Jan 31, 2013; New Orleans, LA, USA; NFL former player Troy Vincent speaks during an NFL health and safety press conference at the Ernest Morial Convention center. Super Bowl XLVII will take place between the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens on February 3, 2013 at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports

To say that concussions could ruin the NFL for fans doesn’t exactly tell the whole story.  Fans themselves are in no danger of getting concussions, unless of course you’re going to a 49er’s game and you might get a concussion in the stadium bathroom or parking lot (see previous post on fan violence).  But in all seriousness, I’m not trying to take an issue that seriously threatens the health and safety of other individuals and making it all about how it affects the fans.  I’m not unsympathetic to the NFL player or the former NFL players who suffer through their injuries and the after effects of their injuries.  However, the attention that this has brought to the league will most definitely has a chance to affect the sport, even before it’s proven if it actually affects every player in the sport.

There are a lot of things that will always serve as a disconnect between the players and fans of the NFL.  The main issue is compensation and that will always be an issue.  The other disconnect between the fan and player is the physical commitment to the game.  Sure we may follow our teams from birth, have logos tattooed, travel all over the country to watch games, etc.  But we are by no means coming close to the physical commitment to the game the players make, not even in the same breath.  We give up our money and time to our teams; they give up their bodies and health.  The NFL has always been a violent game, since the days of leather helmets the main objective for the defense is to separate man from ball or try by any means necessary to prevent the offense from scoring.  That’s what we enjoy watching, and honestly that’s what the players enjoy doing.  But in this day and age where media outlets that do not regularly cover the NFL are doing specials on the safety concerns of playing football, the POTUS is asked whether or not he would feel comfortable letting his son play the game if he had one, and 4,000+ former NFL players are suing the league over head injuries, not to mention the Commish’s never ending hypocritical stance on player safety; the game we all know and love could be in danger.

Last month, Baltimore Ravens safety Bernard Pollard predicted the death of football as we know it in the next 30 years.  His prediction was that the NFL rule makers would be lightening the game up little by little, more flags being thrown, more players fined, more rules implemented to protect certain positions and as a result the fans will give up on the sport entirely.  Not likely.  We’ll be pissed, we’ll scream at the TV a whole lot more than we do now, we will flood the internet and message boards with a whole lot more complains over officiating and whatnot but I doubt we’ll give up entirely.  The biggest opposition to the concussion awareness movement is the fact that most players and fans alike don’t want to see anything in the game changed.

Right now the lawsuit between the 4,000+ former NFL players and the NFL over how head injuries were dealt with could be the biggest cause for concern over where the league is headed in regards to rules changes and such to protect, or give the image of protection, for player safety.  We all know that while Rogeez will tout player safety in one press conference he’ll just as passionately argue for additional regular season games, playoff expansion, and anything else that will extend the game and put more money in the wallets of the owners and NFL executives.  The message has been mixed for a while.  Without going into too much detail (because the Commissioner will be getting his very own post in this series of things ruining the NFL for fans) the way Rogeez has handled this issue initially has lead to the biggest worries for fans.  The lawsuit threatens the NFL in the way that causes the most damage, in their pockets.  The lawsuit is being set up in similar fashion to the 1998 Tobacco Settlements in which former players are alleging that the NFL had prior knowledge of the after affects and dangers of head injuries and purposely withheld that information from its players.

Whether or not they can actually prove that remains to be seen.  Surely there would have to be documents, emails, medical reports, and testimony from previous eras in which the NFL personnel and executives were trying to hide information from the players just like in the tobacco case.  The massive growing list of players joining the case represents a threat to both sides of the table, in my opinion.  The bigger the number joining the lawsuit makes for bigger headlines in the media and puts more pressure on the NFL but also dilutes the amount of players who might actually be suffering and in need.  How many of these 4,000+ are actually suffering from mental and physical health problems and how many are out of money and think they’re entitled?  There is a dangerous double standard in the NFL by the players, fans, and the media in which a player who plays through injury is considered a “warrior” whereas a player who is constantly on the sidelines is labled as “soft” or “injury prone”.  There’s no denying that we know now that head injuries can lead to all kinds of health issues in the future but the responsibility for those head injuries and their lingering effects remains to be seen.  Junior Seau most notably, committed suicide last year and his brain was found to have tested positive for chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a neurodegenerative disease that might lead to dementia, memory loss, and depression and has been linked to be caused by repeated head trauma.  Seau’s name never appeared on an injury report for a concussion during his 20 year career in the NFL.  Does that mean he never had one?  No.  Does that mean he might have hid symptoms from his trainers, coaches and team doctors?  Probably.  Is the NFL responsible for his death?  I’m not in any position to even attempt to answer that question.

The main point I’m trying to get across with this post is that, as a diehard fan of the NFL, the real NFL, I want the game improved to protect players’ safety in ways that doesn’t change the face of the game I’ve loved all my life.  I’d like to see the safety measures reflected in the equipment the players get, consistent penalty calling and player fines, and not in turning the NFL into a glorified flag football league.  I would hope that the changes the NFL can and will make in the attempt to make an inherently violent game less violent will be mindful and effective.  There has to be responsibility taken by all parties involved, too.  We as fans shouldn’t condemn a player for sitting out with an injury or praise him for playing through it, we’ve got to be somewhere in the middle.  You can’t eliminate injuries completely, but how you treat them can make all the difference in the world.

What are your thoughts, Steeler Nation?  Do you fear for the future of the NFL because of the growing concern over player safety?

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I sure hope the camera is on me. I really nailed it with the eye-black today. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-US PRESSWIRE

What We Learned This Week in the NFL Off Season:

• Chad Ochocinco has “Daddy” issues
• NFL safety debate reaches an unbearable level

If you listen to as much sports talk radio as I do you’re probably just as sick as I am about the whole “The NFL is dying” talk as it relates to concussions, player safety, and former players’ health.  Like clockwork, Chad “I want some attention for not doing anything” Ochocinco decided to add his 1 ½ cents into the conversation in the form of an open letter to NFL Commish and all around douchey guy, Roger Goodell, whom he refers to as “Dad” all through the letter.  Meanwhile, Ocho’s former teammate and buddy, Terrell Owens was on Dr. Phil’s couch being confronted by a gaggle of baby mama’s wondering where their child support is.  Elsewhere in the NFL the Vikings finally got their new stadium approved to be built in Minnesota and not Los Angeles.  David DeCastro and Sean Spence are the final Steelers draft picks that have yet to sign their rookie contracts and once signed, they will have their entire rookie class signed the earliest in team history in about 30 years. (more…)

Seau's death will have a ripple affect through the NFL.

They say you can’t really understand a man until you walk a mile in his shoes.  The NFL (and fans for that matter) should head these words.  But instead of shoes, it should be a NASCAR cockpit, and instead of one mile try 500.  I just got done reading this article by Ryan McGee on ESPN.com and his angle on relating NASCAR to the current NFL player safety dilemma is very interesting, albeit slightly flawed.

I used to like NASCAR.  Growing up as a kid, my dad and I would watch the weekend races.  Sometimes we would even try and catch the time trials if you could find them on one of the ESPN’s or other channel (Speed network had yet to come into existence).  My dad would sit in the living room and wait for my mom to leave the house or at the very least go downstairs to the basement so he could crank up the TV speakers just to hear those engines roar and doppler past the cameras.  It was fun and we had our favorite drivers.  I fell out of watching NASCAR – probably because there was a large part of me that just couldn’t stand the redneck jokes that inherently came with being a fan.  That and I think the post graduate ‘adult’ in me found it hard to justify burning all that high octane fuel to just go around in a circle.  But even with my distaste for the sport, I can’t help but marvel at the balls it takes to drive 200 mph+, three abreast across a track, and a car behind milliseconds behind you ready to ram its front end right up your tailpipe.  There is certainly respect there, and those men are a tough bunch of S.O.B’s.

McGee resurfaces for some and brings to light for other NFL fans the colossal amount of pushback the drivers had against safety precautions while racing – none bigger than the HANS system.  Why so much distaste for safety?  Toughness.  That famed constructed persona that because you are tough as nails safety is for suckers.  That’s part of why you are respected and revered so much by peers and fans.  It’s something that can’t be compromised.  That is… until someone dies.  Ok well it took 10 deaths in five years with one involving a legend of the sport (one Dale Earnhardt).  But, the culmination of those finally softened NASCAR drivers to use the safety measures created.  Oh yeah, according to McGee, those safety measures were created 20 years ago.  No NASCAR driver has perished since 2001 in a race related accident.

The Intimidator more than likely would have survived this crash were he wearing the HANS

I watched the Daytona 500 where Dale Earnhardt Sr. died in that fatal crash.  It looked like any other crash you might see.  It was fairly tame, by rollover and flaming engine standards.  He just hit the wall.  Hard.  Lots of guys walked away from crashed like that, yet this time Dale didn’t.  His head practically separated from it’s spine in the crash, and killed him.  Had he had worn the HANS device, he would have survived.

So where does the NFL and the players fit into all of this?  David Coleman is probably a name you’ve never heard of.  And if you have, it probably wasn’t until Saturday when you learned that Coleman was a semi-pro football player who died from a blindsided hit while trying to make a tackle during a punt return in that afternoon’s charity game.  No other details of exact cause of death have been released at this point, but as an NFL fan, this bit of news gets my palms sweaty.

There’s always been the threat of, ‘Just wait until someone dies on a football field.  That’s going to change everything.’  Well unfortunately, I don’t think Coleman’s death will be the event that will be the clarion call for some major rule and equipment changes in the NFL.  The NFL, if not careful and learn from other histories of similar ‘risk taking’ sports, will walk a very similar path that NASCAR did.

This is where I feel McGee falls short in his relative assessment.  He mentions Seau at the very beginning, but fails to point out that players like Seau are the very mirror we should be holding up to the NFL.  McGee looks at NASCAR deaths on the track and projects that back onto the NFL with only its current players – sort of a if you don’t change your ways eventually someone will die on the field.  But, I argue that the NFL has already had the deaths that McGee ‘forewarns’ the reader about.  All of the suicides committed by former players are as much a ‘wakeup call’ incident than if an active player were to die on the field on a given Sunday.  No one is just honing up to it.  It is because of those deaths that all players in the NFL should stop and refocus their efforts on making the game safer for themselves.  Between all the glitz, glamor and mad Benjamins that is associated with the NFL, players cannot see that they too face the risk of ending up like Junior Seau.  Junior Seau is the NFL’s Dale Earnhardt.  The NFL lost a legend in a tragic fashion just as NASCAR lost its legend on the race track eleven years ago.  I’m not saying that there were safety measures already in place and Seau chose not to partake in them like Earnhardt.  What I am saying is that Earnhardt’s death was the defining moment of driver safety in NASCAR.  Seau’s death should be the defining moment for the NFL and NFLPA.  The players need to see the writing on the wall.

This is all assuming that those safety measures exist.  Regardless, the players should take heed and refrain from preventing safety measures – whether rules or equipment – from being implemented.  Let them come and welcome them with open arms.  We’ll never see a Tom Brady or Peyton Manning die from a hard hit on the field.  But, we may see other legendary players of today perish years from now as a result of this silent killer.

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