Vain and Suffering

The main stories coming out of the first Sunday in this NFL season are the one-game resurgence of Michael Vick, the ineptness of the the Cowboys' offense, and Arian Foster's monster game for the Houston Texans. But what should be the focus of players and owners are the bevy of head injuries and concussions throughout the league.

Matt Moore, Kevin Boss, and DeMarcus Ware all suffered head or neck injuries in their first game, while Kevin Kolb and Stewart Bradley of the Philadelphia Eagles were both concussed within a span of a few minutes. What may be even more unbelievable is that both Eagles were allowed back in the game. Even after Kolb was driven face-first into the turf by Packers' linebacker, Clay Matthews, and Bradley fell lifelessly to the ground after trying to stand up, just moments after his helmet violently collided with a teammate's hip on an attempted tackle, the Eagles' medical staff saw no reason for them to be kept on the sidelines.

Injuries are part of the aggressive and violent game that is professional football, but career-threatening (and possibly life-threatening) injuries such as the ones discussed above need to be handled with the utmost care. The very fact that Kolb and Bradley were allowed back in the game is a joke, and a giant mistake by the Eagles' coaching and medical staff. I am no doctor, but if a grown man tries to stand up, then stumbles and flops to the ground like a sack of wet towels, then I would think he should not be allowed to go back onto a field where three-hundred-pound men are going to hit him. I can understand the desire to have one of your best defensive players on the field, but not at the expense of his health. It is sad to say, but in situations such as these, players are taken advantage of. They are taught at a very young age to ignore injuries and pain, so they feel as though they can play, or simply do not understand the severity of their injury.

The recent realizations on the effects of concussions and other severe injuries should be more than enough reasons for a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) to be agreed upon, because players are putting their careers at risk every time they step onto a football field. It was just three years ago that Bills' tight end, Kevin Everett, suffered a spinal-cord injury while trying to make a tackle on special teams. He was given a slim chance to walk again, if he even lived at all. Due to unbelievable amounts of willpower and spirit, Everett was able to walk on the field for the Bills' home finale later that year, but his career was done after just three seasons in the league. While Everett's story was one of inspiration, it is also a chilling reminder that NFL careers are extremely short. So it is imperative that a new CBA is reached, not only so fans around the world can have the pleasure of watching NFL football, but also to ensure players are taken care of in situations such as Everett's.

I know there will be people out there who would say that professional athletes get paid too much as it is, and are too greedy; which is a viewpoint I happen to agree with. But as greedy as NFL players are, NFL owners are just as covetous, if not more so. Plus the owners are not the individuals who are spending their adult lives in wheelchairs because of multiple knee surgeries, or the ones suffering brain damage from having defensive linemen drive them head-first into the ground for ten years. So, a new monetary agreement between the NFL players and owners appears to be the only way to ensure that football players will be compensated for the risks they take, and that fans will be able to watch them play in the future.