Seattle’s KPLU sports commentator Art Thiel observed recently that, "More than 1,000 NFL retired players are suing the league now over what they claim is neglect of the issues of head trauma to long-term brain function consequence.” Athletes with long histories of repeated head traumas and mental or physical pathology-- which may or may not be related-- will now fuel another long debate. Multimillionaire football players, active and retired, will line up for even more money because football players risk getting their heads bashed every time they play.
Is such a risk a surprise? They are, after all, professional athletes in a sport that involves tackling, kicking, running, jumping, and finding oneself on the bottom of a pile of other players, all of whom weigh hundreds of pounds. When they took that $5 million signing bonus did the dangers of this dream job somehow elude them?
Frankly, in today’s economy, it is difficult to justify more and more compensation for occupational hazards that ought to be obvious when workers choose the job in the first place. Cops risk being shot, stabbed and otherwise injured or killed because their workplace is often a crime scene.
Firefighters will get burned, or suffer smoke inhalation injuries or death because their job is to run into burning buildings, carry people out, knock down burning walls etc. Professional athletes, sports car drivers and players of so-called “extreme games” get rich by putting themselves at high risk in what can be death defying situations.
(Take boxing for example: two grown men get paid to punch each other until one falls down unconscious. Why is this entertainment?)
Then, when a race car driver crashes and burns to death on a speedway, or an extreme game star suffers a paralyzing brain injury after driving a motorcycle off a bobsled run, everyone seems surprised.
Want less risk? Sell cars, teach philosophy, do landscaping, write poetry, or become a computer geek and invent a new Facebook.
Most football (and other) players now earning millions to throw balls and endorse sneakers-- if sent back to wherever it is they come from-- would barely be earning a living doing whatever it is they do when hitting a ball with a stick or running down a field with a ball tucked in their armpit isn’t an option.
Next time you drop a mortgage payment to take your kids to a game, think about why those game tickets cost a fortune.
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Comments
So many of these guys end up broke and alone, selling their memorabilia to pay rent. Could it be the head trauma affecting their skills of reasoning? This science is still too new to say. I'm hoping these lawsuits make the NFL take more care of the players current and past, but I'm also hoping they don't get big cash payouts. I'm so tired of that.
I’m hoping these lawsuits get laughed out of the court room as they are nuisance lawsuits like most other personal injury lawsuits. The risks of playing football are obvious. Free men exercised their right to utilize their bodies as battering rams. I don’t care if they got paid minimum wage, they knew the risks and did it anyways. Based on your twisted logic who couldn’t sue following a work related injury?
Jan:
What is “maximum safety”? I’ll answer that, it’s an indefinable term making your post equally vague and indefinable. Oh and by the way, police and firemen are relatively safe professions when compared to logging and fishing.
I should say that I am not a sports fan, so I suppose it is easier for me to think this way than for those who actually watch these events.
I should also add that I have great respect for all "first responder" professions. Nonetheless, the dangers in those jobs are obvious and
those who choose them ought to make their decisions to sign up based on the realities...There is a lot of "becoming a cop" (or firefighter) because my Dad (brother, uncle, mother, etc) was one." There are whole dynasties, several generations long in these areas, all complaining about how dangerous the jobs are.
The NFL has a long sordid history of allowing players to play injured, and with concussions. And, even now, pays a bounty" to players that make hits that take people out of the game.
Read the story of what it's like for one of these retired football players with a history of multiple concussive injuries. It's a horrible fate that could have been prevented with a little common sense.
These players are paid what they are paid because they are great at something very, very difficult.
If you want to think about someone when you drop a mortgage payment, how about thinking of the team owners, or, better yet, your average CEO in America that makes hundreds of millions of dollars laying off workers and driving their businesses into the ground.
There are always several ways of looking at any question. I never claim to have the definitive point of view-- just my own point of view, presented as thoughtfully as I can present it. I respect that other;s may have different opinions.
Bottom line: that's why they make chocolate as well as vanilla.
While athletes willingly "put it on the line" for the money they are paid, something concerns me about the level of head injury which seems to be pandemic in the NFL. In any other "career field" there would be an OSHA investigation by now. (Just sayin').