Throughout the history of football, fans, coaches, and leagues have viewed hard tackles and hard hits as highlight plays, downplaying the detrimental potential effects that such strenuous physical actions exert on players, rather than being potentially damaging to the other players. Injuries inflicted upon players as a result of aggressive physical contact in football can lead to both mental and physical problems. Once a promising young tight end in the NFL for the New England Patriots, Aaron Hernandez’s life ended after he committed suicide in his jail cell in 2017. He was in jail for being convicted of the murder of one of his friends whom he had fatally shot. This sparked nationwide scrutiny over his mental health, caused by the damage that his brain had endured over the years of playing football. () It was later discovered that Aaron Hernandez was suffering from stage 3 of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease that affects people who have suffered multiple head traumas. (cite iu source). () This is very common amongst football players. For example, a study done at The Boston University CTE Center found that 345 out of 376 former NFL players diagnosed with CTE in their study, sitting in at 91.7% of the players. As well, a research study by Dr. Daniel Daneshvar from Massachusetts General Hospital and Dr. Jesse Mez from Boston University shows a direct correlation between the number of years playing football and the odds of getting severe CTE, as there is a 15 percent increase for each year someone plays football (Wein., et al). To also show the great extent to which CTE affects football players drastically, another research study done by some Harvard Medical School researchers and other teams discovered that one-third of NFL players believe that they have CTE. One reason why CTE is so prevalent amongst football players, and yet not much has been done to curtail it by leagues is that the leagues seem to use the “good old days” attitude as an excuse to ignore the problem and not take action to fix it. The “good old days” refers to a period in time in the past where the common notion of football as a physical sport with hard tackles and hits defined and embodied what the game was all about. The nostalgic sentiments of hard core fans remembering such days and demanding the game to stay the same is now believed to a contributor the increase of serious injuries such as CTE amongst football players. This notion is described in False Nostalgia, where Johan Nordberg discusses how remembering the “good old days” makes people romanticize and look back to the past too much in an attempt to not deal with current problems(cite false nostalgia). As noted earlier, the leagues at all levels attempt to please the fans by accommodating the fans adherence to the “good old days” sentiment. Sticking to a romanticized version of football has resulted in insignificant policies and regulations which in turn have contributed to the rise in CTE amongst football players to a great extent. As such, this paper aims to answer the question: To what extent the romanticization of the traditional “good old days” of football by fans and leagues has contributed to the widespread existence of CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy ) in athletes?
There are current regulation issues regarding games and practices at all levels, which in turn are contributing to the exacerbation of the issue of CTE amongst football players. Although there are concussion protocols in place for practice, there are no strict rules and regulations with regards to the number of hits a player can take each practice. For instance, a research study conducted by McCrea et al. reported that 72 percent of head injuries occur during practice (McCrea et al., 2021). Similarly, in keeping with that study, an NYU Langone Health study stated that the average high school lineman receives 1,500 to 1,800 subconcussive (i.e. an injury to the head that doesn’t cause a concussion but builds up brain trauma overtime due to its damage) hits per season, and in college football for all four years the average subconcussive hits per season in practice were averaged to be around 12,000-14,400 for all four years (NYU Langone Health). Such a large number of hits during practice clearly contributes to the rise of CTE over time, but unfortunately, there are no strict regulations to reduce the head contact occurring during practices. Furthermore, there seems to be loose policies when it comes to how fast a player with a head injury without a concussion can go back to playing (McCrea et al., 2021). The question remains why in the presence of plenty of scientific evidence the leagues don’t tighten their policies around these issues. Walton-Fisette (2024) sheds light on this, in an article published in the Journal of Sport History, arguing how such loose policies since 1906 are the result of “the heavy cultural and financial investment in collegiate football,” meaning “a century-long public-relations campaign to increase the social tolerance for the sport’s violence and danger.”() By increasing the social tolerance for the sport’s violence and danger, the leagues are inevitably contributing to the rise of CTE. Their impetus is rooted in romanticizing the past for financial gain, which results in the players having to face social and personal consequences.With no strict policies in place, football players face several symptoms, including memory loss, aggression, depression, frequent impulses, and anxiety. These symptoms could come soon after head trauma or build up overtime. Several studies have examined such symptoms and the irrevocable consequences football players could face due to head injuries. Hollin Gregory, for example, examined the relationship between CTE and Aaron Hernandez’s behavior prior to sucide (Gregory, 2020). If the NFL, college football, and younger football leagues implementing policies that will reduce the long-term impact of brain trauma, the aggression and other social factors which are caused by CTE could be reduced and potentially fixed.
The leagues negligence in addressing CTE can be looked at through an ethical lens. The leagues first and foremost ethical resposibility has to be the safety of the players. It is evident that the NFL has been downplaying and not acknowledging the effects of CTE for a long time, rather than just trying to make simple rules to address head injuries. For example, in a Boston University research study and report, the NFL only started to acknowledge CTE in 2016(). Mike Webster was the first NFL player diagnosed with CTE by a doctor in 2002, 14 years before the NFL finally acknowledged the link between CTE and football (). Such an unethical approach compounds the crisis even further. Through an economic lens, in agreement with questionable ethics by the NFL, the league has acknowledged that they had messed up by not implementing policies to help these players as they have paid 1.2 billion dollars in settlements towards former NFL players.() Not only does this put an economic burden on the NFL as they are spending astronomical sums of money to pay players, but it is also showing that the NFL has acknowledged that so many players are going through this CTE but are yet to fully act on addressing the high occurrence of CTE. Similarly, due to brain trauma and head damage caused by football that lead to CTE, once players are retired, the players themselves have financial troubles. In a Harvard Medical School study, it was reported that players with CTE have trouble finding jobs after retiring due to a mental and physical decline that occurs ().
Counter claims can be made that football leagues including NFL indeed have implemented rigorous policies to reduce CTE. The NFL, for instance, does have two main techniques to try to help with head injuries. For example, in 2020 the NFL introduced Guardian Caps, a different type of helmat that is bigger but more protective of the brain as the cap absorbs 10 percent of every hit(). However, what the NFL fails to highlight is the fact that the guardian cap is not required to wear by the players. This appears to be a hypocritical approach in that if the guardian cap is indeed a useful tool to keep athletes safe, then why doesn’t the NFL make it mandatory for everyone to wear it.
In addition, the NFL also has its own concussion protocol that it reviews regularly to ensure, “players are receiving care that reflects the most up-to-date medical consensus on the identification, diagnosis, and treatment of concussions” (NFL.com). While this is a very good step to the ensure the safety of the players, the NFL is only providing concussion protocols and not CTE. For example, a Boston University Education study discusses how CTE researchers have not been impressed with the NFL’s protocols because CTE is not isolated to concussions and rather roots from small brain hits over the years (). In other words, the NFL separates concussion from CTE while these two are interconnected.
For a long time football leagues at all levels have appeased to the fans’ appeal for the “good old days” and the false nostalgia due to romanticizing their past memories in relation to the game of football. In an attempt to please the fans, or one might argue for financial gains, the leagues have undermined the safety of their players, specifically regarding the long term brain damage. This approach has led to devastating physical, physiological, social, economic, and legal ramifications on both players and the society. There are ways to mitigate the issue. First, leagues should focus on practice regulations because, as noted earlier, many head injuries occur during practice. If there was regulations surronding the amount of contact players can take during practice, the repeated head injuries from practice would reduce, ultimately improving the CTE crisis (McCrea et al.). Secondly, leagues should enforce strict regulations regarding a safe return time for players who have already suffered a head injury (). Next, there has to be an age restriction for tackle football and when one can start playing (Nowinski and Cantu, 2021). Lastly, shortening the seasons would be very beneficial because it would reduce the number of hits player take in a year, resulting in less brain complications in the future (). These solutions are long term rather then short sighted and can systematically address the CTE crisis. Football is a beautiful game, one that is woven into the fabric of American culture. It is perfectly fine to look back to memories that this sport has brought to millions of people. However, if people romanticizing the physical aspect of it and ignoring the repercussions that the players have to face, the dangers of it outweigh the nostalgia. CTE is not a temporary condition, and there is no cure to it right now, so leagues must take risks to help fix the problem rather than focusing using fans pressure or financial motivation to drive their decisions.
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