Professional Football and Early Death

Football is as American as Mom, the flag and apple pie. There are some communities that come to a complete standstill for an important high school football game. Football players are the modern day gladiators and many youngsters, with just a hint of athletic ability, dream of college teams and then the National Football League. One professional contract at the NFL level means recognition, fame and financial security for a lifetime.

However, there is one research fact that football would rather not have mentioned. Playing professional football may lead to early death… significantly earlier:

“…Studies in the United States show that men who play five or more years in the NFL have a life expectancy of 55, 20 years less than the average in the general public. For linemen, perhaps due to their size, the life expectancy is 52.”

link: Dynasty to death: CBC’s Fifth Estate examines head injuries in football

Imagine that the brain is like a bowl of jell-o. If one strikes the bowl with some force, there is a ripple effect. There is a wave of energy that travels to the opposite side of the bowl and back. It is simple physics. The wave action repeats itself until the energy is dissipated. It may not do much harm to the jell-o, but it does have long term health implications for human health. There are possible injuries to both sides of the brain.

There is some glory in the toughness of a tackle or “hit”. For a couple of news cycles, that play may be shown repeatedly on sports telecasts and, of course, it finds an audience on YouTube. The viciousness of the tackle has rewards. And, on some occasions, there are severe immediate injuries. That is discounted by the nature of such a physical game. It is the “accidents happen” approach.

It is more than an accident if every professional football player faces the possibility of a shorten life span because of the nature of the game. There is a masculine mystic about playing with an injury, playing with pain, being a really warrior and so on. However, the entertainment value of the sport takes on a different perspective when one thinks that these modern day gladiator might pay an extremely costly price. These warriors will be ‘forever young’ because they die early. The erratic behaviour of some present football players may be accounted for by the severity of past head injuries. Discussions of these research findings and their health implications rarely happen. It is really bad for the business of professional football – and image matters.

Catherine Forsythe