The Lawsuit: The Aftermath of the NFL

Football in the United States is considered to be the toughest and hard hitting sport that exists today. However, in professional football there comes a price of playing this game and getting all the fame, fortune and glory that comes along with it. Many active players are known to play with a concussion so that they don’t be considered as being “soft” or they’re quitting on their teammates. A football player’s life span in the NFL is only a few years. So the mindset is to make as much money as you can and even play hurt if need be. If they don’t do this in most cases they would be cut by their perspective team. This is the reality of the NFL. Let’s not hide the facts people.

Right now as we speak there is a big lawsuit against the NFL of former players coming forward and claiming that they faced head injuries such as concussions through their careers. But they say that they can’t live a normal life because of this. The players feel that their life span will be cut because of these head injuries. You have doctors and researchers that are backing up their claims. Roger Goodell has a lot on his plate with this lawsuit. I don’t want to hear the players signed up for this. At the end of the day, these retired players are people too and they deserve to live a healthy life after football. This is why the bounty investigation was such a big story around the country.

I do believe that the players are going to be victorious in this lawsuit case, but this won’t change the fact that many are going through trauma after football. Let’s look at the late great Junior Seau. It was said that partially his suicide was due to the brain injuries that he incurred while playing in the NFL (MSNBC, 2012). I don’t know if this is factual but this story does have some creditability. The very worst thing about this case is that the players don’t feel that the NFL has been taking care of them once they retired from the sport. They have been left out to dry. Some may say “why didn’t the players save their money”. I would say, who we to judge them. Everyone makes mistakes and NFL players aren’t excluded.

I think that the NFL should treat these retired players with respect and dignity and not just the Hall of Famers; everyone! This story means a lot to me because I hate to hear about athletes that gave the fans the best entertainment weekly and now they can barely sleep without nightmares of the hard hits and concussions they faced while playing. My mother gets all of the credit for me even writing this article. She told me that this would be a great 100^th topic to write about; a great milestone for your sports site. I thought it was terrific idea and here it is. I hope you guys enjoyed it and really think about what these players have gone through. Is there anything different the NFL can do to help these players?