Demand NFL Game Change on Concussions and Domestic Violence
- by: Susan V
- recipient: NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell
There are a $billion reasons for the NFL to continue its culture of violence. But the arguments for change are far more compelling - they’re about saving lives.
Not unlike tobacco CEOs, when presented with overwhelming evidence connecting football to brain disease and death, NFL’s Goodell denied the connection. Likewise the NFL has made too light of violent acts committed on the field and off.
But there’s more. The NFL may be dismissing altogether how the physical and psychological aspects of the game work together to promote domestic violence. Just playing the game results in multiple concussions, while the demand for physical strength leads to steroid misuse. Both can cause domestic abuse.
Compounding the physical factors is the mindset of violence that feeds this industry. Aware of what sells, the NFL exploits base spectator emotions and then pressures players to give the public what it wants, while both groups deny the collateral damage this gladiator mentality creates.
Bottom line - the problem of domestic violence and football cannot be fixed with suspensions or even education. It calls for a complete game change that can’t wait for Goodell to get out of denial.
We, the undersigned, say football’s culture of violence must undergo a dramatic change.
An interesting article on this topic, found in California State University’s Sundial, talks about how players are basically brainwashed by coaches to be violent from the time they begin training in middle school or earlier - and also how hard it is to keep that “gladiator” mentality at bay off the field.
Shaka Dixon writes:
You are introduced to coaches who speak of harming your fellow man with the wide-eyed passion of an evangelist.You learn to take every opportunity, may it be during or after play, to break the will of your opponent.You learn that, upon an interception, anything short of murder becomes permissible against opposing signal callers and thus you should adjust your behavior accordingly.
"Football players come to recognize that" a “firewall needs to exist between the personas you inhabit on and off the field. It is football's unwritten golden-rule, keep the gladiator mentality on the field."
But players who experience multiple concussions can have a hard time controlling those impulses, because of brain injury. In an interview with Real Sports, the wife of former NFL player Paul Oliver recounts the tragic incidents of domestic violence she endured before Oliver fatally shot himself. Chelsea Oliver learned too late that her husband had developed brain damage from playing football. Her full interview will be aired next month.
Re-airing this week on PBS, Frontline's “League of Denial” exposes the serious effects these multiple concussions have had on many players, even years after they retired. The repeated jolts to the head can result in a condition recently identified as CTE - found in almost all the brains of players who committed violence and/or died of premature or violent deaths.
Despite the overwhelming evidence of connections to serious brain disease, domestic violence and football, the NFL still has not made appropriate changes to protect players or acknowledge the culture of violence that leads to these unnecessary deaths and domestic and other violence.
We insist that it is time for a game change at the NFL. It must end its culture promoting violence and protect players from suffering concussions on the field, which will in turn reduce incidents of domestic violence and death among players.
Thanks for your time.
http://thinkprogress.org/sports/2014/10/03/3575476/three-high-school-football-players-died-this-week/
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