My last memory was my face mask slamming into his chest.
I was a freshman in high school who had struggled enough to make the varsity kickoff team. We had just scored on our opening drive of the first quarter.
As the “wedge buster,” it was my job to break up the middle of the V blocking pattern that most high schools football teams use to return kickoffs. I like to think I busted that V, but in the process I also busted by head.
My next memory was attempting to write down plays on the sideline. As a rookie freshman, it was my job to do so, but blind spots in my vision forced me to put the clipboard right up to my face mask to see the sheet. An assistant coach noticed my struggles and sent me to the paramedics where I promptly threw up and was diagnosed with, “concussion-like symptoms.”
Every time I hear the phrase “concussion- like symptoms” during an NFL broadcast, I go back to this memory (or lack thereof). If you’re a fan of the NFL these days, you’ve no doubt heard that same
expression. It’s become the focal point of new rules in the league in the wake of an increased awareness of the issue on all levels of the game: high school, college and especially the NFL.
Deaths on high school fields, high profile suicides (i.e. Junior Saou), severe health issues and memory loss of former players, and hard- to-watch replays of defenseless players going limp after being violently speared to the ground by defenders has forced officials at all levels into action.
The NFL altered the game because of it. Before the 2011 season, commissioner Roger Goodell moved kickoffs up five yards to the 35-yard line. The new rules made it much easier for kickers to boot the ball to the back of the end zone, leading to more touchbacks and fewer collisions on a play that typically allowed for ample space to build up high speed and crash into oncoming blockers.
The initiative was successful. According to an online, NFL published article, concussions suffered on kickoffs were down 43 percent from the 2010 to 2011 season. This success led NCAA officials to follow suit in the 2012 season.
It’s not hard to figure out why the kickoff change was successful: players are now playing less football. Most kickoffs nowadays are essentially 70 yards sprints and exercises in hand-eye coordination and depth perception for return men.
But fine. If that’s what it takes for football to go on, so be it. We’ve removed one of the most exciting, potentially momentum changing plays of the game to make a dangerous game “safe” but whatever, as long as the show goes on.
Now the NFL, and subsequently the NCAA, are spearheading new regulations on what areas of the body players are able to target. Players that aim at an opponent’s head or neck or that attempt to lead into a tackle with their head are being penalized 15 yards and, in the case of the NFL, fined by the league.
As a football fan, it was hard to swallow the changes to kickoff rules. But the new targeting rules are so subjective and hard to obey that they’re making the game frustrating to watch.
Don’t get me wrong, I understand the desire to stop players from launching head first into their opponents with the intent of knocking them out of the game. But how are players supposed to make split second decisions in the heat of the moment? And how is a referee supposed to objectively judge plays where bodies are constantly shifting and the target of a defender may change in fractions of a second as the ball carrier jukes or ducks or is forced downward by other players?
NFL analysis shows now feel almost incomplete without a 20-minute debate over what is an “okay” hit and what is a “dirty” hit. It doesn’t matter. The obvious fact that football fans and rule makers need to stop dancing around and accept is this: Football is a dangerous game.
A 2010 study by The Wall Street Journal showed that the average amount of time a ball is in play during a typical NFL game is only 11 minutes. That stat alone shows that a large part of what makes people love football is the turn-based strategy of the game. Still, football is great at tricking us into thinking we’re watching a three-hour game. We’re actually watching a little more than 10 minutes of action.
There were 4,493 reported injuries in the 2011 NFL season (easiest season to find stats for). Those injuries include everything from a sprained wrist to a broken leg to concussions. Not including pre-season games, there were a combined 267 regular season and playoff games.
I know these are extremely rough numbers, so don’t take this as exact, objective fact but rather as a relatively close estimate. If each one of those games has about 11 minutes of live action per, that’s 2,937 minutes of ball-in-action football in 2011.
About 49 hours.
That means every two minutes the ball is in play in the average NFL game, one player gets hurt. That’s about five to six injuries (rounding up from 5.5) every game. That means that if the ball were in play for the entire game (i.e. basketball), the average game would have 90 injuries.
It needs said that a “game” allows for preparation for a game, as many of these injuries come in practice or training camp. Also, many of these injuries came in preseason games not figured into the 267 above. That said, all the injuries occurred in preparation for the regular season and playoffs so I think its fair to include them.
These stats are ridiculous. I would assume that they would be lower at the NCAA and high school level due to smaller athletes but that’s just an assumption. Still, they show that football is inherently dangerous.
But does it really even require statistical proof to figure that out? As long as we strap pads onto hulking, 300 pound super athletes every fall weekend and have them slam into each other at high speeds, football will always be dangerous. No rule will ever change that and attempting to do so is decreasing the fun of watching what is supposed to be an objective, strategic game.
I am an avid football fan who accepts the reality of my love: I am a modern day Roman. I go to my Coliseum that is Memorial Stadium almost every Husker home game to watch my gladiators do battle, albeit with muscle and pads rather than swords and shields. I love a dangerous game.
So enough with the absurd safety rules. No rule can change the dangerous nature of football. The only rules that could make safe would have to be passed by Congress and would outlaw the game altogether. Screw that, football is great.