Football and the NFL.

 

Yes it is now considered more than baseball, America’s pastime.  We glue to the TV now three days a week to watch grown men smash each other, and the more violent the collision the more we like it.

Don’t get me wrong I like football the same as any other American, although I tend to like college more than Pro. Seems having all that heart makes the games much better than the guy making millions to play. I have had extreme interest this year as my pick of the pro teams, The Cincinnati Bengals are off to an excellent start, and my favorite college team the East Carolina Pirates have shown that they are the real deal. I don’t do the whole fantasy football thing but I know many people who do and football becomes all-consuming during the season as they track their players through every game and pick and trade players the rest of the week waiting for the great Sunday show downs.

    In this weeks TIME magazine there is a good story about football injuries. In the story a young high school player in great health and shape playing defense, made two hard tackles. After the first helmet to helmet tackle he jumped up and a couple of his teammates checked on him to see if he was ok. He said he was. When the offense came on the field he stood on the sidelines in great spirits cheering his team on. Late in the 4^th quarter he made another hard TD stopping tackle that involved his helmet hitting against the thigh of the running back. He got up from the play and lined up waiting for his next chance. Before the snap his legs became “as jello” and he collapsed to the ground unconscious. He never regained conscientiousness and died a few days later. The autopsy showed that he died from severe hemorrhaging  from the brain and it was determined that it was not caused by the first helmet to helmet hit early in the game but the somewhat softer hit on the thigh of the running back while making the TD saving tackle.

   No state in the US requires a trainer or ambulance to be present at a high school football game although many schools do take the extra expense to provide one or both. In this Missouri championship game no trainer or ambulance was on site, and it may not have made a difference. Most school systems state that providing these safety measures is cost prohibitive. If the safety of the players is cost prohibitive then maybe the fielding of a team should also be. I don’t know, but that seems logical to me. A trainer you say? Although we see trainers, especially at that level, as the guy who tapes ankles and massages leg cramps fact is, most trainers, even high school ones, are trained in at least basic first responder types of first aid. Many teams and leagues from pee wee to the pros are limiting full contact practice time to reduce the instances of head blows. Will this help? Fact of the matter is that there is no solution to the problem of head trauma/injuries in such a violent sport.

    Repeated blows to the head. In the recently decided class action suit against the NFL brought by ex pro players concerning head trauma, the NFL is going to pay out 765 million dollars to help former players who are suffering from several trauma induced residual ailments such as alzheimer’s   and dementia. In the case the NFL did not have to assume liability or state that the ex-players conditions were caused by playing football. Now you say the league also gave money for research into safety and reduction of head injuries. Fact of the matter is that there is no solution to the problem of head trauma/injuries in such a violent sport. Some NFL collisions have been estimated at 80G’s on the brain. And of the 765 million a mere 10 million was allotted for this research. Before the settlement the leagues representatives were told by Commissioner Roger Goodell , Do what is right for the game which in this instance can be translated to "protect the NFL."

    Protect the NFL. That’s what it is all about. Protect this extremely American institution. The NFL bags  10 Billion dollars in revenue each year. This is much more than any other professional sports league. Roger Goodell makes 29.5 million a year more than the CEO of many “for Profit” corporations. The NFL is considered a tax exempt 501 6c charitable organization. While the individual team owners do pay taxes on their profits the league does not. It is the only American Professional League, except the NHL  that enjoys this status.

The NBA has always been run as a “for profit” organization. The MLB gave up it’s tax exemption in 2007.

     The NFL has had its share of problems recently. 31 players started the season suspended for several games for substance abuse. Ray Rice and Adrian Petersen have been suspended for domestic violence and child abuse. Roger Goodell has handled the Rice case very badly. These are role models for many of our young children especially in the poor and ghetto areas of our country where these 3 problems are prevalent. Does the NFL do enough to control its players or should this fall to the team owners? Are the penalties matching the offense or are these guys just receiving wrist slaps? What makes a guy who enjoys this status take the chances and do the things they do in private while leading a public life? They are only human but should we demand, as an entertained public, a higher standard?

 

   Now one might suggest that there are more football players so that could exacerbate the problem. That is not true, in fact the NFL falls 3^rd in professional sports.  By far the largest is still Baseball.  There are 6850 players in professional baseball. (30 MLB and 243 minor league affiliated teams covered by collective bargaining agreements.) Baseball in fact last year reached down into its minor league program when doling out substance abuse penalties. Next is Professional hockey. There are 1865 players covered by the collective bargaining agreement. (690 NHL, 483 ECHL, 690 AHL. ) There are 4 other pro hockey leagues not covered by the NHL agreement and not included in the totals.

Next the NFL has 1700 active players. The NBA brings up the rear with only 450 players. Part of the differential is that college teams act as the training ground for football and basketball but that is a whole different thread for a different day.

   Should the NFL lose its tax exempt status? Can it prove that it meets the requirements needed to be a 501 6c organization? I think the time has come to quit calling this behemoth a tax exempt charitable organization and call it what it is, a monopoly.