Sports Illustrated ran an article this week about former NFL players who, frankly, aren\’t doing very well. Carson Palmer, earlier this year, stated that his opinion was that someone would eventually die on the field. Malcolm Gladwell wrote an article about the alarming rate of concussions among football players, and a link from that to dementia. Gladwell, in a recent chat with ESPN\’s Bill Simmons, also had this to say about the NFL:
\”Yes, football has kind of been ruined for me, I\’m afraid. Understand that I live for the game. But I\’m increasingly of the opinion that it is screwed up — on a moral level — in a way that no other professional sport is.
Think about it. The league has a salary cap (which limits players\’ pay), minimal health insurance for retirees and no guaranteed contracts. In other words, the owners reserve the right to limit the pool of money available to players, to walk away from contracts whenever they please and then hold no long-term responsibility for the health of the players whose contracts they have limited and declined to honor. Coal miners aren\’t treated this badly. And now we strongly suspect a fourth fact: that some significant percentage of ex-players, as a direct result of playing professional football, will suffer from dementia in their 40s and 50s, in addition to all the known and significant other health risks of the game (severe arthritis, substantially elevated risk of heart disease, etc.).\”
Gladwell finishes that exchange by wondering at what point does it become morally shaky to support an industry with these kinds of known negatives. Don\’t get me wrong – I enjoy watching football – but a part of me agrees with him. Playing football takes years off the players\’ lives, and takes away the quality of life of what\’s left. Yes, some of the players make substantial money, but at what sum is that \’worth it\’? The league minimum salary this year is $310,000. Is that worth it? And this is only for the minimal percentage of players who actually make it to the NFL. What about the vast majority of college players who get hit just as hard for four years and reap no financial reward?
Obviously, football\’s not going away any time soon. Are there rule changes that would help prevent some of this? I don\’t know. I know I would watch the game if there were less hitting, but I wonder if there is a certain segment of people who wouldn\’t – who are just watching to see if, like in a NASCAR race, someone hits the wall.
Perhaps Robert Byrd could have expanded his focus to include the other sport here, too:
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