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Zack Riggs

Professor Douglas

UWRT 1102-026

21 March 2017

The Voices Never Heard

In 1869, two colleges met on the field for the first time, to play a game that had never

been played before. At the time, the game was more like rugby. However, a man named Walter

Camp, took the game and implemented new rules and molded it into something great. Now, it

was more about strategy and fooling the other team. Of course, the brawn of the former rugby

players was still a necessity, but it was about more than just brute strength now. During the mid

to late 1900s, the American public began to accept and really enjoy playing and watching the

game. As the years went on, it overtook baseball as the most watch sport. This game became part

of the American identity, this game, was football.

As the game developed, issues would arise in the gameplay and new rules would be

implemented in order to keep the game safe for those who play it, both at the professional and

amateur levels. Over the past fifteen years or so, the game of football has had a much more

serious issue at hand. In 2002, Dr. Bennet Omalu was a coroner for the Allegheny County

coroners office in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In his time there, he discovered a degenerative brain

disease known as CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) in the brains of several former NFL

players. CTE is a progressive degenerative disease of the brain found in athletes (and others)

with a history of repetitive brain trauma, including symptomatic concussions as well as

asymptomatic sub concussive hits to the head. (Boston University). Omalu believed that all of

the hits to the head over the years is what was leading to the disease in these players.
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Considering that this issue is an extremely big deal, Omalu assumed that the NFL would be

concerned with it and work with him in attempts to make football safer for the players. Much to

his surprise, the NFL began to deny these findings and tried to destroy his reputation (Dodd 1).

They continued to do this for about a decade before they eventually accepted his findings. This

relatively new research by Bennet Omalu has led many to begin questioning the game itself. One

of the big questions being, should children and young adults be banned from playing football?.

In the decade that followed the research about CTE, several research centers popped up

in the hopes to further learn about the topic and inform the public of it. One brain bank at

Harvard University found that out of a total of 11 brains that they received from former football

players, all of them suffered from CTE (School of Hard Knocks). Numbers like this are part of

the reason that doctors so concerned about the excessive contact in football. Most forms of CTE

are found in retired football players, but there have been instances where high schoolers and even

middle schoolers have acquired the disease (Forgrave). As of right now, there is no definitive

link between CTE and football. It's all speculation because CTE can only be diagnosed after

death. Its believed that the repetitive concussions can lead to a buildup of tau protein, which

inevitably causes the brain to degenerate. But since this can not be proven, people still doubt the

science, which is somewhat understandable. Even though the link between CTE and football

hasn't completely been established, the fact that concussions are extremely unhealthy can't be

ruled out. Regardless of whether or not CTE is caused by football, concussions are still a

problem in the sport for both professionals and amateurs.

The majority of people in the football community are simply fans of the sport. Of course,

it doesnt take any education to be a fan of something. These people arent necessarily informed

on the issues of CTE in the game. This isnt completely their fault though. This research was
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discredited by the NFL for nearly a decade after it was published and it also isnt widely talked

about on television or radio. Really, the only way for people to find out about CTE is for them to

research it themselves. That is what creates the viewpoint for the general public. A lot of these

people feel that doing anything to the game, such as taking away tackling or banning youth from

playing it, would be detrimental to the sport. A football coach for Hatton Public school, was

quoted saying taking away tackling in youth football will not solve the problem of injury.

(Should Tackling Be Banned). This quote disagrees with the overwhelming opinion of the

doctors and health specialists who have degrees in this kind of thing. Since most people dont

have a personal connection to the players or people who end up with the disease, they dont

necessarily care about their well-being because it doesnt affect them. It is hard to fully

understand the magnitude of the situation until you have truly experienced it.

Some of the biggest proponents of banning or changing these sports are surprisingly, the

people who play them. There have been several players who have come out and discussed their

life after football and they talk about how hard it is living with what some believe is CTE. Ted

Johnson, a former NFL football player, lives with this feeling every day. In an interview,

Johnson explained his symptoms and the challenges that he faced in his day to day life after

football. After a while, he went public with his story even though he knew he would face

backlash for his input. All he wanted to do is get his story out so that others would take notice to

the harmful effects of football and avoid it (School of Hard Knocks). Another example of

football players trying to warn others about the disease came in December of 2015, in Illinois. A

boy named Zac Easter was in his senior year of high school, playing football. In his last game, he

suffered a severe concussion on the field and had to come out of the game. Unfortunately for

him, he was unable to play football for the rest of his senior season. Over the next few years, his
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mood began to change and it became difficult for him to focus. He eventually picked up a

drinking habit just to ease the pain. At one point, he attempted suicide, but he was stopped

shortly before he could follow through with his goal. He attended all of the classes and other

things that were offered in order to help him live with what he was going through. However, in

December of 2015, he committed suicide in his car. He left a note at home explaining his last

wishes. One, being that he wanted his brain donated to science in order to help the study of CTE

and other similar brain conditions so that he could help prevent others from going through the

horror he faced everyday (Forgrave). These people are some of the most important voices in the

topic because they can tell us so much that we dont know about living with the disease.

Unfortunately, these voices are rarely ever heard because they are gone before we can try to save

them.

With all of these voices on the topic, and the overwhelming answer being to prevent

children from playing a game as dangerous as this, there is still a lot of research to be done

before something that drastic can be done. Football is a staple of American society and its

unrealistic to think that the entire sport can just be banned for children. Even if did happen,

children would still find a way to play. This means that people need to work together and try to

find a way to make the game much safer for both children and adults. Improving helmet

technology, teaching proper tackling technique from the beginning (The Smartest Team),

improving sideline technology to monitor concussions, or even creating legislation to establish

rules for youth and school sports (Toporek). Some companies have already taken steps in the

right direction in regards to products like these. However, their products could improve by leaps

and bounds if sports organizations and other businesses would donate money or even time to
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help keep people safe. If everyone were to work together, a feasible solution could be reached

here in the near future.

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Works Cited

Dodd, Johnny, Diane Herbst, and Michelle Boudin. "Taking on the Nfl His Fight to Make

Football Safer." People. 85.1 (2016). Print.

Forgrave, Reid. The Concussion Diaries: One High School Football Players Secret Struggle

with CTE. GQ, 10 Jan. 2017, www.gq.com/story/the-concussion-diaries-high-school-

football-cte. Accessed 18 Feb. 2017.

School of Hard Knocks. Films Media Group, 2010,

fod.infobase.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?wID=149262&xtid=47764. Accessed 20 Feb.

2017.

"Should Tackling Be Banned in Youth Football?" Joperd: the Journal of Physical Education,

Recreation & Dance. 84.9 (2013). Print.

The Smartest Team: Making High School Football Safer. Films Media Group, 2013,

fod.infobase.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?wID=149262&xtid=55330. Accessed 27 Feb.

2017.

Tackling Concussions. Films Media Group, 2015, fod.infobase.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?wID=14

9262&xtid=114078. Accessed 26 Feb. 2017.

TOPOREK, BRYAN. "Ideas for Making School Football Safer." Education Week. 31.13 (2011).

Print.

What Is CTE? CTE Center | Boston University. CTE Center RSS, Boston University CTE

Center, www.bu.edu/cte/about/what-is-cte/. Accessed 22 Mar. 2017.