ATHLETICS
sacrifice resulted in cultural change. The last known contest was on 1 January 404 AD. Sportswriter Christian Tappe was
quoted in Crisis Magazine comparing football players to the gladiators and football games to the gladiator games. He stated, “Many of the gladiators possessed great skill; they were paragons of man in his physical form. Disciplined. Athletic. Masters. The games themselves were awe- inspiring, entertaining events.” Most people think that the problem
with brain injury in football is a relatively recent development but the problems and associated risks were becoming known as far back as the late 1800s. Emily A. Harrison states in a 2014 article in the Journal of Public Health that “Contrary to popular opinion concussions are not a recent discovery in football. It emerged more than a century ago.” From the same article it refers to a 1894 report stating: “An ordinary rebellion in South or Central America is child’s play compared with the destructiveness of a day’s game.” The Harvard vs. Yale game was suspended
for three years in 1894 since four players were severely injured in a game. In October 1897, Georgia running back Richard Vonalbade Gannon died the next day after a concussion in a football game. Georgia’s House of Representatives then passed a bill asking for football to be banned. Three major universities disbanded their football programs, but the Governor refused to sign the bill and the universities resumed play the next season. When a football player died from head injury in 1906, the Harvard doctors published in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal an article titled “The Physical Aspect of American Football” that rejected the ongoing reforms in football and was against football for medical reasons. Concussions were the main injury over the 1905 season. In one season, Harvard had at least 19 concussions. Emily A. Harrison wrote, “Back in 1906, the JAMA reported that the injuries are absolutely dependent on the present methods of playing the game itself and bound to occur…The realities of the game should be its death knell, unless authorities fear unpopularity more than they dare to be right.”
NFL AND CURRENT STUDIES The National Football League (NFL) is one of the most popular and profitable sports organizations in America, targeting $25 billion in annual revenue by 2027, or about 2.5 times their approximately $10 billion in 2014. Economists who closely study the NFL estimate that their current $10 billion in revenues breaks down as follows:
50% from media and television rights to broadcast games.
20% from corporate sponsorships. 20% from attendance and ticket sales. 10% in merchandise and licensing.
In short, growing to $25 billion annually means the NFL would need to add $1 billion a year in revenue or average about a 7% compounded growth rate until 2027. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell actually shared the goal of tripling league revenue in 17 years back in 2010. If this is accomplished the NFL would be in the same league as some of the most profitable businesses in America, but at what cost? Before we answer this question, it should be
stated, we are firm believers and supporters of the free market. We have seen first-hand the tremendous prosperity that freedom and opportunity produce in the marketplace. However, we have also seen the pitfalls and dangers of a growing and unsustainable business culture (also embraced by the NFL), one based on aggressive earnings growth at all costs (often at the expense of their own employees, etc.) and not ethically adding long-term value for “all stakeholders” of the organization. We believe time and outcomes have proven this old paradigm is short- sighted, ineffective and often destructive for most of the primary stakeholders (like the players). Focusing on this causes corporations (and the NFL) to make poor short-term, unhealthy and unethical decisions which have incredibly negative impacts on most of their own employees.
One of the major stakeholder groups of
the NFL are the players and their families. If any corporation had this type of regular catastrophic injuries to their employees would they even be permitted to stay in business? For comparison, Ford Motor waited eight years to recall the Ford Pinto because its internal “cost-benefit analysis,” which places a dollar value on human life, said it wasn’t profitable to make the changes sooner. There were 500-900 deaths from burning Pintos. By their analysis, society lost about $200K for every person killed (higher cost equivalent today per inflation). But the costs for the recall were much higher than the cost of the fatalities, so Ford did not issue a recall. The NFL’s settlement set a maximum benefit of $5 million per player under very specific conditions; most will get significantly less. In both cases, profits vs. loss determined it is cheaper to pay out for injury, loss or death than to resolve the initiating threat. With this understanding in mind, let’s get
back to the question at hand: who really pays the high cost of making the NFL profitable? It is the players and their families. In August 2013 the NFL reached a record settlement of $765 million with nearly five-thousand former players. Under the settlement, individual awards are capped at $5 million for men with Alzheimer’s disease; $4 million for those diagnosed after their deaths with Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE has become a great concern, as it increases the risk of a variety of mental illnesses like Parkinson’s and depression) and $3 million for players with dementia. Thus, the NFL has basically conducted a cost-benefit analysis about the value of its players' lives.
MORAL IMPLICATIONS The Scriptures are clear that God created us in His image (Genesis 1:27) and that each life is precious and valuable. Indeed, we are fearfully and wonderfully made by God (Psalm 139:14) with a Divine purpose and worth (which is priceless in His eyes). Thus, the value of life is priceless (Mark 8:36) and is to be protected and treated with great dignity and respect. The NFL continues to take incremental measures to help prevent CTE, such as
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