Offensive Play Summary

Before reading this article, my brain has never connected the sports of dogfighting and football together... then again I also played defensive lineman in High School. I only played two years due to an injury, and no it wasnt a head injury. I don't recall ever getting a concussion, but I definatly rememeber getting dazed after some plays also really bad headaches. Like Turley said in this article "its impossible for an offensive lineman to do his job without 'using his head'." In the sport of football it is essential to put your body on the line for the sake of a play, regardless of the repercussions. Much like the art of dogfighting, which made this quote really stand out in my head: "At any organized pit (dog) fight...one can observe the owner of each dog changing position at pit-side in order to be in sight of his dog at all times. The owner knows that seeing his master rooting him on will make a dog work all the harder to please its master." For some reason the thought of a coach running down the sideline as a running back breaks through a crowd and rushes for a fifty-yard touchdown to win the game. The owner (coach) changing position to be in sight of the dog (player). This brought chills down my spine. I know this reference isn't exact, but it made me think of things. Like how a man can be left in a tub of ice, with a concussion, only to fall asleep and die if someone hadn't been sitting in the tub next to him. It suggests that the coaches treat their players like dogs in a dogfight "And why? For the entertainment of an audience and a chance of a payday." Dont get me wrong, I love football. It's arguably one of the greatest sports in the world, but reading this article opened my eyes to another perspective of the game. The perspective of Kyle Turley, a retired offensive lineman from the National Football League. A man who has recieved numerous concussions over a 9-year professional career. A man who has a great chance of developing Alzheimer's. A man who put on a show week in and week out for nine years, got paid alot of money, but now that he has retired faces problems unimaginable. Roger Goodell, the National Football League commissioner, met with Micheal Vick on regards to Vick's dogfighting sentence of twenty-three months in prison to make sure he was genuinely remorseful. Goodell sat with Vick for four and a half hours, considering every alternative he could imagine, and after considering what was right for Vick, along with our society and N.F.L., finally reinstated him. Now "One wonders whether, had he spent as much time talking to Kyle Turley as he did to Michael Vick, he'd start to have similar doubts about his own sport." That is a great question, but lets think about it: Roger Goodell is the Commissioner of the N.F.L. "the commissioner is the highest executive position. The exact powers of the commissioner depend on the constitution and/or rules of the league. Commissioners are elected by the owners of the league's clubs, and handle matters such as discipline, arbitration of disputes between the clubs, etc."(site-wikipedia). Now Goodell has voluntarily taken a 20-25% paycut of his 11 million dollar salary of 2008. 11 million dollars. Do you honestly beleive a man making 11 million dollars on a sport that delievers fans with bone-crushing hits on a day-to-day basis is going to turn the N.F.L. into a flag or touch football game? I highly doubt it. Why? Becuase the fans wouldn't pay $100 to see a non-contact football game. Fans would be upset, arena's wouldn't get filled, and owner's would be enraged. So what can we do? There has been new helmets made, to help prevent a big impact, but no amount of padding can stop 100 g's of force from rattling your brain. Eliminating full contact practices could help, but even in those practices, there has been evidence of big hits to the head. Basically "There is nothing else to be done, not so long as fans stand and cheer. We are in love with football players, with thier courage and grit, and nothing else- neither considerations of science nor those of morality- can compete with the destructive power of that love." I couldn't have said it better myself.