Football is as American as
Apple pie
Rock and Roll
Church
even the word itself, considering most other countries know 'football' as another sport.
Now we have a culture of people around this country who just love football.
In 1972, football overtook baseball as America's favorite sport.
NFL games rate among the highest of all cable shows.
And last year the leak distributed a reported $8bn in national revenue.
But while Americans still prefer to watch football,
its dominating popularity has dropped in the last decade.
The national anthem debate has seen the sport become a political football
with President Trump weighing in on multiple occasions.
Wouldn't you love to see one of these NFL owners when somebody disrespects our flag,
to say get that son b***h off the field right now, out, he's fired. He's fired!
An inherent violence of the sport is being exposed more than ever, with research into concussions showing
the long-lasting damage that can happen to those in the NFL.
If it was safe, we wouldn't need helmets and shoulder pads for it.
Football is not a contact sport, it's a collision sport.
It's no wonder that more and more parents are refusing to let their kids play football.
The number of children aged 6 and up participating in tackle football,
has decreased by over 3 million in the last decade.
From Pop Warner, to the pros, football is under threat more than ever before.
We spoke to former players, medical professionals and sports writers
to find out if the NFL will still exist in 50 years.
It had to change at some point just because it's not sustainable and
the more you learn about the human body you know some people say football should be abolished.
From domestic violence, to weapons charges, and even murder,
the league has endured several off-field issues,
but one issue has come to dominate the national conversation of late.
The controversy swirling around a big NFL star who took a stand by
refusing to stand for the national anthem.
An NFL quarterback has certainly ignited a firestorm.
This is beyond disrespectful to the country.
I didn't anticipate seeing what we've seen over the last couple of seasons
with our president and what's going on with the player protests.
When you get on your knee, and you don't respect the American flag or the anthem,
that's not being treated with respect.
I think the league is sort of caught in a predicament
where either way whatever side you come down on, it's not going to be fully accepted.
Canty and others have expressed dismay at how the sport has become polarized.
You've always been able to unify people from a lot of different backgrounds around sports and
the fact that this president is using sports to divide people is something that
that's a little bit shocking.
When you have a majority black talent pool,
and majority white administration, it's always going to come across as the white
owners telling the black athletes what to do and you
just kind of have that narrative that's kind of plagued the US forever.
Despite criticism of mixed messaging, the NFL has maintained its support of the players.
In the last year Commissioner Roger Goodell has met with the Players Coalition
on several occasions, as part of a 'Listen and Learn' tour, to discuss issues such as
racial inequality and social injustice.
I think everybody loves this country, but there are certain things that are happening in this country that a lot of
people don't get to see.
When you switch it and make it about the anthem, now you have something that
people can just kind of pile on without having to critically think about.
I don't think that they are disrespecting the military, but it has
been painted in that way in which kneeling against the playing of the national anthem
is anti-American. I think it's very much American to express your
First Amendment rights.
So if you say 'Oh Colin Kaepernick doesn't respect the troops,'
well everyone should respect the troops. But when you say 'Oh Colin
Kaepernick wants police brutality to end, Colin Kaepernick is interested in the
wage gap between men and women between whites and blacks, that's stuff that people
have to critically think about.
I think there has to be meaningful conversation.
It just can't be lip service. It has to be people willing to come to the table
with an open mind to try to find a solution to a very real problem.
Following several meetings with players, the league has pledged over $90m
towards promoting social justice programs and has launched a
joint player and owner committee called 'Let's Learn Together' to focus on these issues.
And while President Trump has continuously claimed that the issue has
negatively affected ratings, the league points to shifting consumer habits as
the primary cause of lower ratings.
People are cord cutting because it's
just why would I pay for cable when I don't watch all these channels when I can just
get a streaming package that's gonna cost way less.
The NFL has teamed up with Amazon, Twitter, Verizon and other digital platforms to provide game coverage to
fans from the device of their choice. Although many see streaming services as
the future, viewing of NFL games over digital platforms accounts for a mere
2-3% of the total audience.
Participation in the sport has also dwindled in the last few years.
Many parents have cited research into the high number of health concerns related to playing football.
5.2 million people aged 6 and up participated in tackle football in 2017.
That number is down from 8.4 million people in 2006.
One of the biggest concerns is concussions. Since 2012, there have been on average 257 concussions
suffered by players in a full NFL season.
Here at NYU Langone's Concussion Center in Manhattan, doctors examine and help to
treat those who have suffered concussions, especially athletes.
So, concussion is a traumatic brain injury that leads to abnormal short-term brain dysfunctions.
So the injury can be a direct blow to the head,
or it can be a blow to any body part, so the brain is like a jelly in a
confined space that gets rocked.
While the NFL has launched several safety initiatives
including rule changes and upgraded equipment, league officials have
acknowledged that there is a direct link between playing football and developing
degenerative brain disease.
Do you think there is a link between football and
degenerative brain disorders like CTE?
Well certainly Dr. McKee's research
shows that a number of retired NFL players were diagnosed with CTE, so there
the answer to that question is certainly yes, but there's also a number of
questions that come with that.
We wouldn't need to get you know guarded up like gladiators if it was safe.
In 2013, the NFL reached a settlement agreement with
over 18,000 former players for $765m.
to assist in medical treatment for concussion-related brain injuries.
So, the NFL has absorbed itself of any kind of negligence because now they're saying
well we've settled a concussion lawsuit. I mean players who are playing now
should know that there's a danger.
The league would also contribute $10m to brain injury research as well as safety and education
programs.
More than 4,500 former players have sued the NFL accusing the league of
concealing dangers, rushing players back out onto the field after injury, and
pumping up the excitement of big hits.
Sometimes when I see video of games from
the past and I hear the hitting and I think to myself 'God how did I survive that?'
I think one of the big turning points was when Junior Seau decided to
end his life and he decided to preserve his brain.
Because Junior was a player
who was recently removed from the game, he's a guy who was very popular,
very jovial. He just had this infectious attitude you know he just made people smile.
I think that really woke everybody up.
You know I was diagnosed in 1990 and Post-concussion syndrome.
I've learned how to live with it. Looking back, there were times when I was very depressed and
I was like depressed but why am I depressed?
We just won a game the day before and I'm depressed.
Why? I'm making a lot of money as pro athlete, driving a nice car, everything is
good I'm I'm feeling good, but I'm depressed.
And you know I had a couple of times
where I was thinking about harming myself and I think to
myself that had it not been for my daughter
and I asked myself 'if anything happened to me and what would happen to her?'
And so that really probably was my saving grace, my daughter.
Another cultural touchstone related to head trauma came with the release of Hollywood
blockbuster 'Concussion,' starring Will Smith.
In the movie, Smith plays real-life
forensic pathologist Dr. Bennet Omalu, who presents findings of a brain disease
called Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or CTE, in former football players like
Mike Webster to the National Football League.
By my calculations, Mike Webster
sustained more than 70,000 blows to his head.
These multiple sub-clinical blows
may be what's most dangerous and puts a player at most risk for long-term
consequences, like Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE).
Though many questions still loom around CTE, the NFL has launched a campaign called
'Play Smart. Play Safe.' The initiative includes a $100m pledge from the league
toward funding independent medical research regarding overall safety of the game.
I put a lot of stock in the studies and I know the NFL and the NFLPA have a
lot of resources dedicated to advancing those studies.
The most sobering thing for me, is realizing that linemen are more at risk than any other position
on the field, just because of the repetitive sub-concussive blows and that being one
of the things that leads to CTE. So it's, it's scary because you don't know
if you're going to be the guy.
We don't completely understand CTE in the sense
that we don't know that direct correlation between a
number of concussions or head injuries and causation of CTE long-term.
There's still a significant amount of studies that are being done and we're still
being educated about concussion and the risk for long-term CTE.
And we don't have enough information about it and we don't have enough viable treatment options for it.
It's, it's scary.
But we want to promote athletic activity at all levels
and all ages. In order to make football safer, it probably will take rule changes.
So the big things right now for most of us in the world of concussion would
be to not allow hitting, contact football until later age maybe somewhere around
age 13 or 14.
What's agreed upon by nearly all parties is that continued
research is needed into the head injuries related to playing football.
So what they do now for example in football, they would have these head pieces that
you can wear where you look at the force of a blow, or the number of blows, but we
don't understand what to do with that data yet.
I think you know you should be informed.
I mean whether it's smoking, or getting in a car and you know
putting on a seat belt. You should know that there is a certain danger that is there.
If it's in their heart and that's what they want to do, I think it's pretty
difficult to say no don't play football and I think it's about just having to
participate in the safest way possible.
With a number of outstanding issues both
on and off the field, the league has its hands full moving forward. Many of us are
left wondering, will the NFL still exists in 50 years?
It's gonna look much, much
different 50 years from now, but I still think it'll be here.
I don't necessarily see the
game that we've come to know and love over the last 20 or 30 years.
You talk about in baseball a pitch count, maybe there would be something similar in
football, well somebody hits a certain number of blows, or a certain number of
force of blows over a season and maybe we should end their season or
potentially even end their career.
In some way I'm sort of thinking that you'll have
like robots out there you know playing the game, but I think the NFL will be strong.
I think the program leading to the NFL will be very different beginning at
the youth levels, maybe a separate developmental program for the NFL.
I think you'll always have players willing to pay the price.
Maybe there will be a helmet
or some type of bodyguard, that will prevent against concussion that probably
will happen. We're not close to it right now, but I foresee in 50 years for sure.
I do see a league that continues to be vibrant. I do see a league that continues
to dominate the landscape in American sports.
It's a great game
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