Persuasive Speech
Antonio Brown, a popular wide receiver in the NFL, has recently been fighting with the league about his helmet of choice. Antonio Brown has used the same helmet his entire nine year career in the NFL, in college, and even highschool. In 2019, the National Football League ruled his helmet unsafe to use. Brown argues that although safer, new helmets limit his vision. He does not care about the safety aspect and does not feel the need to keep up with the new technology that football helmet manufacturers are producing. New helmets coming out are specifically designed to prevent concussions and should be used by all players, especially vulnerable wide receivers. When Brown tried on one of the new and approved helmets his response was “this lid [is] ugly as f***” (Heifetz). Brown was simply more concerned about the looks of the helmet not fitting his style rather than the safety that it has to offer. Even though looks are not the only reason Brown does not want to wear this helmet, this demonstrates that some players just do not see the importance in a good helmet (Heifetz). All football leagues need to continue using equipment advancements and making rule changes that ensure the safety of their players. Football players who argue that football’s originality and essence is compromised by a new wave regarding safety are simply uneducated.
Football rules must change to make sure that all players are safe. The changes in rules regarding safety in the NFL since 2002 have been very good such as new kickoff rules and blindside hits, but the NFL’s work is not done. Working to protect players will never be done. The new data collected and presented to the NFL by scientist has created, “Since 2002, ....49 rules changes intended to eliminate potentially dangerous tactics and reduce the risk of injuries” (“How The NFL Is Advancing Player Health And Safety.”). Most rules are very helpful and do prevent injuries. New rules have even now made it so some of the new illegal hits can even get a player ejected from the game making it important to remember not to do these. The NFL really wants to make things seem that if their player’s safety is the number one priority, but in reality it is making money. The league have made all these changes to show that it is important for everyone to be safe while playing the game, while still keeping a lot of dangerous aspects. The NFL wants to make sure that tons of money has been put in in an effort to keep the game as safe as possible to ensure that all of their bases are covered in case of a future lawsuit. There most definitely will be angry past football players in fifty years that want an explanation from the NFL about why they allowed them to be put in such brutal environments with minimal protection.
Today, athletes are stronger, faster, and more brutal than ever before. We must recognize that the brain is not meant to take hit after hit, blow after blow from these massive men. “The NFL enforces rules changes aimed at eliminating potentially risky behavior that could lead to injuries” (“NFL Health & Safety”). The league has worked with scientists to analyze parts of football that put players in unsafe situations. The rules that have been created specifically target changes dealing with things that put them at risk of concussions. These types of plays happen when a player is going fast in one direction and has his direction changed or stopped too quickly. One place this situation happens a lot is on kickoff returns. The player goes flying into a huge crowd of people only to get flattened by someone who is not moving fast at all. The returners stop dead in their tracks while running full speed ahead because the returner is nomrally stionary with his head lowered down waiting and expecting heavy impact while the rusher is blindsided by the hit. The new rule makes it so that players can not lead with their head forcing them to make a clean tackle by wrapping their arms around the player and bring them downward instead of knocking them into a different direction. The NFL has created other a very good new rules like this to prevent this concussions. (“NFL Health & Safety.”)
Football equipment must be advanced to ensure safety amongst all players as well. All leagues have regulations on safety gear that can limit the amount of padding somebody uses. People who feel unsafe playing in the norma; protocol equipment should not be limited to pads given out set by the league standards. New football helmet manufacturers are using “hard plastic exteriors housing materials of various stiffness to absorb the force of collision” and incorporating an “inflating system meant to ensure proper fit” (Daneshvar). Football helmets started out as small leather caps that offered almost no protection at all and have obviously improved greatly since. As technology advances, football helmets get better and better. Manufacturers have even been able to create “helmets specifically intended to protect against concussion” (Daneshvar). The NFL must make sure they are doing all the research they can to ensure that everyone has the best helmet designed for each specific player. It is very important they have top of the line helmets because constant head blows can give players concussions .
Sadly, many people say that football is supposed to be a brutal sport and injuries are part of the game. Players feel that people are taking away the originality and essense of football by changes rules and creating different protection equipment. Football players signed up to play the sport and they are aware of the risks, but the risks do not concern a lot of them because a lot of them feel like concussions are accidents that can only happen to weak players and it would never happen to them when in reality it can happen to everybody, big and small. Inevitably players will regret these decisions they saw as inconsequential, when they are older. Redskins tailback Chris Thompson said “‘You're trying to make the game safer. But football is a violent sport, and you are not going to be able to take that away from it (Seifert)’”. A lot of the players don’t want to take away the lowering of the shoulder and other similar rules because they find it part of the game. Footballs changes regarding lowering the shoulder and leading with the head when tackling are extremely good rules. Leading with the head into a tackle puts not only the player being hit at risk but also puts the person making the hit at risk of a head, back, or spinal injury. We don’t really know if the NFL is doing everything they can to help protect the players. Their are some people who have more faith in them then others. One of them is the Los Angeles Rams free safety Eric Weddle. Weddle stated in an interview “‘I think the NFL is trying...You don't want to fault them for putting in the effort to finding the best helmets and keeping players safe and all that (Seifert)’”. He also brings up the concern that the NFL does not consult players on the rule changes they make. If the players really want to continue the brutality and injury then maybe they need to talk to the NFL, but that can not be an option as the game is far too dangerous with any control over how players can hurt each other. He says “we play the game. How are you going to make these cultural changes without asking us (Seifert)’”? Eric Weddle clearly thinks that these new rules are changing the “culture” of football, and few can disagree, however it is okay that this is happening. We have to change the way that we think of football in American. It can still be an entertaining and hardcore sport, without being brutal, and injury prone (Seifert).
Equipment advancements and rule changes need to be continued to be made in all football leagues. Football players who argue that footballs originality and essence is being stripped by a new wave regarding safety are simply uneducated and ignorant. Although the NFL and other football leagues focus on keeping the game safe, they have a lot of room for improvement through stricening rules and improvement equipment because many players still dealing with concussions every season. More funding and more research must go into keeping the players safe from concussions, and setting them up to get CTE in their later years.
Annotated Bibliography
Daneshvar, Daniel et al. “Helmets and mouthguards: the role of personal
equipment in preventing sport-related concussions.” Clinics in sports medicine. 2011,
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2987604/
There is a lot of information on equipment that can protect football players. It goes into detail on how the equipment stops injuries such as concussions. Over the years their has been a vast improvement on helmets and other equipment. New helmets are being specifically designed to prevent concussions.
Heifetz, Danny. “ An Idiot’s Guide to the Antonio Brown Helmet Grievance.” The Ringer, The
Ringer, 22 Aug. 2019. www.theringer.com/nfl/2019/8/22/20827963/antonio- brown- helmet-grievance-faq.
This source provides information on Antonio Brown and his journey fighting for his helmet. It also gives a good example of how players care about the wrong things when it comes to their helmets and other equipment.
“How The NFL Is Advancing Player Health And Safety.” Play Smart Play Safe,
Apr. 2018, www.playsmartplaysafe.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/
Nfl-health-and-safety-fact-sheet-april-2018.pdf.
New rules are being added to the game to prevent concussions. During kickoffs, NFL players are at a high risk of being hit hard so the NFL has put in new rules to prevent that. The Use of Helmet rule stops players from using their helmets to make tackles; this protects both the hitter and the player being hit.
“NFL Health & Safety.” NFL Football Operations, www.operations.nfl.com
/football-ops/nfl-ops-honoring-the-game/health-safety/.
The NFL is working hard to stop injuries. Since 2002, they have added 49 new rules to help prevent injuries. During the preseason they educate and make sure that all players are practicing safely. They have made processes for identifying concussions and clearing players for the entire league, and put tons of medical staff at all games in case of injuries.
Seifert, Kevin. “The NFL's Latest Safety Measures Face Resistance from
Players.” ESPN, ESPN Internet Ventures, 9 Aug. 2018,www.espn.com/nfl/
story/_/id/24318483/how-nfl-latest-safety-measures-face-resistance-players-helmet-rule-concussions.
The insight of real NFL players on the topic is always good to have. Most of the players seem to want to ignore the concussions, and continue to play the game the way they have their whole lives.