With the exception of the beating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers took last night, the recent NFL and college football headlines are grim reminders of the troubles plaguing the League.

It seems as if Ray Rice and the NFL concussion lawsuit served as starters to the continuing stream of bad news in their respective areas. Just when we thought we’d seen the worst of it, well, we were wrong.

First the discussion about the violent natures of some NFL current and retired players. After Ray Rice, teams across the league seemed anxious to rid their rosters of any potential issues to place them in the same position as the Ravens. Adrian Peterson was removed from the Vikings’ roster for alleged child abuse. Apparently he “disciplined” his 4-year-old with a switch in May. The Vikings put him on the exempt list, then reinstated him to play against the Saints and then finally suspended him indefinitely the following day, but not before losing a major sponsor in Radisson Hotels.

Moving to the Arizona Cardinals, we have former Steelers’ running back Jonathan Dwyer. This week he was arrested for a domestic abuse incident that occurred in July. According to witness reports, Dwyer tried to undress and his kiss his wife and attacked when she refused his advances. He hid in the bathroom when the police arrived, telling his wife he’d kill himself in front of her and their then 17-month-old son if she said he was home. It gets worse. Just a day later he punched his wife and threw a shoe at his baby and then chucked his wife’s cell phone from the second story of their home when she tried to call the police.

This is just the latest in a long line of violent reports from professional football players. Are football players more prone to violence because the nature of the game they’re paid to compete in? Do you think they can get away with it because their status and income? Or is it a deeper and more terrifying issue.

Last Friday the NFL released a startling statistic- one in three former players will experience long-term cognitive issues at ages much younger than their non-athlete counterparts.

We’ve seen the effects of CTE on retired players. They become different people. Violent. Erratic. Depressed. Too often they take their own lives. This leads to the question on all our minds- is playing in the NFL making these people violent? Did the years of concussions and head injury finally reveal the ugly, long-term side effects with these players?

At least it seems some aren’t taking any chances.

The starting quarterbacks for UConn and the Texas Longhorns announced within the past two weeks they’re retiring now after sustaining at least three concussions during their respective football careers. To them, the game isn’t worth the potential consequences. John Abraham of the Arizona Cardinals is also considering retiring after a concussion last Monday and more than year of memory loss.

Time Magazine posed an important question on a cover released yesterday- is football worth it? Many are using the hashtags #BoycottNFL and #GoodellMustGo to voice their anger with the league for letting this behavior seemingly go unpunished or with a slap on the wrist, with particular vehemence toward the commissioner for his mishandling of every crisis that’s come his way in recent memory. Many are calling for sponsors to pull their funding until the NFL makes some serious changes.

So many of us wait the long spring and summer months for football to return, staying up to date with offseason updates, training camp and preseason games, but what are we supporting? Are we allowing a screwed up system to continue for our own entertainment?

Because of the millions of viewers, football will probably make it through the current problems and emerge with more fans, but at what cost? And what will change? Football as we know it must adapt to address growing concerns about concussions and the long-term effects.

Footnotes

Laird, S. (2014). When football isn’t with it. Mashable. [Link]

Smith, M. D. (2014). Latest concussion may end John Abraham’s career. NBC Sports. [Link]

Football season is back with a bang, and not the good kind. After dealing with the concussion problem in football during the offseason, the NFL didn’t make it two weeks in before things got a whole lot worse.

On February 15, Ray Rice, formerly of the Baltimore Ravens, hit is wife in an elevator in Atlantic City. After the League learned of the incident, they watched a video of the aftermath and interviewed Rice’s wife WHILE he was in the room. In response, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell issued a two game suspension and fine.

To put this in perspective, players recently caught with weed in non-violent situations have been indefinitely suspended from playing in the NFL. Ray Rice knocks out his wife and has to sit out two games. This was enough to cause outrage until Monday when TMZ did what it does best and released the full video.

We see Rice and his wife (then fiancée) in the elevator. She approaches him, apparently angry, and he swings. The video ends as he drags her unconscious body out of the elevator. No remorse or overwhelming apology from the player. His wife, however, released a statement Monday blaming the media for bringing up such painful memories and taking the game away from her husband who’s worked so hard.

Now Rice is receiving the punishment he deserved initially. His contract with the Ravens was terminated and he’s banned indefinitely from playing. Will another team want him if the ban is lifted?

Keith Olbermann discussed the issue in a recent segment. Believing everyone involved with the case failed to do their part, he called for the resignation of Goodell and everyone else who let Rice get away with domestic abuse and showed the world they could get away with it, too. He also claimed Rice already had a second chance during the investigation and was deceptive, meaning he should never play again.

Assault and abuse are two of the big causes for brain injuries, which include domestic violence. By not properly punishing Ray Rice, the NFL is saying it’s not that big of a deal.

This is just another example of the NFL not doing its ethical duty to protect players or their families. At least more concussions are being diagnosed with longer periods before the players return to play, but questions are raised. How many concussions go undiagnosed every season? How many will be affected by the longterm effects in the future?

Time will tell.