David Michael Miller
I am a football fan. In my home office I proudly display a picture of Bart Starr crossing the goal line on the famous quarterback sneak that ended (happily) the 1967 “ice bowl” at Lambeau Field. My wife, Dianne, gave it to me for my birthday a day or two after I finished second in the 2011 mayoral primary. It was a nice thought, but things worked out better for Starr.
And next to that picture I have my framed stock certificate, officially declaring that I am a part owner of the Packers. On my Facebook page each Sunday morning during the season I predict the score of that weekend’s game, and somehow I can never bring myself to pick against the guys on my club, even when objective analysis would call for that outcome.
So, now that I have my bona fides out of the way, and a few days have passed since the Denver Broncos won Super Bowl 50, I’ll make the bold prediction that football has reached its zenith and is on the road to decline.
The reason is the carnage. Like a growing number of fans, I can’t quite square my love of watching the game with the damage I know it is doing to the men who play it.
The average length of an NFL career is only a little more than three years, according to the NFL Players Association. (The NFL itself says the average career is twice as long.) And during that time it is pretty much a dead certainty that if the player sees much action at all he will be injured. In a typical season there are about 1,300 reported injuries sustained by the league’s 1,700 players. So, over an average three-year career (and certainly over an average six-year career, if you want to believe the league), the odds of sustaining at least one of those injuries are very high.
And if an injury is serious enough to be reported in the NFL it’s not likely to be a minor thing, at least not in the context of normal life. Things like busted fingers and separated shoulders would keep any sane person out of harm’s way until the injury heels. But the pressure to perform in the relatively short football season, and during a very short career, is so strong that players are just expected to play hurt. Alcohol and drugs, some legal and some not, are routinely administered to help them fight through the pain, often resulting in long-term addictions.
And then there are the really serious, life-long problems associated with putting your body through this kind of weekly punishment. The worst of these, of course, is brain injury. A recent study looked at the brains of 91 deceased NFL players whose families had donated them for the study. Researchers found that 87 of them showed signs of serious brain disease linked to repeated head trauma
The excellent PBS news program Frontline has done some great reporting on this, and the program even keeps a “concussion watch” on its website. This season the site reports that there were 199 reported concussions in the NFL.
But those are just the ones bad enough and clear enough to get flagged. Any casual fan can notice significant head trauma on virtually every play.
Now, legendary tough guys like Brett Favre and Mike Ditka both say that they wouldn’t let their sons play football. Favre only has daughters and Ditka’s sons are grown. But Ditka was quoted on Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel as saying, “My whole life was football. I think the risk is worse than the reward. I really do."
That might be easy for Ditka to say since his career is over. But current players are starting to ask themselves whether playing a game they love and reaping the riches that come with it is worth the long-run cost. Badger standout Chris Borland famously aborted a promising NFL career after only one season because he couldn’t justify the long-term risks to his health. My guess is that he won’t be the last young man to make that choice. Others probably have decided that and just opted not to even start an NFL career.
In some ways we should be encouraged that this discussion is happening at all. The NFL and the television networks have every reason to want to shut it down because the carnage on the field results in huge paydays for them. Their greed takes your breath away. Already a $10 billion a year industry, commissioner Roger Goodell has promised owners that he’ll make them even richer, pushing revenues to $25 billion by 2027.
I don’t think that will happen. I’m willing to bet that by 2027 enough American parents will see things the way Brett Favre and Mike Ditka see them. They’ll insist on safer outlets for their sons’ energy and athletic endeavors. And like boxing, which once was by far the most popular sport in America, football will be a second- or third-tier game.
The good news is that pitchers and catchers report to spring training camps in just a few weeks.