A professional football player lives over 20 years less than an average American. At the same time, professional athletes in soccer live longer than the averages in their countries. Though this may be a shocking revelation about America’s favorite sport to spectate (though not entirely surprising considering a new focus on football injuries), I don’t see much changing.
On this weekend’s On The Media, Nicholas Kristof discussed how difficult it was to market humanitarian crises given that the effects are collective and so far removed from the public’s consciousness. Football is no humanitarian crisis, though, and this is exactly why people will not care. We are paying them millions of dollars per year, do they really need our pity? Even if you select a single player be a spokesman, there would be almost no incentive for their thoughts to be heard: all of the people with vested stakes in sports make more money without these thoughts.
The NFL did change the rules for concussions and now players will not be allowed to return the same day after a concussion, but this does nothing to change the way the game is played. The new rules change the consequences but not the causes of concussions. Until this happens, players’ lives will still be considerably shorter.
