Additional steps must be taken to improve football safety
First, let it be said that football is much safer than it once was.
For an example, we need look no further than 1905. That year yielded what one writer described as “football’s death harvest.” In the course of 1905, it’s believed that more than 20 college football players sustained fatal injuries while playing. They were done in by internal injuries, broken necks, concussions, broken backs and more. It’s believed that in the five years that preceded 1905, at least 20 other football players perished in the United States. The dangers posed by the rough-and-tumble of football led to reforms that made the game safer and perhaps kept it from fading into oblivion.
More than a century later, football’s popularity is undisputed – thousands of people attend college and professional games and follow the ins-and-outs of football avidly. Many, many more watch games on television. All the attention paid last month to the 50th anniversary of the Immaculate Reception and the untimely death of Franco Harris just a couple of days before displayed the depth of devotion of Steelers fans in this region. The intense loyalty of fans aside, football also brings in lots and lots of money – the 32 teams in the NFL generated more than $17 billion in revenue in 2021, and college football can bring select schools more than $30 million per year.
Football isn’t going anywhere.
But questions about its safety inevitably came to the fore again Monday night in the most horrific way imaginable – early in a game with the Cincinnati Bengals, Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed after getting up off the field. Hamlin had gone into cardiac arrest, and it took several minutes to revive him. It’s believed that it was caused by a hit to the chest the McKees Rocks native and University of Pittsburgh graduate took just seconds before. Medical personnel had to come on the field to revive him and he was rushed to a hospital.
Hamlin’s almost-fatal mishap was something of a fluke, but it inevitably brings questions about football’s safety to the fore once again. Plenty of other football players get carted off the fields every season with concussions, broken bones and other types of injuries. Many researchers also believe that repeated blows to the head could have contributed to the dementia that NFL veterans have experienced after their playing days are done. Participating in any sport carries a level of risk – you could trip and fall while playing croquet, after all – but football is, as Johns Hopkins University professor Michael Mandelbaum noted, “controlled violence, but it is violence, which people have loved to watch since the gladitorial contests in ancient Rome.”
There has been progress, but there are still many steps that can be taken to make football safer. In the aftermath of Hamlin’s injury, there has been talk of increasing chest protection for football players. Concussion protocols need to be followed rigorously on all levels of play. It’s also been suggested that live tackling should be eliminated during practice. Making education about brain education mandatory is also an idea that has been put forward.
Former Pittsburgh Steelers safety Ryan Clark said it well on social media the other day: “It’s a game. A game! You never suit up and think you won’t make it home.”