Since the creation of football in 1869, there have been warnings from doctors about the serious medical consequences of playing professional football. This is because of the number of brain injuries and concussions in NFL players. An example of this is the case of Kevin Turner, a professional NFL player, who died of severe chronic traumatic encephalopathy at the age 46 (Kounang 1). More people should be aware of the severe medical risks that come with playing football as well as some solutions as to how to make the game more safe.
Some people may argue that football isn’t dangerous because they wear protective gear that is becoming more and more advanced each year. After all, The NFL has …show more content…
According to Memo To The NFL: To Reduce Concussions, Ban Football Helmets by John Tamny, when the protective gear and padding is designed to be even more safe, it ends up making the game even more dangerous (1). This means no additional padding or the tweaking of protective gear could make the game safe since this would only cause collisions and tackles to become even more violent. This would then lead to more serious injuries, causing the problem to become bigger than what it originally was. Not only does the padding not protect vital parts of the body, but it fails to accomplish the job it was intended to …show more content…
Blows to the jaw can easily cause concussions just like a strike to the head (Chadiha 4). With this being said, it's imperative for the players to protect the jaw by simply starting to wear the mouth guards that are given to them. Since every player already has a mouth guard issued to them, The National Football League would just have to establish as well as enforce a new rule stating that the players have to constantly wear their mouth guards while on the field. This solution happens to be the most practical considering the fact that the players are already equipped with mouth guards, there are no extra expenses, and there would be little change to the rules of