Sports Fallacy

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Sports Fallacy

Introduction

Sports events are entertaining but also it had a great impact on the people watching the event. Sports either indoor or outdoor led to physical exertion which helps people to be healthy. When there is a sport, there are certain rules pertaining to it which makes sure that the event would happen with neutrality, correct decisions are made, and safety would be maintained. Sometimes there is a moral dilemma surrounding the event of sports but sometimes the whole sports is built upon the very foundation of a moral dilemma.

Discussion

Over the previous some years, football fans that belong to America have suffered various news of several football players. These players include the players from high school to NFL veterans. Some death occurs naturally while other according to Jovan Belcher, committed suicide after doing homicide. These deaths are sometimes taken as individual events which are years apart, but if reality is concerned, they are the result of some disturbing but football level long ignored trend. It has been noted prior several times that playing football such as at the NFL level is linked to concussions in higher number during the lifetime of a person. But recently there is a link found between those concussions and permanent brain damage which is becoming more and more evident.

Even it is recognized by the NFL that there is a connection between blows of repeated nature that happens during the game and brain diseases, head injuries, and eventually deaths.

Journalist Steve Almond in his book points out the associated violence with the game origin. According to Almond, in the early 19th century, football begins as controlled rival schools brawl or upperclassmen and freshmen brawls as initiation right(Hickman, 2004). The brawl consequently becomes very violent that in 1860 the Yale and Harvard banned the game. Later again the game started but as a hybrid of rugby-soccer. Formal rules are introduced such as the system of downs and scrimmage line, which makes it more structured but injuries do not reduce in a significant amount. When some universities try to ban the game due to injuries, President Roosevelt proposes some rules that can help safety making in the game. At that time Roosevelt echoing football fans sentiments and said that this game should be preserved because it makes player manly and "tough".

It would be nice to see the stats to get in the root of the cause of playing football damage wreaks on sportsmen. According to the researcher from Boston University, findings have been produced which says that out of 79, 76 deceased NFL players had suffered or showed signs of (CTE) Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, a brain disease degenerative in nature that can only be diagnosed after the death(Lazarus, 2011). This disease is characterized by depression, memory loss, and progressive dementia. According to Almond’s book that includes the report by Association of NFL Players’, former NFL players 1.9%, ages range in between 35-45 had been affected by illnesses such as Dementia and Alzheimer’s(Pellman, pp.263-274). Although this 1.9% figure looks small only 0.1% by the fact males are diagnosed by the same illnesses with their age range in between the same limit.

Although brain trauma studies focus the NFL players, many of these diseases related to brain come out because full-contact football is played by the players since childhood(Patrick, pp.443-462). After adding up the number of concussions and hits, for so many years, these diseases are going to worsen. It is a moral dilemma if one to think that to continue the game that inflicts so many injuries and causing life-threatening blows, why being tough is defined by duplicity and violence? Why do we find it acceptable to stop our children from playing this game while encouraging children of other people to play the sport of deadly nature for the sake of our own amusement?

Conclusion

As long as the football game is strongly supported by the Americans', these problems will always persist and responsibility would be evaded by those who are trying to cover it up. Americans for players and sports sake, must put their emotional attachment aside from the game and should try to confront the head-on immorality.

Works Cited

Arthur Lazarus, M. D. "NFL concussions and common sense: a recipe for medical errors and a lesson for physician leaders." Physician executive 37.1 (2011): 6.

Findler, Patrick. "Should kids play (American) football?." Journal of the Philosophy of Sport 42.3 (2015): 443-462.

Hickmann, Sara A. "Impulsivity as a predictor of athletic success and negative consequences in NFL football players." (2004).

Pellman, Elliot J., et al. "Concussion in professional football: recovery of NFL and high school athletes assessed by computerized neuropsychological testing—part 12." Neurosurgery 58.2 (2006): 263-274.