The National Football League’s concussion protocol and punishment system is a laughable excuse of rules and policies set up to make people like Commissioner Rodger Goodell look as if though they are doing something about a very serious issue, while in reality players and fans alike suffer from this lack of competence.
For example, on Sept. 28 I was watching the Chicago Bears play the Green Bay Packers during a Thursday night football game purely for watching one of my fantasy football playmakers, wide receiver for the Packers Devante Adams, who was set to have a great game. However, late into the game when Adams had the ball and was fighting for yards, being dragged down by an opposing player, Danny Trevathan, a linebacker for the Bears, ran up to Adams and intentionally smashed the crown of his helmet onto Adams’ helmet. This move knocked Adams down like a practice dummy, making his mouth guard shoot across the field and causing Adams’ teammates to call for the medical staff immediately after seeing the devastating hit.
Adams was hospitalized for a few days and was then placed into the NFL’s concussion protocol system, which was made to prevent players from being active while concussed and reduce the risk of severe brain damage as much as possible. He is expected to play in the Packers’ week six game against the Minnesota Vikings even though he has been hospitalized for brain trauma. Danny Trevathan, for sending Adams to the hospital and attacking him with no ability for Adams to defend himself, got a one-week suspension from play without pay.
Despite what the NFL claims its protocol does, the system is majorly flawed as it allows players to simply lie to officials and be put back into the starting rotation for a team, as well as a lack of real punishment for players like Trevathan who purposefully targeted defenseless players.
Speaking on the topic of punishments for players, the NFL has demonstrated its incompetence the last few football seasons via its distribution of suspensions in horrendous ways regarding their values and morality. This was seen in the handling of the cases of Josh Gordon, a Cleveland Browns wide receiver who has been banned from playing for years because of his constant marijuana use, and Dez Bryant, a wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys, who assaulted his own mother and was not suspended for even one game. Horrible examples like these are reoccurring throughout the NFL, Josh Brown, who was a kicker for the New York Giants, got a one game suspension for repeatedly abusing his wife and only after he was cut by the team did he receive a six-game suspension, and Martavis Bryant, a wide receiver for the Pittsburg Steelers who failed drug tests and received over a year’s worth of suspensions.
If the NFL wants to be seen as a reputable source of justice in terms of punishing its players for misbehavior and crime, then it needs to seriously overhaul the way that it determines who gets suspended and for how long because in its current state the NFL are hurting more players than they are helping.
Regarding concussion protocol, the NFL has failed to come up with a lasting solution to the problem of head traumas and injuries in players since its inception in 1920. Players are kept from playing for weeks because of their toe turf injuries while a severely concussed player, in the case of former Los Angeles Rams quarterback Case Keenum, is able to stay in the game after a large hit to the head. Even seasoned veterans like Maurice Jones-Drew, Calvin Johnson, Kurt Warner and Tony Dorsett admitted that playing through concussions is “just a way of life in the NFL” and if the NFL actually took the long-term health of its players into consideration and didn’t worry so much about getting players back on the field as fast as possible so that ratings stay up then the league would be a much healthier place to be for everyone involved.
The NFL needs to step up to the plate and tackle this issue head on; they need to place minimum times that players need to stay out for with a concussion. The NFL needs to better protect its players from attacks like that of Danny Trevathan, and hold players responsible for their actions fairly and justly, so that some sort of respect for authority in the NFL can be regained.