In the NFL, The Violence Comes to a Head

by Dave Zirin

The Nation.com Blogs

October 18, 2010

http://www.thenation.com/blog/155457/nfl-violence-comes-head

With each passing week, I hear from football fans saying
that it's getting harder to like the game they love. They've
spent years reveling in the intense competition and violent
collisions so central to the sport, but this is the first
time these NFL die-hards feel conscious about what happens
to players when they become unconscious.

In August, to much fanfare, NFL owners finally acknowledged
that football related concussions cause depression,
dementia, memory loss, and the early onset of Alzheimer's
disease. Now that they've opened the door, this concussion-
discussion is starting to shape how we understand what were
previously seen as the NFL's typical helping of off-field
controversy and tragedy. When Denver Bronco wide receiver
Kenny McKinley committed suicide, the first questions were
about whether football-related head-injuries led to the
depression that took his life. When the recently retired
Junior Seau drove his car off of a cliff the day after being
arrested for spousal abuse, questions about whether head-
injuries sustained during a 20-year career affected his
actions, soon followed. Such conjecture is not only
legitimate; it's necessary and urgent.

This season a typical NFL game is starting to look like a
triage center. On concussions alone, a reader at
deadspin.com, compiled the following list of players who
have borne the brunt of a brain bruise in 2010:
      
      "PRESEASON: Ryan Grant, Hunter Hillenmeyer, Joseph
      Addai, Mark Clayton, Nick Sorensen, Aaron Curry, DJ
      Ware, Louis Murphy, Scott Sicko, Mike Furrey, Darnell
      Bing, Freddy Keiaho

      WEEK 1: Kevin Kolb, Stewart Bradley, Matt Moore, Kevin
      Boss, Charly Martin

      WEEK 2: Clifton Ryan, Jason Witten, Randall Gay, Craig
      Dahl, Zack Follett, Evan Moore

      WEEK 3: Anthony Bryant, Cory Redding, Jason Trusnik

      WEEK 4: Jordan Shipley, Willis McGahee, Jay Cutler,
      Asante Samuel, Riley Cooper, Sherrod Martin

      WEEK 5: Aaron Rodgers, Darcy Johnson, Jacob Bell,
      Landon Johnson, Demaryius Thomas, Rocky McIntosh

      WEEK 6: Josh Cribbs, Desean Jackson, Mohamed
      Massaquoi, Zack Follett, Chris Cooley"

In assessing the list, the most striking aspect is its
randomness. There is a mix of star quarterbacks, shifty
running backs, burly tight ends, and anonymous linemen. All
play different roles in the game, and all wear different
kinds of equipment.

Sports Illustrated writer Peter King, after a weekend where
he says he saw, "six or eight shots where you wondered, `Is
that guy getting up?''' proposed some solutions: "It's time
to start ejecting and suspending players for flagrant
hits.... Don't tell me this is the culture we want. It might
be the culture kids are used to in video games, but the NFL
has to draw a line in the sand right here, right now, and
insist that the forearm shivers and leading with the helmet
and launching into unprotected receivers will be dealt with
severely. Six-figure fines. Suspensions. Ejections."

King's suggestions are not unlike those who told 1950s
children to hide under their desks case of nuclear attack.
The hits that cause concussions aren't just the kind of
helmet-to-helmet collisions that make King shudder, but
often come from routine tackles. Frequently, brain bruises
aren't even diagnosed until the game has ended. In other
words the most devastating hits are often the most
pedestrian. This was seen in utterly tragic fashion during
Saturday's college contest between Rutgers University and
Army. Rutgers linebacker Eric LeGrand was paralyzed from the
waste down on a play described as a "violent collision". But
if you look at the replay, the only thing "violent" about
the play is its horrific outcome.

It's also not, as King writes, "the culture" that celebrates
this violence. It's the NFL itself. The video games that the
NFL promotes and sponsors deliriously dramatize brutal
tackles. Highlight shows on the NFL Network, relish the
moments when players get "jacked up." Anyone who saw HBO's
Hard Knocks, their behind the scenes look at the New York
Jets preseason, heard it loud and clear. Whenever a player
would "jack-up" the opposition, Coach Rex Ryan would whoop
and yell, "That's a guy who wants to make this team!"

Here's the reality check to Peter King and all who want
their violence safely commodified for Sunday: there is no
making football safer. There is no amount of suspensions,
fines, or ejections that will change the fundamental nature
of a sport built on violent collisions. It doesn't matter if
players have better mouth guards, better helmets, or better
pads. Anytime you have a sport that turns the poor into
millionaires and dangles violence as an incentive, well, you
reap what you sow.

It is what it is. I think it's a waste of time to feel
"guilty" about being a football fan. If people are disgusted
by the violence visited on these players, they should vote
with their feet and stop watching. If people are at peace
with the fact that they are enjoying something that wrecks
people's bodies, then that's their business as well. But for
goodness sakes: if you are to remain a football fan, at
least support the players in their upcoming negotiations
with ownership. Reject the idea of an 18 game season as
"good for the game." Reject the idea that players need to
have their pay cut for the league's "financial health".
Reject the idea that owners shouldn't have to contribute to
the medical well-being of players after they retire.
Recognize the humanity of the carnage on the field so you
can do something to support the humanity of players when the
pads come off. That's what I pledge to do... for now. But in
the interests of full disclosure: I might be a Desean
Jackson-Dunta Robinson moment away from ditching the game
for good.

_____________________________________________

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