From The Archives: On The Ethics of Football
Revisiting a trio of old posts....
As we head into the final week of the NFL regular season, I must confess that I’ve spent more time watching football this year than I have in a long time. There was a time there when my interest in the NFL was seriously waning — for three of four years between 2018 and 2021 I didn’t even watch the Super Bowl. But at some point around that 2022 Bills/Chiefs game, I started paying more attention.
But it’s not like the issues that pushed me away in the first place — the health and safety of the players — have gone away. If anything, they’ve gotten more acute: We just passed the one-year anniversary of Damar Hamlin collapsing on the field during Monday Night Football. Anyway, I’m not sure what the answers are, but I’m reposting a trio of pieces that are at least attempts to grapple with the questions:
Episode 19: What Ever Happened to the Death of Football?
If you’re like us, you have a vague recollection of a time between 2009 and 2015, when people kept talking about the supposed “death of football.” But football no longer appears to be dying. In fact, it seems to be doing better than ever, weathering the pandemic better than any other major American sport.
This podcast episode was an attempt by James and I to reckon with the failed idea that football would simply disappear on its own….
How Do You Solve a Problem Like Football?
I’ve avoided writing anything about the Tua Tagovailoa injury because of how sickening the whole thing is. Watching Tua get carted off the field last Thursday was hard to watch, both because of the injury itself and how predictable it was, or at least should have been. It was clear to many people who watched him the previous week that his “back injury” …
The 2022 Tua saga was a reminder that football’s concussion problem is not over…
Playing Hurt
Last Sunday, in the third quarter of the Jets/Bills game, Mike White got folded practically in half by Bills linebacker Matt Milano, in one of those plays that make you feel guilty for watching football.
…and the problem with expecting players to protect themselves is that most guys WANT to keep playing. So what do you do?