Over the past 2 years, football superstars Andrew Luck, Rob Gronkowski, and Luke Kuechley all stepped away from the game in their prime, and the question that stuck with me was, why? I found out that football is the most dangerous sports in the world, and the damage on the brain is unparalleled. This disease, that’s common among NFL players is CTE, which slowly unleashes killer proteins onto the brain wearing it down, yet the sport is still the most popular among boys in America. The reason why football remains so popular, despite the concussions is because it represents a desired sense of masculinity, people have doubts on the science of CTE, and the evolution of rules and technology for player protection.
The symptoms of CTE range from memory loss and confusion, impaired judgment, to aggression, depression, anxiety, suicidality, and eventual dementia. Retired players have shot themselves and drank antifreeze just to escape the pain of living with a brain that looks as if it was hit by a sledge hammer. Before all my research, I had heard of CTE and that there were concerns about playing football, but I assumed it was just minor concussions, which didn’t bother me as I went on to personally play football. Yet now, it is hard to watch the sport I have spent hours watching, knowing it will kill its players. The data is staggering, showing how severe the results of the barbaric game is, that 99% of brains obtained for research had CTE. Yet the NFL uses all its resources to sweep the science under the rug as they check their fat paychecks worth millions every week. After writing my paper, I realized that football means so much to players, that they’d give up their high functioning brain for the opportunity to step on the field, but this just made me more concerned. The fact that players know the consequences of this fatal game and continue to strap on their helmet not only shows their love for the game, but it shows the fact that the game must end. Hundreds and thousands of innocent children play football every year, and many are blind to the fact that their brains aren’t wired for football, that they’ll turn to mush. I have been a devoted football fan all my life, never missing a Chicago Bears or Ohio State Buckeyes game, yet once I learned the health outcome of this gladiator-like game, the thought of the gridiron makes me gag.
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