Football has replaced baseball as the “American pastime.” It’s the perfect sport for television and for attracting and enthralling a mass audience. Of course, it’s a rough sport with all forms of injuries accumulating during the course of a season, especially in the NFL.
To be sure, concern and action are appropriate over head injuries, most notably CTE, a brain disease resulting from repeated traumatic head blows. The NFL has established an intricate, mandatory protocol for dealing with concussion symptoms that is invoked instantly during a game, requiring the removal of injured players, and is continued in the weeks and months that follow. Equipment is being modified to better protect players and the rules have been stiffened to penalize and discourage head contact.
But it’s no surprise that football is still under increasing fire from nannyists obsessed with risk aversion, another example of the creeping wussification of American society. There are even cries for outlawing football — if not now, in the future. This is preposterous. There’s a multitude of hazardous occupations and pastimes in our society: cops, firefighters, soldiering, Xtreme sports, mountain climbing, auto racing, boxing (there’s a call for banning that, too), etc.
Nannyists respond that cops, firefighters and soldiers perform essential services while pro football exists merely for the trivial entertainment of spectators, and is unnecessary. And there’s the danger of the slippery slope, another step in societal nannyism with government elitists dictating what leisure activities you’re allowed to enjoy based on their notion of what’s “necessary.”
And, by the way, the NFL doesn’t exist only for the entertainment of spectators. The players also have a vested interest. It’s their livelihood as well as their passion. This is very much about freedom of choice. There isn’t a player in the NFL (or college or high school, for that matter) who isn’t aware of the risks involved. No one is forced to play this game or pursue it as a career. The annual NFL draft isn’t like the military draft in times of war.
Rational adults should be allowed to weigh the tradeoffs and decide for themselves. On the downside is the possibility — which is far less than a certainty — that a serious brain injury may shorten your life and cause severe disabilities in later years. On the upside is the joy of reveling in your passion playing a game you love, capitalizing on your exceptional extraordinary talents, enjoying celebrity status and earning millions of dollars.
For those college football players with the aptitude and ability to pursue a rewarding, lucrative career in business, law, medicine or some other field, the NFL and the physical risks it entails may not be for them. For others lacking these prospects, it may well be worth the tradeoff: the low risk of perhaps a shorter life filled with joy, glory, achievement and riches versus a menial, unfulfilling job and being a mere face in the crowd.
Football critics compare NFL players to gladiators in ancient Rome. There are some similarities but big differences. The gladiators were conscripted slaves who engaged in armed combat with the near certainty of death. Nor is the NFL the equivalent of illegal cockfighting where the roosters don’t have a choice. And NASCAR fans may be intrigued by fiery crashes but that gives no cause for outlawing the sport, which has much more to it than that.
The bottom line is that those who would outlaw the NFL should mind their own business when it comes to other people’s livelihoods and the interest of more than 100 million American fans.
None of us is getting out this life alive or without the great likelihood of acquiring some debilitating terminal disease on our way out. Enjoy yourself and your freedom in the meantime.
Mike Rosen is a KOA News Radio personality.
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