Football has an injury problem. I know that sentence may not come as a shock to you, as football is a hard-hitting, violent game in which the only outcome can truly be gut-wrenching or chronic injury. But with all the advancements in player-safety measures the NFL preaches, the game is more dangerous than ever before. Viewing this from a Chicago Bears’ fan perspective, I can tell you first and foremost that out of all the problems the 2017 Bears’ team faces, and there are A LOT of them, injuries have caused the most frustration early this season.
Already lacking sufficient talent, the Bears caught the injury bug early and often, losing Wide Receiver Kevin White to a broken collarbone, Wide Receiver Cam Meredith to a torn ACL and Linebackers Nick Kwiatkoski and Jerrell Freeman to peck injuries. But I don’t have to remind you the misery of the last four games.
Sitting in the stands, I always ask myself, “if these players are in pristine shape and are some of the best athletes in the world, why do they keep dropping like flies the second the ball is snapped? Shouldn’t they be able to withstand almost anything?” Just ask Kevin White that question, as he has only seen action in five games in three years. He can’t seem to catch a break. It seems as great of shape as these athletes are in; they’re not in “football” shape. Football shape and regular athleticism are two completely different things. While you are taking my word as someone who is currently 5’5″ and champions himself as a beer-league softball clean-up hitter, I think you’ll be able to understand where my thought process is headed.
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There are two re-occurring reasons why we continue to see a spike in NFL injuries, especially the devastating ones as we’ve seen to the Patriot’s Julian Edelman or the Eagles’ Darren Sproles, breaking his arm and tearing his ACL on the same play.
This is the play Darren Sproles broke his arm and tore his ACL. Both in one play, 8 second span. pic.twitter.com/8DMGwNfotn
— NFL Update (@MySportsUpdate) September 25, 2017
As the NFL has continued to evolve in the past decade, player safety has been at the forefront of everyone’s minds. This effort however has brought a false sense of safety when it is actually doing more harm and leading to worse, long-term injuries. Back in 2011, the Bucky Brooks of NFL.com wrote about how the change in practice schedules could actually hurt the NFL moving forward. Six years later, he is absolutely right and echoes my first reason for increased injuries.
Bucky highlights how the NFL disbanded the ‘two-a-day’ practices during training camps, allowing for only one full-contact padded practice per day as well as the mandate monitoring the number of padded practices the NFL can have during the season. NFL teams are now allowed only 14 full padded practices a year, with 11 having to come in the first 11 weeks of the season (a maximum of one per week). While he argues many points of how this will affect the skill in the game, I focus on his point surrounding how tackling will suffer.
The loss of traditional full-contact practices has allowed for the decline in fundamentally-sound tackling on the field. How can players be expected to complete a tackle if they barely learn how in practice? This lack of hard-hitting practices still allows players to get into prime physical shape, but not football shape. They have to get used to getting their bell rung day in and day out in order to be able to take that first hit of the season as they fight for the first-down marker, or make that first hit to stop the running back on 4th Down. Just look at the injuries to Jerrell Freeman and Nick Kwiatkoski mentioned above. They both had ‘peck’ injuries simply from making tackles. This is not a very common football injury and looking at this trend I can tell you it was from a lack of padded practices coming into the season.
I know opponents of this article will yell and scream that the game is too violent and that it has to go away. I understand the dangers of what you’re talking about, but in viewing the game today, as it stands, the game is becoming more dangerous the safer they try to make it.
In reading articles the past few weeks, the Canadian Football League announced that they are eliminating contact practices during the regular season. This all comes in addition to the IVY League eliminating tackling in football practice as well. In my opinion, both these changes endanger the players more on game day and feed into this false narrative of player-safety initiatives.
And trust me, I understand the fact that repeated head trauma is the root to the problem in the NFL, but in reality, the NFL will continue to be a violent sport, and as the player’s have said, they know what they are signing up for. What they are not signing up for is to play the game they love at a disadvantage each and every week because the lack of tackling in practice has not gotten them ready for in-game scenarios.
The lack of fundamental tackling in practice however has not only lead to more pre-disposition for injury, but has allowed targeting to be used as compensation, and the helmet as a weapon
The lack of fundamental tackling in practice however has not only lead to more pre-disposition for injury, but has allowed targeting to be used as compensation, and the helmet as a weapon, my second reason for the of injuries in the NFL. If a player does not learn how to properly tackle, they still have to find a way to make a play right? Because they are so athletic, why don’t they just bulldoze a player at top speed with their helmet to make sure they make the tackle? Well, that’s exactly what they do. While the advent of the helmet has done a lot of good for the game, the players’ fitness and ability has changed a lot since the 1940’s and the helmet can give a false sense of security when making a big play.
If a player doesn’t practice tackling and it appears easier to make a bigger impact by leading with their head, and they think they may not become as injured because the helmet is ‘protecting their head,’ why not do it? Well, this play will be just as devastating to the player making the tackle as the one getting hit.
Your head is not supposed to be an attacking part of your body, unless your head butt champion Ben Kline of Penn State…
However the head has now become that weapon in the modern NFL, causing more harm and debilitating injury.
Take a look at everyone’s favorite 1950’s tackle instructional video; no heads are used as the main extremity of tackling.
My dad has been preaching that football should get rid of the helmets and then you’ll see just how many people will lead with their head. After seeing what has been the injury trend in football, I am starting to agree, and so is former Super Bowl Champion Hines Ward. Football is always going to be a hard-contact sport and as long as the NFL continues these practices in an effort for player safety, they are actually endangering the players even more. Like I mentioned earlier, the players know what they are signing up for when they join the league, but what they are not signing up for is a league that has hypocritical safety regulations that hurt them and their career longevity even more.
As the injuries continue to pile up, and Fantasy Football owners groan about how their $200 investment is now flushed down the toilet, remember, you’re not to blame for picking these often-injured players. The NFL is to blame for trying to make a violent sport safer through illogical thought. Go back to the fundamentals and what is needed to make the game great and actually safer.
You’ve created this vicious injury monster NFL, now it’s your job to fix it.
