Football, America’s beloved game, has been around for over 150 years. From Friday night lights to Saturday games in college and all the way up to the biggest Sunday of the year, Super Bowl Sunday, football is widely known as America’s most popular sport. Over the years, the sport has evolved a lot but also has been scrutinized for the toll it takes on players. The NFL is made up of some of the best athletes on the planet, and they are widely celebrated and praised for the athleticism they display on the field. Many fans and sports analysts are beginning to classify football as a “blood sport,” a term typically given to sports or activities where athletes face extreme physical harm.
These worries and theories have stemmed from the rapid growth in chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in current and past football players. Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a brain disease from repetitive head trauma and the buildup of an abnormal form of the tau protein, which may interfere with the function of the brain’s neurons, making football a sport of gambling with these players’ health. Boston University’s CTE Center announced today that “they have now diagnosed 345 former NFL players with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) out of 376 former players studied (91.7 percent).” For comparison, a 2018 Boston University study of 164 brains of men and women donated to the Framingham Heart Study found that only 1 of 164 (0.6 percent) had CTE. The lone CTE case was a former college football player. This proves how CTE strongly affects current and past football players far more than the average person.
CTE can completely change a person’s personality and their life for the negative, giving them symptoms such as memory loss, violent outbursts, and suicidal tendencies. A huge example of this is high-profile ex-NFL player Antonio Brown, who was widely considered the best wide receiver in the NFL during his time. Nowadays, everyone labels him as having CTE due to the bizarre things he’s done on and off the field. These incidents occurred both during and after his playing years. For example, during a January 2022 Buccaneers vs Jets game, the then Buccaneers receiver ripped off his jersey and pads and paraded off the field while riling up the crowd. The situation blew up as it was one of the first “wake-up calls” to the NFL world. Antonio Brown would end up never playing in a Buccaneers jersey again.
One of the most publicized cases of CTE ever witnessed in the world of football was that of Aaron Hernandez. On the morning of June 26th, 2013, just 10 months after signing the biggest tight end contract in the history of the sport, Patriots fans watched in shock as Hernandez was escorted out of his house in police custody. The superstar tight end was found guilty in the murder of Odin Lloyd, who was friends with Hernandez. These two cases are most likely the main ones that have caused the NFL to start taking more preventative measures. Now, you may be wondering, “What preventative measures are they taking?” Since 2022, the NFL has mandated the use of “guardian caps” in practice. A guardian cap is a soft-shell padding cover that can stretch over football helmets that reduces helmet impact by 25%. Some players have even gone as far as wearing the cap in-game.
We spoke to senior Massimo Pinsky, the captain of our football team here at Ipswich High School. We asked him how common head injuries are for high school football, and he said, “Close to 10 kids on our team have gotten concussions in the last two years.” He also states that “6 other players had season-ending injuries that were not related to the head.” In conclusion, football cannot quite be considered a blood sport because violence and injuries are not guaranteed. However, it’s definitely heading in the wrong direction in becoming a blood sport.
