I love football, but it is a violent sport. Recently, much has come out regarding the potential health hazards of playing the game, especially playing it professionally. In response, some have called for a boycott of the game based on the questionable morality of watching a sport that often mentally disables the athletes who play. On the other hand, people who unconditionally defend football and the behavior of the NFL act like they live in a universe where the NFL didn’t intentionally hide research on the dangers of playing football, or when people have committed suicide as a direct result of playing football. As usual, the middle way is the most prudent. We as consumers can pressure the NFL to be responsible to its athletes while simultaneously continuing to provide what I consider to be the best sporting league in the modern world.
The NFL is violent. That is the reason we like it and the reason we must be vigilant in how we consume its product. We must recognize the NFL is, at its core, a business whose guiding principle is profit. Without pressure from consumers, it will maximize its profit by starving proper research into how safe the game and by not compensating athletes who have been permanently hurt playing this game.
As the people who provide the funding, however indirectly, for the NFL, we have to spend our dollars and our free time wisely and morally. Threatening to shut down the NFL by refusing to watch or be fans of the game until they act ethically and responsibly is the best course of action.
Many will say there is no way to have an ethical version of the NFL. However, if players can take into account research that is being done on how dangerous playing the game is and the potential risks, they should have the ability to choose, as rational adults, whether they want to take the risk involved in playing football.
Advocating for a complete shutdown of the game, as some are, is an overreaction to the danger of football without factoring in how important football is to the communities that surround them. The NFL is important economically as well because football generates huge revenue that is often used for good through the social work players, teams and coaches do after and before getting out of the game. Football is worth saving — but only if it is done in an ethical way.
The reason none of the issues present in football today have been corrected as of yet is because of a simple calculus in the head of Commissioner Roger Goodell and the NFL front office. They do not believe fans are willing to change their consumption no matter how dangerous and unethical the NFL makes professional football. However, Goodell and top NFL brass are not stupid. Given that the decision is either to adapt or die, they will choose to change the game to something more ethical and palatable for consumers, as they slowly realize the way they spend their dollars matters. If fan bases and players demand change through the legal system for current and former players or through city councils and municipal boards for fans, change can happen.
The cities that host NFL teams have a lot of power because they often provide tax incentives and land for the teams to build stadiums and funding for event security or team facilities. An example from here at home is the $4 million the state of Virginia gave to the Washington Redskins to upgrade a workout facility in 2012. Taxpayer largesse for facilities, security and tax breaks for teams can be used to leverage for the people and their representatives to alter the NFL in a way that is otherwise impossible for a private corporation.
Furthermore, players are already pressuring the NFL to change through a recent class action lawsuit that resulted in a $765 million settlement. However, the NFL did not admit guilt and the already small payment is going to be dispersed over 20 years. More lawsuits concentrated on wrongdoing by the NFL related to a potential cover-up of medical research on the dangers related to playing are necessary to hurt the NFL enough that they are forced to change with pressure from fans.
To do nothing, however, is to condone unethical decision-making and to look the other way about the NFL covering up science that puts it in a bad light. These consequences are not something we as a society can live with.
Sawan Patel is an Opinion columnist for The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at s.patel@cavalierdaily.com.
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