One might argue that a nation which sanctions our brand of football, as played in the NFL, college, and high school, is failing its children. Does the average American parent know how many current and former NFL players are enduring devastating brain injuries due to football-related concussions? I don't think so! More importantly, does the average American parent know how many college and high school kids are living with football-related brain damage. I don't think so! And if parents have that information, would they distance their children from football, at least until the sport is made safer? More possibly, less probably!
At least initially, parents may be reluctant to take such drastic, but necessary, action due to the enormous popularity and constant, widespread advertising of the sport. Worse yet, the vital information parents need to make an informed decision regarding football is nearly impossible to obtain. First, not all concussion cases are reported, and second, most of the reported cases are sheltered as privileged information. However, enough cases are reported in mass media, both online and in print, that a serious assessment of the risks associated with this multi-billion dollar industry is overdue.
Of course, we are a market-based society and football is the biggest sport in our country and it is sports' biggest cash cow. Should government look into whether football, as it has been played and as it is played today, should remain a legal sport? Or should the status quo be allowed to continue, so long as the enormous tax revenues from football commerce continue to flow into the government coffers?
Football has and is destroying the lives of many people. Former NFL superstars Jim McMahon, Troy Aikman, and Dan Marino, to name a few, all complained of terrible concussion-related neurologic problems and severe pains. They all implicated their teams as having lied to them about the extent of their head injuries at the time their injuries were evaluated, and that they were sent back on the field prematurely after injuries. They all also demanded compensation, deservedly, and they all demanded that the government step in with new laws that would guard against the occurrence of these serious, life-crushing, injuries.
Have member of both houses of Congress in Washington, DC, who were elected to represent and protect the public interest, launched a serious risk assessment probe of professional, college, and/or high school football? No! Have they done their due diligence to ensure the safety of athletes? No! Has the president invoked emergency powers to do so? No! Are they expected to do anything about this nationwide clear and well-documented crisis? Not any time soon. Then, it would be fair to say that our government has let, and is letting, its children down.
Fortunately, government inaction thus far is not a terminal condition; government can begin the necessary probe today. Congress can write and pass new legislations which would provide the protection our children deserve in the very near future. For his part, the president can sign those into law. After all, we are a nation of laws, and football should not be beyond the law.
Azzam Elayan
October 16, 2014
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