NFL: The Hypocrisy of Two More Games

Aside from “the Vince Lombardi Trophy heading home,” the 2010 NFL season will be remembered as the year of the concussion.

There were somewhere between 130 and 150 concussions this year in the NFL, depending upon which report you view (The NFL reports that an average of one concussion is suffered in every other game).

That’s an average of between 7.4 and 9.4 concussions per week.

That’s also not taking into account low-level concussions that may go unreported, pre and postseason concussions and the long-term damage that can be caused by constant low-level shots to the head—the kind that lineman, linebackers and running backs suffer nearly every play.

Permanent brain damage is no laughing matter and needless to say, the NFL has made some bold moves in an attempt to at least curb the amount of concussions suffered in the league each season.

In this writer’s opinion, the NFL is trying to limit the number of concussions by implementing non-specific rules into an area of the game that was a dark shade of grey to begin with.

But that’s another matter for another day.

The subject of this particular article is hypocrisy.

The NFL has put together a year-long PR campaign demonstrating to the public just how concerned they are with the health of their players, particularly when it comes to concussions.

They’ve attempted to make the league appear warm and fuzzy amidst a game where violence is not only condoned but encouraged.

That’s all good and great. Any business would probably do the same thing if put in a similar situation.

Where the hypocrisy occurs is that despite the league's “grave concern” about head injuries, they want to add two more games to the 2011 season.

Two more games added to the regular season will carry an additional 16-18 concussions that could very well cause long-term damage to players’ brains.  

Two additional games will also present a 12 percent better chance that the league’s top stars will fall victim to injury.

The league is also concerned about the number of leg injuries, so they are attempting to implement a rule that will require players to once again wear high-leg pads—yet they want to add two more games where if you estimate that four players per game go down with injuries, somewhere around 60 more players in the league will go down with injuries, some more serious than others.  

So essentially, the NFL is saying they are concerned about the health of their players, yet they want to put them in more danger for the sake of higher profit margins.

Folks, that’s like an airline saying their No. 1 concern is safety while laying off half of their maintenance staff the next day.

Or a large corporation talking about how important transparency is while their mailroom staff is down in the basement shredding files.

If you want to add two additional games to the season, that’s fine. Most NFL fans would have no problem sitting in front of the television and watching football for two more Sundays each year.

But don’t attempt to convince the players and the fans that you’re so concerned with safety while at the very same time you’re attempting to put the players in even more danger.

That is the pure definition of hypocrisy.