Social Issues In Sports

Chicago Bears vs. Seattle Seahawks Today the National Football League seems to be the hot bed of social issues. Every time I turn on the television another football player has struck again. Our society is run by money, power, and status. One of the monsters and leading powerhouses in our society is none other than the NFL. With all the new and growing inventions in our society, groups of men throwing, catching, running, and hitting are some of the top money makers in the world. Although, I am a fan of football, the NFL is not something that I would typically spend my lazy Sundays watching. Even though I am forced to watch Jaguars games because of my roommate’s loyalty to the ever losing team. We all live in a world where athletes are …show more content…
They have the ability to control what is released to the media. If the NFL wanted networks such as CBS to talk about a player’s pet monkey, the public would be watching commentators talking about a pet monkey. No one cares about any ones pet but that goes to show how much is or is not released to the media. This worries me because I feel as if the NFL is hiding a lot of things from stakeholders. In public relations, the word transparency is used a lot and I do not think that the NFL has the word transparency in their vocabulary. Many issues need to be discussed. The NFL being such a powerhouse could use their platform as a place to bring awareness to these issues. They should also collaborate with non-profit organizations to grow their identity in a positive light. Instead, they ignore the issue and push it under the rug and worry about who ran the greatest amount of yards in a game. It angers me to see that men with so much talent that others wish they had thrown it away because they are incapable of controlling their emotions outside of the sport. These men have the option of being great role models for younger generations to come but instead throw that opportunity away. Also, it does not help that the NFL goes along with it. If there were no consequences from a lawful standpoint then I feel as if the NFL would not reprimand them. To me that is not being transparent as well as …show more content…
Concussions are the most dangerous and life threatening injury that I can name in all of sports. Football is a sport that involves tackling; the numbers of concussions that occur are continuously increasing. As an athlete, I can advocate for the shake it off and keep going method that a lot of athletes follow. There is a lot of pressure on athletes to perform at a high level weekly as well as abstain from injury. Anyone would know that injuries are not anywhere near preventable. Even people who participate in sports can injure themselves from slipping in their kitchen and hitting their head on a counter. The pressure of getting back up after you get knocked down can have serious repercussions. These injuries could even be life threatening as well as life lasting. Boston University does a lot of research on a disease called Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). CTE is a “progressive degenerative disease of the brain found in athletes (and others) with a history of repetitive brain trauma, including symptomatic concussions as well as asymptomatic sub concussive hits to the head” (What is CTE?). Athletes and others that suffer from CTE have a long list of symptoms that come with it and one of them involves an increase in aggression. Even though player safety is a prominent issue right now, I do not feel it is addressed as vigorously as