantly. Small market teams have been marginalized to a point of having very little chance to win, as they cannot afford to spend freely on talent, as they do not have the income potential to make money. This progression is similar to what we have seen over the years in professional soccer, specifically in the UEFA champion’s league and Spain’s. In the UEFA Champions League, 12 teams have combined to win 48 out of the 58 championships, or 82.76% of championships. There has been such a lack of Competitive Balance in revenue splitting and salary cap free soccer that even among the best teams in the world there is great disparity. An even more extreme example can be found in Spain’s La Liga, where the top 2 teams have won 65.85% of the league’s 82 championships and the top 5 teams have won 93.9% of the league’s championships. This lack of competitive balance is certainly caused by a lack of salary cap, as the top 2 teams spend up to €190,000,000 per year on players while lower level teams spend up to €14,000,000 per year on players. The NFL’s continued revenue sharing, however, has made it so that disparity in the league isn’t quite as large as it is in professional soccer. Despite these effects of Revenue sharing, the lack of a sal...
Stats for the football leagues are a big deal for fans. Fans are obsessed with numbers its a big deal for the fans. In 2001 there were 150,000 athletes that were injured at the age of nineteen and younger. In 2009 there were 250,000 injured athletes at the age of nineteen and younger. There is a 6.3 per 1,000 incidence a college player will suffer a concussion while a high school athlete has a 11.2 per 1,000. Risk of concussions in football is high and equipment should continue to improve, but rules should stay the same in order for the game to remain
Many memories are made in football, but sadly some of the greatest players cannot recall them. The National Football League has been associated with concussions and brain traumas throughout the years, but lately it has been exposed by media and NFL veterans. The league recently “reached a $765 million preliminary settlement with thousands of former players who were suing the league over its treatment of concussions…” (Waldron). Many former players are experiencing the effects of taking hard hits over and over again; they were not properly treated, which makes the injury worse and long term. The concussion issue in the NFL is more prevalent today, because it affects not only the players, but the league as a whole.
In the modern day United States the sport American football has become not only entertainment but also a tradition whether it’s watching the BCS college championship or watching the super bowl with the family. The sport of American football is unique to the United States and has grown and became iconic over the years and has become a part of many Americans lives. American Football was made in 1869 and was modeled after the sport of rugby. They took the basics of rugby and changed it to make it fit better for them. The game has changed over the years but it also affected many Americans as the tradition of Monday Night football has begun. The game has had problems with the United States government as it was said to be too dangerous to play, this lead to an upgrade in the equipment and they tried very hard to make the equipment well ensuring player safety throughout the sport.
Professional Sports have been around for over a hundred years in America. Millions of people each year watch the National Football League. Technology has increased greatly over the last 20 years and has had a major impact in the NFL. The NFL uses technology for player’s health, scouting, and on the field with headset communication and instant replay.
When doctors brought the NFL the brain of Mike Webster and said that the reason he developed certain head traumas was because of the many collisions he received on the football field without proper treatment, the NFL discredited them and said that there was not enough information to make that assumption. Head trauma is not the only area where the NFL fails to protect its players. Take retired Cincinnati Bengals linebacker Reggie Williams, a former winner of the NFL Man of the Year Award. Reggie played 14 seasons in the NFL from 1976 to 1989. But since retirement he has undergone 24 knee operations, which have left his right leg in utter disrepair. I in fact his right leg is three inches shorter than his left. He has had health problems since 2005. These problems have cost him around 500,000 dollars, none of which the NFL was offered any help in paying. Reggie was turned down when he applied for workers’ compensation from the Bengals. The workers’ compensation would have provided him with money for his Medicare. The NFL should be required to help pay for former players’ Medicare bills if they need help. The NFL also needs to revise its disability benefits guidelines since most retirees do not quality for them and the ones that do not receive much money from
Football is a culture and within that culture is the desire to make money. In the 2014-2015 season, the NFL made $7.24 billion. Many dedicated fans travel to the stadium on a Sunday afternoon to experience the culture of football: the tailgate in the parking lot, the hundreds of dollars they pay to publicly display their favorite team’s gear, the front row seats to the game for them and their best buddy, the hotdogs and beer from the concussion stands. Many fans will participate in the NFL’s lifestyle every week. But the question is, do they really care about the actual sport or is it just the comradery and entertainment that it
Players get amazing profit and most give back to the ones how really need the money. Aaron Rodgers does many State Farm commercials to promote their company. Many players in the NFL have been doing a thing called My Cause, My Cleats. My Cause, My Cleats brings awareness to causes near and dear to them. Deshaun Watson donated his first game profit to three Texan cafeteria works.
Concussions have lifelong effects that are detrimental to people's health. 99% of people who have had concussions have C.T.E. which is a very traumatic brain injury. A substantial amount of NFL players have C.T.E., and studies show that former NFL players get dementia six times faster than other people their age. Some must wonder if trying to play professional football or just playing football in general is worth the lifelong risks that may be acquired. NFL player make lots of money, but they also endanger themselves. College athletes obtain a free education, but they also put their health at risk. Even with the potential of free college education or monetary gain, full contact sports such as football are detrimental rather than
In 2012 the profit was somewhere north of a BILLION dollars. Roughly 60% of all the profit made goes back into the program to pay for new uniforms, upkeep of their million dollars stadiums, and to give out scholarships. The other 40% are paying for people’s yachts and ridiculous salaries. For example, Jim Harbaugh, former coach of the San Francisco 49’s, left the NFL for a much more lucrative coaching job at University of Michigan. And nobody can blame the guy. In 2015 alone he made seven million dollars (Gaines). Meanwhile the people actually bringing in all the money, the athletes themselves, are getting
Starting at the age of eight, my love affair with the NFL has been a defining component of my life. In the last five years or so, my love for professional football has been dwindling. This is because the NFL is not as entertaining as it used to be. One of the reasons for the drop in entertainment value is in part to the game-day experience becoming stressful for fans that want to attend the game. In addition to this, the results of games have become very predictable and monotonous. Furthermore, the way that the game of football is now played and regulated in the league has added to this downward spiral in the NFL’s ability to entertain its fans.
Over 114 million people watched the championship game of the NFL, also known as the Super Bowl, in 2015, but very few probably know how football itself began (Breech). American football is one of the oldest sports in the United States and began being played in 1869 (Pro Football Hall of Fame). I have played the game for about 10 years of my life, and am currently playing at Central Michigan University. With all my knowledge of the game, I still did not have the greatest knowledge about the history and startup of football. After researching, I found this topic to be extremely interesting and I believe it would be very interesting to anybody interested in sports. Football is an extremely fast and exciting game. There are eleven players on each