OPINION:
Every one of the football players banging heads on the field last week was hoping for the chance to do so for a living. What some of them got instead was a few hits closer to dying.
They were playing in the final sacrifice of the preseason — the games where those already lucky enough to have jobs are held out for their own protection.
The others? Like Washington Commanders cannon fodder who would be cut from the roster days later, they’ll hope they sacrificed themselves enough to impress someone else who will give them the privilege of making a living playing football.
Washington cut 34 players this weekend. For those who were cut, those decisions could potentially save their lives.
The 53 left behind? The privileged ones, those who will represent the Commanders and start or continue their NFL careers? Thirteen of them will likely die not remembering those careers or perhaps loved ones. They could be tortured by demons in their head so severe that death could be relief.
The roster cutdown process is a numbers exercise. So, too, are the dark days ahead for NFL players when the cheering stops — days marked by alarming numbers, according to a disturbing new study that found at least one in four NFL players likely faces death from chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
A study of players who passed away in a five-year period conducted by Massachusetts General Brigham and Boston University focused on how common CTE is among NFL players. What it found is that of the 878 players who appeared in at least one NFL game and died in the six-year period from 2016 to 2021, at least 25% had CTE.
In other words, a quarter of the players on the team you root for.
This study drew on samples donated between 2008 and 2021, 93% of those samples had been diagnosed with CTE. Researchers then narrowed the sample based on when donations were highest and factored in demographic data and information from death certificates, according to ESPN. Research depended on brains donated by players or their families.
The estimate is startling. It may not be high enough.
The estimate is on the “low end,” Dr. Daniel Daneshvar, the study’s lead author, told ESPN. The study found that the maximum possible prevalence of CTE was around 97% but the true rate “is somewhere in the middle,” he said.
The number that dwarfs all others, though, is $23 billion — the league’s annual revenue. There is no other number that will dictate the response to such a devastating price for employment. The entire business of network television would likely collapse without it. Last year 92 of the top 100 most-watched television broadcasts were football games.
There will be no national alarms sounded on those networks.
We are numb to the reality, bombarded for years by tales of players damaged and lawsuits filed until they disappeared with settlements, followed by the NFL finally acknowledging what it denied for years — its business is very dangerous to those who work in the trenches.
The blue tent on game day sidelines where concussion protocols are followed has become some sort of comfort symbol.
“The NFL continuously strives to make the game of football safer, including by implementing strategies to reduce concussions and head impacts,” the league said in a statement. “The NFL remains committed to ensuring that the NFL community has access to a robust — and expanding — set of resources to enhance their physical and mental well-being.”
Here’s another number in play — 18, the number of regular season games the NFL is considering, increasing the odds of brain damage by one game while supposedly taking steps to reduce concussions.
“We have not had any formal discussions about it and frankly very little of any informal conversations,” Goodell said at his Super Bowl LX news conference. “It is not a given that we will do that. It’s not something we assume will happen. It’s something we want to talk about with the union leadership.”
What about that union?
You might think this new study would prompt a rousing response from the NFL Players Association.
Instead, it was a “sobering reminder,” in case you forgot.
“This study is a sobering reminder that football carries real risks, and those risks can have lasting consequences for players and their families,” the NFLPA said in a statement to ESPN. “It also reinforces one of the NFLPA’s core priorities: improving player safety and supporting players throughout their lives, both during and after their careers.
“The findings should serve as a call to action across the entire football ecosystem. We all share a responsibility to advance research, improve access to care, develop better treatments, and support those affected by the long-term impacts of the game.”
What kind of action? Is there anything short of dramatically changing the game that would have a real impact?One of the problems is that by the time these players reach the NFL, they have been taking shots to the head for maybe 14 years, from youth football through high school and college. The brain damage that led to at least 25% of deaths in this study may have started when they were eight years old.
Yet we will watch and cheer. It may be the defining characteristic of American culture, and the league is spreading it worldwide. I make a living off it.
But I feel like I’m lighting up in a cancer ward.
• You can hear Thom Loverro on “The Kevin Sheehan Show” podcast.
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