None of the sports in Europe, not even soccer, are as popular as American football in the United States. In recent years, more than 100 million Americans regularly watch the NFL final, called the Super Bowl. That is nearly half of the adult population. It is an event discussed by the whole nation, even by the president, a couple of days before and after it. To compare, the most recent National Basketball Association final match was watched by 18 million people.
Prices for one second of advertising time during Super Bowl also beat records. Big companies prepare special spots during breaks of the final match, which are assessed afterward in terms of artistic value by the most respectful newspapers in America such as The New Yorker, a weekly [journal] for New York intellectuals.
Helmets Are Not Enough
Taking it all into consideration, it appears surprising that this highly praised sport discipline is very unhealthy. And not when doing it improperly: American football is innately and absolutely harmful.
This conclusion reached public awareness a relatively short time ago, which is really strange because any foreigner switching through the channels who stops on an NFL match would worry about the players’ health.
American football is similar to rugby. A team of lightly armored athletes tries to advance with an egg-shaped ball to the other side of the field, and the other team of lightly-armored athletes tries to prevent it with any possible methods. Among the existing chaos on the field, violent collisions take place, including head collisions, in which a dozen or so players often take part at once. Helmets don’t provide enough protection. Many players suffer concussions, normally mild ones and unnoticeable, which nonetheless have impact on health in the following years.
Those who retired are diagnosed with various neurological diseases, such as mild dementia, Alzheimer’s disease or, in the worst case, Lou Gehrig’s disease, known in Poland as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The last one leads to muscle weakness at first, then to paralysis, and finally to death in a couple of years after discovery of the first symptoms.
Players’ Collective Suit
So the gladiators performing at the stadiums pay a high price for the entertainment they provide to the 100 million people in front of their TVs (and, of course, for the high salary they receive). Lately, they’ve revolted — 4,500 former players filed a collective suit against the NFL league in the court in Philadelphia, demanding compensation for the loss of health. On Monday, Judge Anita Brody tentatively accepted a new version of the agreement, which both the NFL and the former players also tentatively accepted.
The first version of the agreement said that the NFL will give $675 million in compensation for players suffering neurological diseases, $75 million for their medical examination, $10 million for academic research on brain concussions and education, and $112 million for lawyers to represent the players.
However, Judge Brody was not sure if $870 million is a sufficient sum of money. Under her pressure, the NFL agreed two weeks ago to lift the maximum limit of compensations. They could agree on it because their yearly earnings exceed $10 million. For this reason, some commentators complained that the NFL dodged a bullet at a relatively low cost.
“It is an appropriate security for our clients and their families. Not only for those who already suffer but also for those who are healthy but fear becoming sick in the future,”* said the lawyers representing players Sol Wiess and Christopher Seeger.
Ringing in Obama’s Head
The NFL agreed to pay compensation for the next 65 years. A former NFL player who was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease will receive $5 million. A 50-year-old that has Alzheimer’s disease will get $1.6 million. An 80-year-old with the first symptoms of dementia will get $25,000.
Regarding the NFL, the position of Barack Obama, a football fan, is interesting. His enthusiasm is contradictory to his wife Michelle’s activity to promotes healthy lifestyles (she is the patron of the national campaign Let’s Move!). Evidently, the Obamas saw this paradox and at the end of May, just before the president’s flight to Poland, they organized a one-day conference in the White House on brain concussions. The league campaigners, players, scientists, doctors and parents of children playing football in school leagues were there.
“Before the awareness was out there, when I was young and played football briefly, there were a couple of times where I’m sure that that ringing sensation in my head and the need to sit down for a while might have been a mild concussion, and at the time you didn’t think anything of it,” Obama said during the conference. “The awareness is improved today, but not by much. So the total number of young people who are impacted by this early on is probably bigger than we know.”
The president said that $30 million would be set aside for research on brain concussions. Apart from that, it is not very clear what can be concluded from that conference in the White House. Shuttering the NFL that is so harmful for players was not mentioned by anybody.
As they say in America: The show must go on!
*Editor’s note: This quote, accurately translated, could not be verified.
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