It's all there for anyone who wants to read it.
Instead, let's talk about money.
The US National Football League has signed tv contracts worth around $27 billion. The average price of a franchise is $1.43 billion. The annual Super Bowl championship is the most watched television event in the world. Perennially. It's a juggernaut. A financial phenomenon. Seemingly unstoppable. But.
Yeah, but. Four players under the age of 30, young men in their prime with multi-million dollar contracts retired this year. Many more in their early 30s did the same. Not because they're hurt or tired or have a better offer. But because they're scared.
Of head trauma and being crippled and losing their memories - and of committing suicide like a growing number of retired players have done. And not forgotten has-beens. Hall of Famers, recognized heroes.
For any industry or brand to thrive it has to elicit positive connotations. People have to want to want it. But when a majority of your customers dont want their children playing the game and they salute rather than knock those who are retiring early, in good health, the sanctity of those financial numbers should probably be questioned. JL
Dan Diamond reports in Forbes:
When your fans accept the data that your product is a killer — when concussion awareness outpaces deep-seated loyalty — your sport can’t remain mass-market entertainment forever. At some point, the morality questions around football will be too embarassing to ignore.
Chris Borland, a star rookie for the San Francisco 49ers, retired on Monday. He’s 24.
Jason Worilds, a top linebacker for the Pittsburgh Steelers, retired last week. He’s 27.
Jake Locker, the starting quarterback for the Tennessee Titans, also just retired this month. He’s 26.
Sensing a trend?
A cluster of young NFL players are hanging up their cleats, increasingly citing injuries and, explicitly, the risk of brain trauma.
(Worilds, to be clear, said he’s retiring to devote more time to his religion.)
These voluntary NFL retirements are especially striking because medical advances are helping football players stretch their careers into their late 30s and early 40s. Borland, who led the 49ers in tackles as a rookie, walked away from what could have been a 10-year-plus career and tens of millions of dollars in salary.
He also was being counted on to replace Patrick Willis, the 49ers star linebacker who also retired this month — at just 30 years old.
Borland’s retirement continues a stunningly awful off-season for the 49ers, who have lost their coach, Willis, and several other key players this year.
And more importantly, it’s another reminder that pro football is being transformed by concussion awareness.
Some of the implications of Borland’s announcement are obvious, but at least one key takeaway is more subtle: Fans aren’t reacting as you might expect to Borland’s early retirement.
Why Borland Quit
Borland hadn’t officially been diagnosed with a concussion in the NFL, but taking a shot to the head in training camp last year — and opting to play through it — raised serious questions that he nursed privately all year.
“I just thought to myself, ‘What am I doing? Is this how I’m going to live my adult life, banging my head, especially with what I’ve learned and knew about the dangers?’” Borland told ESPN’s “Outside the Lines.”
After the season, he consulted with concussion researchers who shared some of the staggering data about the risk of head injuries in pro football. For instance, more than 30% of NFL players end up suffering from Alzheimer’s or dementia — and the frequency of routine, subconcussive blows appears to play a major part.
More than 70 ex-NFL players also have ended up being diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, also known as CTE, a progressive neurodegenerative disease that steadily destroys your brain and may lead to violent behavior.
Also See: Does Playing Football Make You Violent? Examining The Evidence
“I’ve thought about what I could accomplish in football, but for me personally, when you read about Mike Webster and Dave Duerson and Ray Easterling, you read all these stories and to be the type of player I want to be in football, I think I’d have to take on some risks that as a person I don’t want to take on,” Borland told ESPN.
What Comes Next
Some are now saying that Borland’s retirement spells disaster for the NFL.
Don’t be fooled.
It’s not the end of pro football. The NFL isn’t a star-driven league, and can easily survive a few players’ early retirement.
It’s not even the beginning of the end. When a guy like Borland or Willis leaves, another dozen players fight to take his place. The NFL’s unofficial slogan, “Next Man Up,” never felt more apt.
But — and not to put a clever frame on this — it might be the beginning of the beginning of the end. Especially for the NFL’s reign as the nation’s most popular sport.
Across the past few seasons, I’ve spoken to players about the risk of head injuries. And while some have been clearly concerned and others were more sanguine, there’s one constant — all are now aware of the staggeringly high cost of playing football.
And when talented stars like Borland voluntarily walk away, it’s a blow across the football ecosystem, from the NFL through pee-wee leagues. It’s a signal to other players who might be on the fence.
But here’s what really should terrify the NFL: The shifting of norms.
I trawled the message boards on Monday night, from Niners Nation to ESPN, looking for fans who were bashing Borland’s decision. (After all, sports-focused websites are a reliable cesspool of hate and vitriol.)
But almost unanimously, I saw fans applauding Borland instead.
“As a 49ers fan, obviously I would love to have him anchor our defense,” a reader named Peter Saluk wrote on ESPN.com “As a human being, [I] wish nothing but health, success, and happiness to Chris and his family. It’s difficult to walk away from literally tens of millions of dollars in his case, but quality of life is more important.”
Saluk’s comment was the most popular on the site.
When your own fans readily accept the data that your product is a killer — when concussion awareness outpaces deep-seated loyalty — your sport can’t remain mass-market entertainment forever. At some point, the morality questions around football will be too embarassing to ignore.
That’s the problem that the NFL needs to overcome. And given the growing weight of the medical evidence, I’m not sure it ever will.
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