The NFL has not effectively managed the concussion crisis because they did not alert players nor the public immediately upon research findings that football had a link to brain injuries. It was in October 1999 “The NFL Retirement Board rules that Mike Webster’s head injuries from his years playing for the Pittsburgh Steelers and Kansas City Chiefs left him “totally and permanently” disabled as “the result of head injuries he suffered as a football player.” “. (Ezell, 2013) The NFL’s own retirement board conducted research which lead to the correlation of Mike Webster playing football for 17 years and his now permanent and disabling brain damage and refused to release this information to the public until 2009. In the Crisis Management and
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It also did not begin to make preventative measures in the game until 2009 putting in stricter return-to-play guidelines that any player who shows signs of a concussion should not return to play the same day. Actual playing changes are not made until 2011 when the NFL moved the kick-off position to reduce players running into each other at full force. These changes should not have taken 10 plus years to be initiated and, as a result, many more players still suffered from these brutal hits and brain damaging plays. If the NFL cared about its players and the longevity of them they should have put these safety procedures in immediately upon the recognition that the physical hits caused traumatic brain …show more content…
At no point did the NFL admit to any withholding of information and therefore did not go out and try to compensate the retired players nor families that were suffering until August 2011 when Ray Easterling filed a lawsuit and was then joined by more than 4,500 other former and current players. The lawsuit was not settled until August 2013 when “The NFL agrees to pay $765 million to settle the lawsuit with retired players. As part of the settlement, the league doesn’t admit any wrongdoing. In the days following the settlement, Commissioner Goodell reiterates that “there was no admission of guilt. There was no admission that anything was caused by football.””(Ezell, 2013). The NFL knew that these players were suffering from CTE as well as some were taking their own lives due to the condition and it should have taken the initiative to help these grieving families if they truly cared about the current and former players and not just using them as tools for profit. Stated by Coombs best practices in crisis response should provide some type of concern or sympathy for the victims. Not only did the NFL not show compassion to its former and current players alike by denying the medical findings of football and brain injury it showed no compassion to
It also did not begin to make preventative measures in the game until 2009 putting in stricter return-to-play guidelines that any player who shows signs of a concussion should not return to play the same day. Actual playing changes are not made until 2011 when the NFL moved the kick-off position to reduce players running into each other at full force. These changes should not have taken 10 plus years to be initiated and, as a result, many more players still suffered from these brutal hits and brain damaging plays. If the NFL cared about its players and the longevity of them they should have put these safety procedures in immediately upon the recognition that the physical hits caused traumatic brain …show more content…
At no point did the NFL admit to any withholding of information and therefore did not go out and try to compensate the retired players nor families that were suffering until August 2011 when Ray Easterling filed a lawsuit and was then joined by more than 4,500 other former and current players. The lawsuit was not settled until August 2013 when “The NFL agrees to pay $765 million to settle the lawsuit with retired players. As part of the settlement, the league doesn’t admit any wrongdoing. In the days following the settlement, Commissioner Goodell reiterates that “there was no admission of guilt. There was no admission that anything was caused by football.””(Ezell, 2013). The NFL knew that these players were suffering from CTE as well as some were taking their own lives due to the condition and it should have taken the initiative to help these grieving families if they truly cared about the current and former players and not just using them as tools for profit. Stated by Coombs best practices in crisis response should provide some type of concern or sympathy for the victims. Not only did the NFL not show compassion to its former and current players alike by denying the medical findings of football and brain injury it showed no compassion to