Does the NFL Take Head Injuries Seriously?

        

         Another major issue that has continued to come up when discussing the National Football League is the problem of head injuries. Players that are now out of the league have continued to notice the long term health effects that players have had because of head injuries that were suffered while playing in the NFL. In July of 2011 seventy-five former NFL players filed a lawsuit against the NFL and Riddell which is a company that makes helmets for the NFL (Werts). A month later six more former players filed a lawsuit against the NFL (Werts). Both lawsuits claimed that the National Football League has denied the fact that concussions suffered by players in the NFL have led to serious long term health problems for over thirty-five years (Werts). This was one of the first steps that was taken to confront the issue of head injuries that the league has. This is an example of how the leagues violent culture is leading to many problems with the public off the field.The league has also shown a lack of commitment towards concussions by delaying the making of an actual policy. In 1994 the NFL created a mild traumatic brain injury committee to study the effects that concussions had on the brain (Werts). It was not until 2007 that the league implemented its first concussion policy, while other leagues like the National Hockey League established their first policy in 1997 and NASCAR in 2003 (Werts). As Jarryd Werts states in the Cardozo Public Law and Ethics Journal, the delay in the creating of the first league wide concussion policy shows that the NFL is, “not taking the dangers of concussions seriously”(Werts). The fact that it took the NFL longer than other major professional leagues to implement its first concussion policy shows that the violent culture the NFL represents needs to change. This change in culture can lead to the well-being of future NFL players to come and improve the league as a whole.