Football | The Risk of Being An NFL Player

The Field

Football is one of the most popular sports in America. A lot of different sports are played on the field could be rugby, soccer, or even tennis. However for time sake, we will discuss football injuries and the effects it has on future or present athletes. Hopefully, you can see similarities throughout all sports played on grass or turf related fields where injuries increase yearly. American football are prime examples for how an industry can innovate and become better. The NFL has made leaps and bounds for listening to there players concerns for better safety measures playing a dangerous sport. Presently, you can easily go on NFL.com and see the list of doctors working and researching methods to keep players safe.

At then end of the day, the NFL can only do so much to protect rising star athletes from injuries in a vicious yet mesmerizing sport called football. And just like anything else sometimes changes are forced even when we don’t want it. I mean, football is so popular because it’s a physical sport. Yes, you can have a life changing or career ending injury playing the game. Its why Moms across the country say prayers for their kid every time they walk on the field. Everyone knows that something could happen at anytime and they pray to God it’s not there child.

Statistics

Some people would argue Football is not as brutal as hockey and I believe that could be true. Hockey is a brutal sport and deadly. However, hockey does not have what Football has which is the shear amount of people participating on any given Saturday or Sunday. The number of people over the age of six participating in tackle football in the United States amounted to approximately 5.16 million in 2018. You could say that football is the most the popular recreational sport in the United States - for adults, adolescents and children alike. In regards to football being the most popular sport in North America.

NCAA Injury Stats

According the NCAA, The overall injury rate in NCAA football is 8.1 injuries per 1,000 athlete exposures (games and practices combined). There were more than 41,000 injuries and 25 million athlete exposures from 2004 to 2009. Football players are nearly seven times more likely to be injured during a game than in practice. According to the San Francisco Spine Institute at Seton Medical Center in Daly City, California, up to 1.5 million young men participate in football annually, and there are an estimated 1.2 million football-related injuries per year. Sheesh, and we haven’t even got to the NFL stats yet.


                           "More than $500 million - Show Me The Money!"

That’s how much NFL teams paid to Week 1 starters who missed games because of injuries this season and players who ended the year on injured reserve, according to an Associated Press study.

The Investment

There is a lot of money on the line from the players perspective and the NFL. NFL players are definitely an investment. Especially if the NFL is willing to spend 500 million for players injured. Basically, the NFL is saying that their players have value and they can’t afford to release players due to injury. However are still players are still disposable assets. One serious injury could be a players last day on the field. I used to hate seeing a player get hurt. For the team, the agents, the fans, the athlete, the athletes family a lot of blood, sweat, time and money went into developing them. With regards to the National Football League Players Association(NFPLA)the players have a stake to stay healthy season after season.

Destined to Change

The league is destined to change for the good. And I believe that the NFL has come a long way to meet the expectations for preventable measures to reduce the injuries occurring yearly. According to their mission statement the NFL’s musculoskeletal Committee is composed of independent and NFL affiliated medical professionals and focuses on musculoskeletal issues relevant to the health and safety of active NFL players. However, there is only so much the NFL can do, they can’t prevent injuries, they can only reduce the numbers, and the numbers don’t lie.