Don T Change Football

Submitted By thebeav5
Words: 1225
Pages: 5

Don’t Change the Game Even though football is a dangerous sport the NFL and leagues below should not change how the game is played, but incorporate ways to make the game safer. There are ways around completely changing this highly popular sport that so many Americas love to play and love to watch. With many allegations and talk to whether or not contact should be completely removed from the game thinking it will solve all the injuries from occurring, researchers have been looking to finding safer ways for the players to continue the current game play. Many studies have been conducted as well as numerous analyses towards football injuries leading to lifelong damages. As time goes on more studies are being performed, leading to new and improved gear to protect the players. This is a big gain for the sport, making a huge difference in protecting the players so that injuries occur less often. When football first started out there wasn’t much equipment used. The helmets that were used were soft leather helmets called "head harnesses", shoulder pads weren’t even in existence, though some players would put padding inside of their jerseys (Clark). As the game became more popular better equipment was introduced leading to today’s equipment that is currently being used. Many different types of helmets have cycled through the game, but according to Kraemer “…a pair of Purdue researchers have invented new padding and a new helmet designed to prevent similar injuries. Instead of one layer of plastic, there are two, with shock-absorbing cushioning sandwiched between them. The inside of the helmet is also lined with the new padding”. With new equipment being introduced to the game it will only continue to benefit the athletes and hopefully reduce the number of concussions tremendously. Some will argue that football isn’t the most dangerous sport out there, but it’s the main focus right now with all the concussion injuries that are being noticed as time goes on. According to www.theconcussionblog.com there were a total of 167 total concussions reported in the 2010 NFL season (including pre-season). This just goes to show how serious of an issue concussions are and why there has been many different opinions to whether or not how the game should be played. It is a physical sport, people hitting each other as hard as they can is the name of the game. People love nothing more than seeing the defense drilling the offense and stopping touchdowns from happening, but is there a certain point to where it becomes out of hand where officials need to step in and change how the game is played?
One way that could limit the number of injuries would be for proper tackling techniques incorporated into youth practices. Kids have the opportunity to start playing tackle football at the age of five which is a perfect age to learn the correct ways to tackle. When kids start playing at a young age it prepares them for middle school football, leading into high school football. If a kid goes out for the football team in high school without any prior knowledge of how to tackle correctly he’s bound to get injured. With personal experience playing football from a young age throughout high school I feel that tackling techniques were not stressed enough. I’ve seen many different players take blows to the head, and was unable to continue playing because they didn’t even know their name. Each year during football season our bus would have to make a pit stop on the way home to check on a player that was sent to the hospital due to a severe concussion. For these reasons this is why new rules are being implemented into football at all ages. Limitations are being put in effect on the amount of tackling that happens during practice. Erikson mentions in his article that “Under legislation introduced this week by state Rep. Carol Sente, school districts across Illinois would have to adopt a policy that would cut the amount of contact during