4/9/24
Composition
Kyle Smith
In today’s contact sports, coaches are moving away from teaching players how to take hits and are focusing on attempting to change the rules instead. Despite the progressive strides in equipment, the result of this is the reason injuries are still so common in sports today. With the technology that exists in the world today, the injuries in sports should be significantly lower than it currently is. However, some football programs resist turning their backs on traditional helmets; and the lack of education that’s taught when it comes to taking hits in football is the reason for the injuries that continue to occur.
The NFL is attempting to create a helmet that would be the most beneficial for safety, as well as a helmet that their players would feel comfortable wearing. They are constantly listening to doctors on innovative new head equipment that will lower the amount of head trauma that occurs during the NFL season. For starters, they have required all contact practices to have a softshell cap to go over their helmet, to limit injuries during practice. According to Tina Reed this softshell idea was a success, as she stated, “the Guardian Caps worn by offensive and defensive linemen, tight ends and linebackers resulted in 52% fewer concussions” (Reed). Proving that the NFL is acknowledging the importance of player safety, although injuries in contact sports are inevitable, the NFL making little changes like this shows that they are willing to accept ideas to keep their players healthy and safe.
Action is certainly needed in the sport of football, as concussions continue to rise. Every year the sport grows more, new fans, new superstars, and unfortunately more injuries. The reason for this has to do with the younger generation football players that weren’t taught to play the game this physical and are now having a rude awakening. On ESPN, Kevin Seifert did a report that showed just how much of an increase in CTE happened between 2021 and 2022. His research shows that, “According to data released by the league, there were 149 concussions suffered over 271 games this season. That’s an 18% jump from 2021 (126) and 14% higher than the three-year average (130) between 2018 and 2020” (Seifert). The NFL should be very concerned about this, as this is an awful way to represent the sport of football.
In recent years, the NFL has been resorting to changing the games rulebook, making it much harder for defenders to make the right play, because they’re now worried about getting a penalty called against them. For this reason, big hits have obviously been limited, but it makes the game much less entertaining for fans, and people are starting to get tired of these unnecessary changes. Pro NFL players should know how to take a hit, and NFL defenders shouldn’t have to hold back on making a play due to fear of a bad call. In the article ECHO, Ryan Murphy explained how he’s constantly upset watching sports as a whole now saying that “I’ve been feeling dissatisfied with sports recently. Every game I watch—whether it’s professional or college, football or basketball—seems tainted by bad officiating or senseless rule changes. No matter who ultimately ends up on top, I’m still confused or upset by something” (Murphy). Many people have reported similar feelings towards this attempt at player safety. It isn’t fair to completely change the game of football on defensive players to keep “important” players (like a quarterback) safe, and by the looks of it the NFL has been trying to do exactly that. Ryan Murphy continued speaking on this point by showing how sacks on a quarterback are even starting to result in penalties, “There is no place in football for a 15-yard penalty that results after a defensive player makes any “contact to the head or neck area” of the quarterback. I understand that quarterbacks need to be protected somewhat differently than other players, but you can sack them!” (Murphy). It’s clear the NFL’s intention wasn’t to ruin the game, but rather to limit the number of concussions that take place in the NFL season. However, this solution has many hiccups as it completely changes the way the game is played, and furthermore has upset many fans.
The issue that’s so hard to resolve is coming up with a solution that works for everyone. A solution that helps limit the amount of CTE in today’s game, a solution that doesn’t make the game softer than it currently is, and a solution that the players can all agree to. As previously stated, the NFL is constantly working with doctors and experts to deal with head trauma to make the game safer. Although helmets have come a long way, they still allow a tremendous amount of head trauma just due to how physical the game of football is. The good news is a study group from Stanford University has found a way to start moving even farther in the right direction. The student’s goal was to reduce the amount of impact that a helmet allows by adding 21 liquid shock absorbers. Fortunately, their project was a major success, when they ran tests, the students were able to see their idea pay off. For example, “The helmet with liquid shock absorbers preformed better than the existing helmet models, producing the lowest HARM value in 33 out of 36 different impact conditions tested” (Gillham). This is groundbreaking for the entire football community, if they’re able to get this new helmet design out into the market, this would help football player of all ages. They also were able to find that these helmets reduced impact by an entire 33% (Gillham). Although this doesn’t entirely get rid of CTE in football, it certainly shows improvement, which is exactly what football needed.
Another way coaches are trying to help their players is by teaching them the proper way of taking a hit. For a while it seemed as if coaches would almost skim over this important lesson, and players wouldn’t learn how to properly take a hit, thus causing more injuries. However, the fact that coaches are starting to teach the proper way into taking hits for young athletes is a huge benefit to the game. Adam Ripple, from the Daily American, said that local high school coaches are all in agreement that the best way to limit the number of concussions that goes around in today’s football is to teach how to properly take a hit. (Ripple). If all coaches start attempting to teach their players the proper way of taking hits and teach young quarterbacks to not throw their receivers into places where they will get hit without even seeing it, there would be a major reduction in injuries.
The bottom line is, in contact sports the fight against CTE will unfortunately always be there. Understandably, this does have a forever lasting impact on people’s lives. However, changing the game is not the answer. Properly teaching young football players from a young age how to properly play the game would be a massive step forward for the community. With all the new technology coming out in helmets, it’s likely to see much less head trauma than has been shown in the last five years. Which will allow football and contact sports alike to continue growing for years to come.
Works Cited:
Ripple, Adam. “What HS Football Coaches Are Teaching Players to Avoid Serious Injuries.” AXIOS, 6 Dec. 2017, http://www.axios.com/2023/08/16/nfl-more-steps-reduce-head-injuries.
Murphy, Ryan. “Enough Is Enough: Recent Rule Changes Are Ruining Sports – the Echo.” The ECHO – East Chapel Hill’s Source for Student-Run News, 18 Oct. 2021, echhsechoonline.com/enough-is-enough-recent-rule-changes-are-ruining-sports/.
Reed, Tina. “NFL Announces More Steps to Reduce Head Injuries.” Axios, 16 Aug. 2023, http://www.axios.com/2023/08/16/nfl-more-steps-reduce-head-injuries.
Seifert, Kevin. “NFL Says Regular-Season Concussions Increased 18% in 2022.” ESPN, ESPN Internet Ventures, 3 Feb. 2023, http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/35582897/nfl-says-regular-season-concussions-increased-18-2022.
Gillham, Angharad. “New High-Tech Helmets May Protect American Football Players from Debilitating Concussions.” Frontiers Science News, 9 June 2023, http://www.frontiersin.org/news/2023/06/09/new-high-tech-helmets-may-protect-american-football-players-from-debilitating-concussions/.
Sprockets and Springes 