The NFL, CTE, And the Illusion That It’s Just a Game

Caveat: I know little about concussions, other than that they hurt, have lingering effects and in recent years have been declared to be as common as scraped knees and pulled muscles. From everything I’ve read and listened to — things are a lot more serious. This article is my take on the game from the perspective of someone who played it for years, got hurt often and thought smashmouth football was fun and might impress the ladies. Beyond that, no medical acuity is assumed here or pretended.

CTE — stands for Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. A progressive and degenerative brain disease associated with multiple concussions.

Ever cry after your team loses a game?

Throw a remote across the room when a penalty was bullshit?

Had a moment of clarity, when everyone else in the room was looking at you, wondering WTF you put in the dip.

Yeah, that was me, many years ago. That’s why I stopped watching. Stopped rooting for any team.

I just check the stats now, read some articles, and stay a safe distance from the game.

But I never stopped thinking about the game itself. The movement and skill. The noise. The clashing helmets and reminders that the phrase — a contact sport — never quite defined it correctly.

Here’s what I’ve been thinking about lately as I read the news.

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I would venture a guess that the NFL and those who film it every week, spend a small fortune on state-of-the-art audio equipment so that every grunt, every Smash, and Pop rings out.

Every bone-jarring tackle reverberates with the intensity of a train wreck and makes the TV viewer cringe while their sphincters loosen just a bit as they watch a close-up of a helmet rolling (headless) across the Astroturf.

NFL football without sound effects is like sex without touching.

Seeing balls leap out of receiver’s hands after impact; watching running backs stop in slow motion as linebackers plow into them.

Gazing at two thousand plus pounds of linemen waging battle is what NFL football is all about.

It’s gladiatorial combat in a stadium filled with 80,000 modern people.

With endless beer, $25 hotdogs and more than a few fans yelling Kill’em at the top of their lungs while wearing “cheese-hats” or paper bags over their heads.

It’s visceral, primitive, and America’s favorite pastime. Logging in 48 of the top 50 most-watched TV shows over the past 12 months.

But with only a small fraction of the viewing audience ever having seriously played the game — why are they so invested in it every week?

To the point where football wives say a prayer during the off-season that football will soon resume so that their partners have something to look forward to every weekend.

It is also without a doubt the most violent sport on the planet.

Even the NHL, which now recruits veritable linebackers on skates to patrol the ice and periodically smash opposing players through the plexiglass, is less violent and technically more skilled.

With every step taken, swerve and movement being done while balancing on a quarter inch of steel at over 20 MPH.

What motivates athletes to go through Mighty Mite, Pop Warner, High School, College, and semi-pro leagues to get into the NFL, when their lives there will be famously short?

The average career length of an NFL player varies depending on the position. These stats are based on a wide selection of players, some who never play a snap to those with 15-year Pro-Bowl careers.

· Average career for a quarterback is three years

· Average career for a running back is three-and-a-half years

· Average career for a wide receiver about two years

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In about the time it takes an average baker to learn his craft, 1–3 years, many NFL hopefuls will already be packing up their lockers and leaving the sport.

Injuries and sports are synonymous. Whether it’s gymnastics, tennis, Pickleball, or football, people will get hurt.

Some just bruised a bit, others broken and done for a lifetime.

And yet they sign up and play on.

Why? Is it the game itself that is so alluring?

Sunday afternoon in front of a billion people that makes the journey all worthwhile?

Even racecar drivers are given a pass for being involved in a dangerous sport. Many survive years of Nascar or Formula One racing and live to drive their children to college.

But the NFL with its extravagant half-time shows, cheerleaders, high-profile athletes, and wacky mascots marches on.

Relentlessly garnering ever-increasing shares of America’s viewing audience, while we thumb through the sports pages and read about famous athletes we knew back in the day, who died from brain-related injuries sustained a lifetime ago on the football field.

And then there’s CTE.

Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy.

A progressive and degenerative brain disease associated with multiple concussions, and other head injuries, sustained during football and other sports.

Remember the recent images of Miami Dolphins quarterback, Tua Tagovailoa, after being slammed to the ground for the second week in a row?

Now diagnosed with a concussion that was apparently missed the first time around, he’s spending time on the injured list waiting for the symptoms to pass.

And while the number of studies grows, and the negotiation between the NFL and NFLPA gets more contentious, football continues.

New players move through the latest draft. Old players announce their retirements, while some leave the sport only to return weeks later to give it another shot.

That it’s a national sport that damages almost everyone who plays it, is not challenged.

Even people who golf once a month, often end up with a sore back, so injuries and sports are inextricably linked together.

And it’s okay. The injuries mean something, don’t they?

But what?

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What Does the Future Hold?

According to a 2017 study done by researchers at Boston University, 99% of the 111 brains donated (110 out of 111) by former NFL players, were diagnosed with CTE.

The same study also examined 202 football players at various levels of the game, including high school and college, and found CTE in 87% of players.

CTE currently can only be diagnosed posthumously.

In 2015 a judge approved a settlement of nearly $1 billion for former NFL players suffering from brain trauma.

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In July 2022 the family of Demaryius Thomas (an All-Pro NFL receiver) revealed that the player had stage 2 CTE at the time of his death.

The medical examiner in Fulton County Georgia gave the cause of death as, complications from seizures. Demaryius was 33 years old and had retired from the NFL less than six months earlier.

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Ever watch a Mighty Mite football game as 7–8–9-year-olds run around with pads and helmets — acting like miniature versions of the players you watch on Sunday?

Hard not to laugh in comparison as they bump and tumble like characters in a video game, running this way and that into the endzone. Theirs or the opposing team's.

But what’s actually happening inside those helmets?

To the still-forming brains? Does CTE need a certain G-force before it begins to take its toll?

Does it lay dormant or never start at all until high school when a 150-pound wide receiver meets a 220-pound linebacker head-on?

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The NFL and Ancient Rome

Thumbs up, thumbs down. Not a pretty picture.

• Lions eating Christians as depicted on 17th-century Dutch etchings.

• Floating ship battles in a flooded Roman Coliseum.

Okay, farfetched right?

The NFL has rules. State-of-the-art helmets. Doctors, trainers, and medical experts roam the sidelines, mending and patching and keeping the athletes whole and healthy.

And yet, take a fresh look at the stats above. The average career of an NFL receiver — is 2 years.

No matter how limber and stretched, conditioned and fed, these superior athletes may be, they enter the “arena” every Sunday knowing they will be bruised and battered and popping Ibuprofen by the handful at the end of the day, as they “get ready” for the next game.

But why do it if it’s so dangerous?

A $230 million guaranteed contract to one player sets a standard that simply won’t go away.

Players reject offers of $18 million a year because it is less than what another cornerback got two months ago.

Money talks.

What it buys is addictive.

Celebrity. Fine cars. A lifetime without financial worries.

Achieving a goal made one day 17 years ago while watching a game with your uncle.

Doing whatever it took. Enduring the pains, ice baths, painkillers and two-a-day practices to get the chance.

To say you did it.

Ever hear of an accountant, computer programmer or Medical Examiner going on TV and talking passionately about all the late-night tutoring groups, summer school classes and visits to the morgue?

Didn’t think so.

The game. The endorphins flowing through the athlete and the fan are equally addictive.

And the NFL, are they the purveyors of this drug?

Just a few years ago, NFL owners and leadership were accused of hiding information about concussions. Of knowingly keeping the bad news behind closed lips.

But concessions were reached. Compromise took place.

Money, lots of money, was set aside in a great fund to help the thousands who were suffering or soon would be, because of all those hits to the head.

All those tackling drills, with teammates screaming at them to hit harder.

All those nights after practice, wondering why mom and dad’s lips were moving but you couldn’t understand a word they were saying.

But it’s just a game. And it’s spreading.

NFL games are now being televised from London, Germany and Mexico City. With the commissioner talking about creating new teams there.

According to NBC executives, Super Bowl 2022 Ads were selling for $6.5 million for a 30-second spot.

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There Are Fans and Then There Are . . .

. . . fanatics.

Those with memorabilia lined TV rooms. Season tickets. Wearing body paint of their team’s colors and showing up shirtless in January.

They love the game. Talk the game. Name their kids after their favorite players, even the girls.

But at what cost?

We’re not talking about the cost of tickets or beer, but about the athletes playing the game.

Sure, with $5 million or $25 million a year, they’re well paid. Famous. Have the life most can only dream of.

But if you read the sport’s pages every day, and watch the guys on ESPN giving a tribute to a fallen athlete from the not-so-old days.

Or watch the highlights again and again with your buddies while mouthing oohs and aahs after each amazing hit —

— then what’s happening inside your brain when you know what’s happening inside theirs?

The illusion that it’s just a game, is real.

What happens next?