The NFL should do more to protect players from concussions.

Thanks TN05, I look forward to a nice change of pace in this debate. Although the matter at hand is definitely important for player safety, this topic is a bit more laid back than most. Good luck Con!Just a brief note: TBI=Traumatic Brain InjuryI. FrameworkI propose a simple cost-benefit analysis framework for judging this debate. If, on balance, benefit exceeds cost, Pro wins. If the reverse is true, Con wins.II. IntroThe world of football is facing a brain injury epdemic. This affects players from Pop Warner all the way to the professional level. The NFL is uniquely equipt to address this issue, and if done effectively, changes made will most likely trickle down and eventually permeate the college, high school, and youth game as well. My case will be set up simply: identification of the problem, the lack of response, what the NFL can do, and finally why the NFL should act.III. The ProblemNFL players are suffering from TBIs. This should not be news to anyone. Concussions are brought up by every mom, every coach, every school, and every doctor when discussing football. However, the rate at which this is happening is startling. In a recent study, neurologists found that 40% of former NFL players have some sort of brain abnormality. One part of the study was a cognitive test, in which 45% of players had difficulty learning and retaining information. An MRI revealed that 43% of the players studied had damage to the white matter of the brain, which is responsible for connecting nerve cells of different regions. This is enough to qualify as TBI. 30% of the players showed damage to long arms that allow neurons to communicate with one another. [1] All told, research shows that NFL players have an incredibly high risk of brain injury. Though no causal relationship can be proven thus far, it is naive to dismiss the results of studies such as this. However, concussion results are more concrete. Big hits cause concussions. From 2014 to 2015, concussions increased by 58%. [2] So not only is this an issue, it is becoming more and more prevalent. The NFL has a TBI problem, and it's time to fix it.IV. Lack of ResponseThere are some things the NFL should be doing already to protect its players. For all intents and purposes, these players are employees of the league, and should be treated fairly. The first way to do this is to enforce rules already on the books. In this season's opening game, star QB and last year's MVP Cam Newton suffered a series of big hits. Some were illegal, and went uncalled. [3] This is understandable. Game officials are humans, they'll miss things. However, helmet-to-helmet hits like this are some of the most important calls to make. It goes beyond the game. It's an issue of player health and safety. And it's not just the calls that are being missed. It's the signs of injury also. After the last big hit he took in the season opener, Newton was slow to get up. His coach didn't check on him, the refs didn't check on him, a trainer didn't check on him, no league representative checked up on him. [3] The league can't allow this to happen. When big hits seem to affect a player, some check needs to be made. If left up to the player, most will decide to carry on despite having a concussion. They are not in the right state of mind to make such a decision, and will most likely not think of the long-term effects of playing while concussed. Rather, they will focus on the short-term. The result of the next play. The result of the game. Whether they'll be sidelined for injury. These are all reasons players will leave themselves in the game and why we should make sure the NFL minimizes the chances of this happening.V. Path of ActionThere are multiple actions the NFL can take to attempt to mitigate this issue. The first and simplest is to take better care of players after they leave the league. As it stands, the NFL offers five years worth of health coverage following departure from the league. [4] Injuries, particularly TBIs, haunt players for life. They don't magically disappear after five years. In fact, they more than likely worsen, or may not even appear for some time after careers end. In stark contrast, the NBA has vowed to provide healthcare for players that spent 3+ years in the league for the rest of their lives. [4] The NFL could easily adopt a similar policy, but I will get into that more in my next point. There are other measures the NFL could take that would improve player safety on the field so that these injuries are less likely to even happen in the first place. A little under a year ago, the league looked into ways to improve player safety, offering grants for ideas that they liked. There were three frontrunners: a neck brace of sorts, redesigned helmets, and a change to playing surfaces. The neck-brace was described by Fortune:"Army Research Laboratory created a material that stretches at low speeds, but freezes up if pulled quickly—in other words, a “rate-dependent” substance. It applied the substance to a strap that would attach from the lower bar of a helmet to a player’s chest to prevent the head from snapping back quickly after a hard hit. If the head jerks back quickly, the strap hardens and keeps the head up." [5]The helmets are less complicated. Essentially, in place of the current cushioning on the inside of the helmet, different materials would be used. Multiple different materials would be layered to work more like an airbag than a glorified styrofoam cushion. This would reduce impact and better protect the player's head. Both of these changes to equipment could easily be mandated across the league and help reduce concussions and other BTIs. The final proposition, the change to fields, is an impact-reducing mat that would go beneath turf fields. It relies on the idea that just as many, if not more, injuries are caused by player to ground contact compared to player to player contact. This reduces the force of those impacts significantly, and since it goes beneath the turf, would not affect play. [5] The only issue that arises is that most franchises don't use turf. The NFL could easily mandate this however, and even if they didn't, players would fight for more widespread implementation and pressure programs into installing these mats. The NFL has entertained these ideas, but it's time to put them into action.VI. Why the NFL?The NFL should be the level of play to do this because it will trickle down from there. Most programs at lower levels make their best attempt to simulate NFL rules, play style, environments, etc. so this would be no different. The players are in need of protection, so the only questions are "How will it affect play?" and "Can the league afford it?" The only change that would affect play is the neck brace, and it would likely be minimal. As far as affordability, the NFL as a whole or individual teams could easily afford the changes, as the 32 NFL teams combine for a greater value than every NBA and MLB team. [6] If a lesser league can afford it, the NFL can too.VII. ConclusionIt is clear there is a probem that needs to be fixed. In the interest of player safety, the NFL must act.VIII. Sources[1] http://time.com...[2] http://www.nydailynews.com...[3] http://www.huffingtonpost.com...[4] http://www.huffingtonpost.com...[5] http://fortune.com...[6] http://www.businessinsider.com...