Choosing to be hit by sweaty, muscular men comes with many dangers. According to NFL Player Health & Safety, there were at total of 402 injuries during the 2018 NFL season, 214 of which were concussions.
Football must become a safer sport. Concussions account for the most football injuries, but others include leg injuries such as ACL and MCL tears, and arm injuries such as rotator cuff and acromioclavicular (AC) that can have major long-lasting effects. So there has to be ways to make the game safer… right? Maybe not. As much as you can change the sport, the safest option is to make it non-contact in order to avoid injuries like concussions.
However, making it non contact ultimately defeats the purpose for playing in most people’s minds. David Goodman, freshman, and freshman football player even thinks so. “It seems [NCAA and NFL] are taking away the physical part of football, and without it, it is not fun,” Goodman said. Even Goodman believes that without contact, football is not fun So should we leave it alone? Absolutely not!
The NFL and other football leagues continue to make rules and introduce new safer equipment in attempts to make the game safer. One rule change implemented in 2018 states “It is a foul if a player lowers his head to initiate and make contact with his helmet against an opponent. This rule pertains to all players on the field, and to all areas of the field.” This rule basically means that it is illegal for a player to hit another player with his helmet first. As much as rules like these do help, they do not prevent plays like these, or injuries. Hopefully one day, the helmets will prevent concussions and the pads will prevent leg and upper body injuries, but until that day, football will still be a dangerous sport to play.
Damn, all these rule changes just made football… soccer.
