The college and NFL football seasons have begun. College football rankings are dominated by traditional powerhouses, Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State, and Michigan. The Buffalo Bills (AFC) and the Philadelphia Eagles (NFC) are favorites to go to the Super Bowl in February.
American football, not to be confused with global fútbol which is known in the United States as soccer, is an incredibly dangerous and debilitating game for its players. Data from the National Football League (NFL) indicates that almost 70% of NFL players are injured in a season and most football players experience three or more serious injuries during their career. Many of these injuries have long-term consequences for players besides missed playing time during their careers. They include psychological stress, chronic pain, increased cases of arthritis and osteoarthritis, and dementia. Three-fourth of retired football players continue to suffer from musculoskeletal injuries for the rest of their lives. About 60% of NFL players have injury related surgery during their playing days and over 40% have a premature end to football career because of a serious injury.
Probably the scariest football related disability is dementia. According to a study commissioned by the NFL, retired professional football players between the ages of 30 and 49 are19 times more likely to suffer from Alzheimer’s and other memory-debilitating conditions than men in this age cohort who never played professional football.
Meanwhile, while the bodies and brains of professional football players are being sacrificed, the league and its owners make exorbitant sums of money. The NFL’s total 2020 revenue was $12.2 billion and the average franchise is valued at $3.04 billion. While some football players sign long-term contracts for millions of dollars, the average career for a pro-football player is only 3.3 years. Running backs are the most at-risk, rotating out of the lead in about 2 and a half years, long before they have a chance to sign a mega-deal. The NFL Players' Association estimates that more than three-fourth of former players are broke within three years of retirement .
Following a prolonged legal battle, in 2013, the National Football League and the NFL Players Association agreed to a $765 million settlement to provide financial assistance to 18,000 former players suffering from concussion-related brain injuries. Over 4,500 former athletes sued the league charging that it concealed the danger from concussions, pushed injured players to play, and glorified high impact collisions in its marketing. The NFL fought the lawsuit, denying wrongdoing and claiming player safety was the league’s top priority.
After the settlement, NFL owners, motivated by greed and racism, utilized a formula that limited their financial liability by denying benefits to a large number of retired African American players who suffered from concussion-related brain injuries. Seventy percent of NFL players are considered “people of color” so racism saved the owners and the league a lot of money.
Two retired Black players sued the NFL accusing the league of “explicitly and deliberately” discriminating against Black players by using race-based criteria to determine eligibility for dementia payments. Over 600 retired Black football players were denied payments because the formula used to measure the level of disability assumed that Blacks started with lower cognitive ability than whites so they did not meet the impairment threshold for payment. The formula was based on national averages and not cognitive performance by professional football players or on individual assessments. Under pressure, the NFL agreed to remove race as a criterion in evaluations. Sixty-one African American retirees will now receive maximum payouts worth at least $500,000. The cost to the league for these players alone will be over $30 million. Hundreds of former players are now eligible for medical monitoring with potential payments in the future.
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