Quote:
Originally Posted by burn_baby_burn
If it was that easy to make the game safer without deminishing the action on the field it would have been done long ago. The NFL is in the business of entertainment. If they reduce it to touch football to make it safe for the players then they stand to lose billions as a result of lost interest.
Yes I agree that the NFL is being hypocritical by saying they want to eliminate hits to defenseless players, while at the same time using clips of those same hits to promote the game. Its kind of like fining Chad Johnson for being flamboyant, while using him in a lot of NFL commercials on NFLN. Still, I think it should be up to the players to decide if the risk is worth the reward. We hear about workers being injured or even killed at work all the time. These workers are getting no where near the financial compensation that NFL players recieve.
|
You mean like mandating the use of helmets that have been shown to be better at protecting against concussions? Or requiring knee pads which reduces the risk of concussion in a knee to helmet collision? The latter is at least partially, if not largely, on the players, but the helment issue has a lot to do with valuing the relationships with certain companies over the protective qualities of the equipment.
I agree to an extent on the whole risk v. financial compensation argument, but you're discounting the fact that the majority of NFL players aren't multi-millionaires at the end of their careers. The average NFL career is 3.3 years and the median salary is in the $800,000 range. Put that together and you have guys making around $1.6mil over their career, factor in taxes of at least 35% and you're looking at around $1mil, likely less when state taxes come into play. It's still a pretty nice chunk of cash, but the whole risk v. return thing goes away when you consider the toll placed on the body to earn that paycheck. Lifelong injuries that make careers after football difficult to maintain, unknown mental damage, and decreased lifespans. All for a million bucks. It's easy to look at Aaron Rodgers and say 'hey, he makes millions of dollars, that's a fair trade for a couple of concussions' but the reality is the vast majority of players don't fit that perception.
The biggest thing the NFL has to do to convince me that they actually give a damn is to put their money where their mouth is and start paying for the longterm health issues that result from playing in their league. Take care of your former players, take care of your current players, and stop pretending you care on one hand and blatantly profiting off the violence on the other.