A doctor of mine once posed to me the following hypothetical: If you told an accountant, he posited, that continuing to serve in her line of work would, over the course of her career, lead to long-term health issues, would you expect the accountant to stop doing her job? The answer, of course, is unclear. It is not difficult to imagine that a professional accountant, trained and schooled for that purpose, would continue on in her career despite the potential risks. A detached observer could easily advise that the accountant immediately find a new occupation. But in the real world, with the specter of college tuitions and mortgages, as well as the time and money invested in a career path, an accountant would be loath to give up her hypothetically dangerous profession.
The doctor who posed this question to me was talking about concussions in professional sports. This issue has received growing attention in recent months, especially as related to the National Football League. With the release of the movie “Concussion” at the end of last December, a growing roar of disapproval for the NFL is reaching a fever pitch. This is just the latest in a trend that has seen the NFL increasingly criticized for failing to inform players of the long-term effects of traumatic head injuries, as former and current NFL players continue to come forward (some posthumously) to reveal their devastating effects.
Such criticisms are undoubtedly deserved. The NFL’s treatment of the concussion issue has been unethical, and the league’s unwillingness to disclose critical information has caused immense suffering for former NFL players and their families. But a simple look at the issue of concussions in professional sports shows that the league’s misconduct, though condemnable, is far from the chief cause of the current concussion crisis. The cause, if it is to be pinpointed, is far closer to the hypothetical story of the accountant.
First and foremost, it is important to consider that professional athletes are professional. These are their jobs. Their livelihoods. Like the hypothetical accountant, an NFL player relies on his profession for income, with the only difference between the two being that the football player has considerably fewer alternative employment options. As for the prospect of retiring early, most NFL careers end early enough: The average lasts only 3.3 years. Of course, many believe that professional athletes are grossly overpaid for doing their jobs. But a quick look at the numbers reveals that, for many NFL players, professional football is not quite as lucrative as it might seem. While star players make headlines with nine-figure contracts, lower-level players, and particularly rookies, can be stuck with significantly smaller sums. The minimum rookie salary in the NFL is $435,000. I’m sure that figure doesn’t evoke sympathy, but the average career length for an NFL player puts career earnings for players with league-minimum salaries at about $2,541,000. Compare this with the median household income in the United States, which is about $51,939 annually. The estimated earnings for an individual with this salary, over the course of an entire professional life, is about $2,150,000, not much less than the football players. Factoring in estimated taxes, however, the football player comes out with roughly $1,534,764, while the median income earner ends up with $1,612,500. Obviously this is not a perfect comparison, simply one that demonstrates that professional football, for many players, is not as astronomically lucrative as we often imagine.
So what does this have to do with concussions? Simply put: Concussions are fundamentally a financial issue. Football players rely on their own performance and physical health to survive, and, according to a recent New York Times article, are rarely as financially secure as the public envisions them. The article states that 78 percent of NFL players are “bankrupt or under financial stress” within two years of retirement from the league.
Given this incredible statistic, is it any wonder that concussions in the NFL are chronically unreported? The consensus among many concerned citizens is that football players who suffer concussions should take the requisite time to recover, and, after having suffered multiple head injuries, should consider an early retirement to preserve their brain health. This, in theory, would certainly help to minimize the effects of traumatic brain injuries on NFL players. But in the world of professional football, none of these changes are likely to occur on their own. The harsh financial realities, for the time being, appear to trump the physical ones. By retiring early in his career, a player likely forgoes millions in future salaries, and in the hyper-competitive atmosphere of the NFL, sitting out two weeks to recover from a concussion might leave you out of a job.
Take the story of Seattle Seahawks Cornerback Richard Sherman. Sherman is considered by many to be one of the NFL’s best players, and his current contract is worth $56,000,000 over four years. But four years ago Sherman’s future was far less certain. A late-round draft pick, he was fighting for a starting job when he suffered his first concussion at the start of a mid-season game, but refused to “come off the field with so much at stake.” Such is the struggle of marginal players in professional football. While playing through a concussion worked out for Sherman, there are undoubtedly many others who took similar risks that did not pay off. As long as players choose, of their own volition, to play through concussions, it will be difficult for the NFL to protect its athletes from the long-term dangers of such injuries. While big name athletes can almost certainly afford to sit out a week or two to recover from a concussion, for marginal players, the cost of taking time off can often outweigh the far-off health problems that concussions cause.
The NFL is not blameless for its role in the concussion issue, nor should its past transgressions be easily forgiven. The NFL has taken important steps to fix the issue in recent years, with various rule changes and the advent of “spotters” to identify potentially concussed players. But I do believe that the principal problem with concussions is not of awareness, but of finances. Of the millions of dollars being devoted to concussion research, perhaps the NFL could create a pension fund for retired athletes, who, the numbers show, disproportionately end up in financial trouble. Perhaps short-sightedness and the competitive spirit will always cause athletes to take irrational risks with their long-term health (and long-term finances). In the end, football is a violent game, but it has evolved before, and could again.
Nick Esemplare ’18 can be reached at nicholas_esemplare@brown.edu. Please send responses to this opinion to letters@browndailyherald.com and other op-eds to opinions@browndailyherald.com.
