“There are approximately 67,000 diagnosed concussions in high school football every year... at least 50 youth football players (high school or younger) from 20 different states have died or sustained serious head injuries... since 1997” (“Concussion Rate Doubled in Decade”). The beloved sport of football has long been the largest single entertainment property in the U.S. While playing or watching football can be exciting and joyous, the sport can have detrimental effects on its players, especially the youth. Millions of dollars are also spent on the excessively commercialized sport when it could be going toward more progressive and charitable causes. The morality of football can also be questioned, it is a more barbaric and crude activity than anything else. The commonality of traumatic injuries proves the need to remove football as a sports option. Moreover, the immoral ethics of football are all reasons as to why it should be abolished. The sport of football should not exist on either the youth level or the adult level (NFL).
Football is the single most dangerous sport offered in high schools that often results in many devastating injuries such as concussions, traumatic injuries, and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). The removal of this fatal sport that inevitably destroys the brains of its players would prevent many injuries or possibly even deaths in young children or teens playing it in schools. Furthermore, with the added removal of the NFL, adult players would be relieved from the intensity and pressure of the league and would be playing smaller-scale football with less of a chance of getting injured. Having football as an activity in schools encourages participation in a sport that is potentially life-threatening and can have serious long term effects for a young and developing brain. Numerous doctors have a growing concern for participants in football, “We’ve had a number of deaths around the country of kids who have had head injuries from a tackle that have led to death” (Behr). Similarly, players in the NFL are also suffering from the same injuries, “NFL players suffered more concussions in 2017 than in each of the previous five years... There were 281 reported concussions this season. That is the highest number in the past six years and an increase of 15.6% over the five-year average” (Jones and Reyes). Therefore, discontinuing football from both high schools and the national league will result in numerous prevented fatal injuries and deaths.
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The amount of money being spent on football, particularly the NFL, is superfluous and unnecessary. With the overpayment of athletes, advertisements, TV airing, tickets, and football is a costly and rapacious sport. Not to mention how they take advantage of taxpayers to pay for stadiums, equipment, and other expenditures. Football players are really not worth the millions that they receive, especially when there are people in the world who are underpaid for jobs that actually benefit communities and make positive differences in the world. The NFL is reaching record numbers in yearly revenue; “[in 2017] the NFL distributed more than $8 billion in national revenue that was split among the league's 32 teams. The $8.1 billion... meant that each team received roughly $255 million” (Breech). The NFL seems to only care about the astonishing profits that they are making. With the overpayment of athletes, advertisements, TV airing, and tickets, football is a costly and rapacious sport. Thus, the NFL takes advantage of taxpayers to pay for stadiums, equipment, and other expenditures: “Even though the NFL is the most profitable sports organization in the world, American taxpayers provide 70 percent of the funds for building and maintaining stadiums” (Harveston). Not only are NFL athletes, owners, and coaches making millions on the sport, but they are also freeloading from taxpayers to get there. Not to mention how the NFL was also tax-exempt for more than 70 years and were considered a “nonprofit organization”. All of this money could be used for acts that are far more humanitarian and advantageous to the whole world, not just a few billionaires. If the money would be put toward eradicating world hunger, for example, it could be accomplished in about 4 years (30 million is needed). The huge abundance of money being made by the NFL is absurd, and if the league was discontinued, the money could be spent on much better causes.
While football is America's #1 pastime and is considered “entertainment’, the sport is immoral and primitive. The object of the game is boiled down to tackling, hitting, and hurting, which is the main reason as to why most people watch football. Players are constantly putting themselves and others through extreme amounts of physical harm, yet fans still cheer and support the brutal game. It is really quite disturbing how people can find players hurting each other to be entertaining. The sport is actually very similar to ancient Roman gladiator games; “Both involve spectacular, violent displays before a massive, cheering audience. Fans choose sides and strongly identify with their team—just as Roman citizens cheered their favorite gladiators in combat” (Hicks). Watching football creates a desire for violence and winning, no matter the consequences. The appeal of football can be traced to basic human instincts; “A key appeal of football and other rough sports is that they provide a channeled and sublimated outlet for our aggression. Regressive tribal instincts (us vs. them) are strengthened… [it is not] fair to have our young people—typically young men whose prefrontal cortices are not even fully myelinated—put their bodies and brains at risk so that we can watch” (Annlball). With the abolition of high school football and the NFL, these immoral practices would be stopped.
Because of the dangers to athletes’ health, the insane profits of the NFL, and immoral ethics of football, it should not exist in high schools or in the national league. Football causes countless irreversible injuries that can have harmful long-term effects on players, especially younger players whose brains are not fully developed yet. The amount of money that the NFL makes is ludicrous and could be going toward other, more benefitting matters. Lastly, the inhuman values of football creates a culture of violence in the U.S. There are plenty of other nonviolent
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