In the opening weeks of the NFL and college football, people are rightfully excited to see their favorite teams and players compete for their respective championships. However, what happens to their favorite players behind the scenes goes under the radar as the exploitation and medical abuse these players face is what makes these championship goals possible. With the season approaching it is time to highlight the injuries, preventative measures, and exploitations in the locker rooms of the NFL.
The NFL is notorious for causing injuries. A part of the game that gets overlooked is special teams with disproportionately large amounts of injuries. This data is represented through the statistic that 1/6 of concussions and 30% of the major lower body and ACL tears are caused on special teams plays. Even though only 17% of the team are players on the special team in conjunction with the game only consisting of 20% special team’s play, we have seen the most severe injuries occur within these circumstances. The NFL has recognized the dangers and have put in precautions to try to alleviate problems with injuries on special teams.
The NFL has also hired people to watch for these injuries. AT(athletic trainer) spotters have now become a standard in the NFL and are designated to watch for players who might have slight injuries or concussions that might go unnoticed. This helps players with injuries that would normally go undetected to be treated and taken off right away.
In week 17 of the NFL season while playing the New York Jets, Antonio Brown (who is a top five wide receiver), walked off the field in protest of his coaches requests to play through injury. He expressed to his coach that he was unable to continue playing but the coach told him he must play or else there would be consequences. This led to Antonio Brown making his brave sacrifice on leaving the team to stand up to the oppression he and the NFL players face. Calvin Johnson, known as the most talented wide receiver of all time was quoted saying, “Guys get concussions, they don’t tell the coaches, It happens. I don’t tell the coach sometimes cause I know I got a job to do. The team needs me out there on the field. And sometimes you allow that to jeopardize yourself, but that’s just the nature of the world”. Players in his word play through concussions in fear of the team losing and the pride they take in being on the field. Not to mention, when low caliber players get injured they are more likely to play through it in fear of their job being taken away if they have to miss games.
An additional step that can be taken is playing on grass fields, rather than turf. As JC Tretter, (a lifelong football player) says in the NFLPA (NFL players association) “artificial turf is significantly harder on the body than grass. Based on NFL injury data collected from 2012 to 2018, not only was the contact injury rate for lower extremities higher during practices and games held on artificial turf, NFL players consistently experienced a much higher rate of non-contact lower extremity injuries on turf compared to natural surfaces.” As a football player myself, I can attest to his words, as playing on grass fields is less demanding on my body and falling on the grass itself is much more of a forgiving surface. If the NFL truly cares about their players, they will make EVERY field a grass one. There are already a few grass fields, and all NFL players have expressed their support for the grass. The reason why this hasn’t been implemented is because of the fact that it costs a large sum of money, however, it would be a small expense in the grand scheme of revenue that the NFL brings in.
In conclusion, the NFL has made efforts to ensure the success of their billion-dollar company and investments into the players by adding precautionary measures. However, the NFL still has a ways to go in protecting their players from the turf fields and abandoning the pressures of playing through injuries that secretly plague the players health.
