FEATURE ARTICLE
I get out of the car at the
Northport Middle School in New York, and I see the small bodies running
football drills with the coach blowing their whistles and the parents on the
bleachers. I’m thinking to myself, “Do
they even know about this issue going on with NFL players and their concern to
major brain injuries.” I was about to
find out. Interviewing parents of youth
athletes and getting questions in with the assistant coach was a major breakthrough
for my mental state and where I stand on this issue of head trauma to
athletes. “Huh? What?” said Marlene, a
mother of the kid who was wearing number 6 on the football team when asked if
she knew what CTE is. As I began to fill
her in on all of the information about CTE and the effect it is having on
current NFL players and the retired NFL players facing it every day. Her hand went to her mouth with shock over
and over again with seriousness in her eyes as she turned her head watching her
son run the drills. “I’m going to have a
big talk with my husband tonight about this and see what he has to say. I was always uneasy about football I always
knew soccer was my best option as a concerned mother!” Said Marlene as I wrapped up the interview. Marlene
was wearing a pink shirt and her blonde hair was blowing in her face as we were
trying to speak. It is interesting that Marlene had already been concerned
about her little boy growing up playing football and referring to wanting him
to play soccer. It was pretty obvious by
the facial remarks she was giving as she listened to each question I delivered
to her. I would believe most mothers
would have a slight concern about their son first starting to play contact
football, but I was able to fill in this mother with a way more in-depth view
of what she really should be concerned about.
There were a couple of other parents listening to our talk and it was
important to me that by no means was I trying to have them strip their kids
from playing the sport they love. After
all, passion and love is what keeps the NFL players every time they take the
field to play knowing the risks they are taking. I hung around after the practice ended and
the kids went to their water bottles and headed towards their parents to go
home. Luckily for me, some of the kids
stayed and messed around throwing the football with their pads off and I was
able to get the coach into a deep conversation about the CTE issue going on in
the NFL. He was very informed on this
issue and was able to agree with me on many things and made some valid
points. “They’re kids. The way we have coached kids here and all
over most of the parts of the country, is to lean with their shoulders to the
tackle, not with their heads. All of
these guys in the NFL were trained as kids to lean with their head which has
led to long term brain injury.” It was
very interesting to see a brand new view of this issue from a man who seems to
really know the sport. He mentioned that
he thinks it is a great thing that the NFL has finally admitted the link to
football and CTE, because professionalism is all about honesty. Coach Delgado believes it is very important
for these college athletes and NFL athletes to know the truth behind the risks
they take every time they go for their next tackle. He had mentioned that I would be able to
interview a good friend of his that actually recently retired from the
NFL. I had to take advantage.
Have
you ever given up on something you love?
Your whole life you’re enjoying every day smiling because you love what
you do, but it is then taken away at your own hands because of a far too long
unnoticed problem. For their own safety and future ahead, many NFL players have
retired at an early age. For the first time in NFL history, the NFL's top
health and safety officer acknowledged Monday, March 14, that there is a link
between football-related head trauma and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or
CTE. It has been questioned and brought up numerous times but the NFL has beat
around the bush for far too long and this is the first time a senior league
official has admitted football's connection to the devastating brain
disease. Over the last two seasons, more
and more NFL players have been retiring at an early age due to the concerns over
the health of their head and body. It is
a shame that these players have to give up their passion and what they love to
do every day, but this is becoming a big issue in not only the NFL, but the
development of kids and teenagers playing the sport. Luckily, I was able to set up a
meeting/interview with a formal NFL player, Antwaan Randle El.’ Antwaan
Randle El says he regrets playing football, mainly because the 36 year old now
has difficulty walking down the stairs.
Randle El retired from football at the age of 31 and says he has had
many issues with his body and mind since his retirement from the league. "I have to come down sideways sometimes,
depending on the day. I have to come
down sideways sometimes.” Randle El stated as we leaned against a railing at
the train station. His tall height and
deep voice was quite intimidating, but I knew I had to stay calm and get
through this important interview. Randle
El’s experiences post retirement is one of many struggling life styles of other
former (and probably current,) NFL players.
With that being said, it is very easy to see the passion and love for
the game in all of his eyes and how badly it hurt him to walk away. What Randle El was able to teach me is that Injuries
in the NFL have been in the grey area for a very long time, almost as if
everyone knew about the risks but at the same time they just play through it
thinking “so what.” It is now 2016, and
everything we do in professional sports is certainly under a larger microscope
view than ever before. The league has
been dealing with this issue like an elephant in the room for the last couple
years and has handled it quite disgustingly.
The NFL commissioner already has one foot out the door for being
recorded stating that he “Thinks players’ retirements are personal decisions
and not a reflection of heightened concerns about injuries.” Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a
progressive degenerative disease found in people who have had a severe blow to
the head. Symptoms of CTE generally begin
8–10 years after experiencing repetitive traumatic hits to the head and brain.
First stage symptoms include disorientation, dizziness and headaches. Further
disabilities could be memory loss, social instability, erratic behavior, and
poor judgment. Third and fourth stages include progressive dementia, slowing of
muscular movements, hypomimia, impeded speech, tremors, vertigo, deafness, and
thoughts of suicide. The scariest part
about this is that most players don’t even know what their doping to their head
and everything is great, then 8-10 years later and playing football is the
worst advice they could give to anyone.
The next year or so will determine a huge amount of gratitude towards
the issue that current NFL players will have to face having the NFL just
recently admitting the link between football-related head trauma and CTE. This issue could raise the eyebrows of all
different links to football such as youth leagues and a change in parent’s
opinions, or even high schools taking away their football teams. Knowing this issue has been the elephant in
the room and that it is finally being exposed, I wanted to hear the opinions of
parents and coaches of a youth football team.
After all, these are the adults ‘accepting’ or ‘allowing’ these kids to play
the sport.
When some kids are young they have
a sports idol that they look up to and try to be like. For players in the NFL, they have a huge
impact on their fan base and the kids that play football themselves and try to
be like them. These players in today’s
age are becoming more and more knowledgeable about the link between CTE and
football activity as they watch former pro bowlers and former teammates retire
at a way younger age than expected.
Antwan Randle El experiences this first hand and was able to express how
important this issue is by just his body language and tone in his voice. I was blessed to be able to interview a man
who has been through this and was able to teach me on something I already thought
I knew a’ lot about. It is easy to understand why there would be so many
different opinions on it, from mothers of kids who play, to coaches in the NFL,
and even to the head commissioner of the NFL.
However, the NFL should never try to cover up a major issue like this,
one that could change someone’s life forever.
It was an enlightening experience being able to hear the opinions of a
mother at a youth football practice and one of the assistant coaches and being
able to express my opinions in doing so.
It isn’t like we interviewed random people with irrelevant opinions and
I am very impressed with the information we were able to pull from these
parents and a former player. With this issue, there are two majorly different
lessons that could be taken from it. A
good friend once told me, “sometimes in life you may have to give up something
that makes your life enjoyable, just to make your life livable. Secondly, you
can do anything you want to and love to do in this life, regardless of what
anyone thinks or whatever life throws at you to try to stop you.” That good friend of mine is Antwaan Randle
El, former professional NFL player.
