If We Want to Blame Something – Maybe it Should be Football

In 2018, I ducked my head into my refrigerator to clean out an old Miller Lite can from the back; it was a college unit so the glass shelving was caked in gunk. I remember nearly puking as my hand grazed the surface of the shelf. And as my hand finally slid over to the can, I, for whatever reason, thrust my head upwards as if I wasn’t a whole foot inside the refrigerator – causing the top of my head to smack against the top of it. 

I passed out almost immediately after trying to stand up. 

At the doctor’s office a couple of days later, I could still tell I was concussed as a daze hung over my eyelids; covering them with a hint of confusion; I would stare at corners of the room, empty-mindedly, and realize minutes later that I hadn’t moved. 

All that being said, I passed all of the concussion tests thrown at me quite easily. So easily, in fact, the doctor diagnosed me as such:

“I’m not sure if you are concussed or not. If anything, you may have a minor concussion.”

And then I left his office. No medicine. No advice.

Because something a lot of people don’t realize is – concussions – brain injuries – are one the world’s hardest ailments to diagnose. This is why CTE patients need to have their brains cut into when they die to see the brain trauma encased by their skulls. 

Furthermore, a lot of the time, concussions can only really be diagnosed as a feeling, something the patient describes to the doctor based on very loose inklings, very small differences in their cognitive ability after the accident. 

I guess I’m telling you all of this to surmise one major point:

Doctors can get it wrong, but I’m not sure that’s their fault.  

And in this case, a concussion diagnosis can be so wrong, that the undiagnosed second concussion can be deadly (but luckily not in Tua’s case).

Let’s Talk about the NFL, the Secondary Villains of the Story

I think it’s important that we won’t soon forget about the movie Concussion that came out about the NFL and its handling of the initial CTE scientific findings. To summarize the major takeaway from the movie, the NFL didn’t only know about CTE (or that football can cause long-lasting brain trauma); they actively attempted to silence those who had research to prove it.

Essentially, they tried to bury it.

(SOURCE:https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/nfl-tried-intimidate-scientists-studying-link-between-pro-football-and-traumatic-brain)

Obviously, that doesn’t show a concerted effort to protect their players. What it does show is a greedy corporation unwilling to lose hold of its cash cow. 

Other than money, I’m sure the NFL was also worried about the ripple effect that the research would likely create:

  • Parents might bar their children from playing tackle football at a young age; which could cause a lack of talent for the next decade of players
  • Football could, overall, be seen as far too barbaric to play at all

And for a couple of years, that did happen in the younger leagues. Fewer and fewer parents allowed their children to play tackle football – and football today is seen in a far different light than the years of Brian Dawkins getting Pro Bowl votes each season for skull-smashing a wide receiver on post routes.

But, somehow, the NFL escaped the inevitable moral debate of: 

Should football even be a sport anymore?

Somehow, and I give their PR team a ton of credit for this, they changed the debate from the one above to something closer to:

How do we make football safer?

And they did make it safer. They discouraged head-to-head collisions through penalties and fines, and moved up kickoff returns; yata yata. But none of this, and no future change they can make to the league will ever truly eradicate one truth:

Concussions will always be a part of tackle football; it’s in its DNA.

Let’s Finally Talk about Tua

Some concussions, like most likely the one that Tua sustained versus the Bills in week 2, is undiagnosable without ripping his skull open and analyzing chunks of his brain. That being said, it is totally possible that Tua sustained a minor concussion that day, and both his doctor and himself were patently unaware of it.  

All we have to go on is his dizziness after the back of his head hit the turf. Something the NFL is currently attempting to fix by putting in the new Tua Rule which states that any player showing any instability during a game has to sit out the rest of the match. 

A concept that is so subjective it’s hard to wrap your head around (no pun intended) how it’s going to be implemented. 

Take this Barry Jackson Tweet ,for instance:

In Conclusion

The problem isn’t the Miami Dolphins or necessarily the physician who cleared Tua that day. The problem is embedded in football as a whole; and in turn, the NFL for never being transparent enough to simply say:

There’s nothing we can do about it – play at your own risk.

But my real conclusion is self-reflective. Even as I write this, I know for a fact that this issue is never going to be too dangerous and I want football to be abolished on a professional level. 

I’m selfish – it’s my favorite sport. 

But I will at least acknowledge how hypocritical we all are. I’m not sure it’s possible to both be concerned for Tua’s brain health – while at the same time hoping he play more football as soon as he can.

Because, maybe, football is the problem – we just don’t want to admit it.