petition to banning football

Congress recently held hearings about the dangers inherent in football. Although some were outraged by NFL Commissioner Goodell's oblivious and deflecting answers, they found no smoking gun that could catalyze Congressional action. Voting against professional football would be political suicideThe evidence is mounting, however, about the debilitating effects of a football career. Soon the partisans of the game will no longer be able to deny the data. Men who play the game at the highest level lose, on average, three years of their life expectancy for every year they play in the NFL. The incidence of dementia in 50-year-old former footballers is five times that of non-football-playing men. Autopsies on those who died young show the effects of years of physical abuse. Studies now underway will confirm the toll.
Some deny the obvious, that the game of football played fully in accordance with its rules is extremely dangerous to the health and lives of those who play the game for our enjoyment. Tobacco company executives have taught us not to trust those who baldly claim no linkage between a high risk activity and physical and mental damage. The issue now is what we should do about it.
It is too easy to say that we should do nothing. Although they are careful about admitting it, NFL owners and officials know the golden goose is at risk, and they will fight a two-front war to battle bad publicity while searching for the equivalent of a safe cigarette. Those who tell us that football is as central to the American experience as apple pie and motherhood ignore the dramatic changes in our culture that seem to occur now with rapidity. Ban cigarette smoking in public places? Clean up toxic spills and polluted air? Require people to wear their seat belts? These "never-will-happen" things have happened and more are on the way.