It is well-known knowledge for citizens of the United States that professional sports players, especially NFL players, get paid a lot of money. Yes, NFL players get paid a vast sum of money, but before people are so quick to judge and complain about this, they should first think about the potential costs of playing in the NFL. Not cost as in money, but life-changing costs that cannot be recovered from. I will be talking about the life-lasting injuries and risks of the NFL, through head injuries, neck and spinal injuries, heart injuries, and other serious injuries.

First, head injuries. The worst of them are chronic head injuries, more specifically CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy). The article “What is CTE” located on the Indiana University official website characterizes CTE as “A progressive degenerative disease affecting people who have suffered repeated concussions and traumatic brain injuries.” A former NFL player, most remembered with the San Diego Chargers, committed suicide at the age of 43 in 2012 and an autopsy confirmed that he had been dealing with CTE. This player was Junior Seau, and his death was a huge eye-opener because he was such a terrific player, being inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in 2015. He was also an outstanding person, winning the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award in 1994. Maybe with treatment, Seau’s CTE would not have gotten so awful to the point that he felt the need to take his own life. Not only can football screw up someone’s head for the rest of their life, but it can also do some extreme damage to their body.

Second, neck and spinal injuries. Neck and spinal injuries have played a huge role in some of the worst football injuries. The worst of them often cause paralysis. As said in the article “Paralysis” written by the Cleveland Clinic, paralysis is described as “Being unable to make voluntary movements.” Darryl Stingley, a former NFL wide receiver for the New England Patriots, experienced an extreme case of this condition. His injury occurred on Aug. 12, 1978. This was an exhibition game, so it didn’t count towards anything. Just a seemingly average hard hit that turns out to be so horrible. He died on April 5, 2007, at the young age of 55. Even with his early death, he still had to spend over half of his years paralyzed, because he was horrifically injured at the age of 26. Dealing with paralysis, just like CTE, can only be completely understood by the people who are going through it. Unlike CTE, paralysis is an immediate injury, one second,  just doing the daily job, and the next second, on the ground unable to move. Another one of these in-the-moment injuries is heart injuries.

Third, heart injuries. It is common knowledge that the heart is the muscle that runs the human body and without a heart, we could not survive. Just with that knowledge, it sounds pretty concerning to obtain a heart injury. Most people who follow the NFL or even know anything about it have probably heard about Damar Hamlin and his terrifying cardiac arrest, but I am going to give information on even more serious long-term heart injuries. As pointed out by Chris Nowinski on Jan. 9, 2023, in the New York Times entitled “Football Is Deadly, but Not for the Reasons You Think”, he says that “Young former N.F.L. players, mostly linemen, die from heart attacks or heart disease nearly every year. Shane Olivea died in March at age 40. Max Tuerk, age 26, died in 2020. Taylor Whitley, age 38, 2018. Jeremy Nunley, age 46, 2018. Nate Hobgood-Chittick, age 42, 2017. Rodrick Monroe, age 40, 2017. Ron Brace, age 29, 2016. Quentin Groves, 32, 2016. Damion Cook, 36, 2015.” That’s a lot of people who lost their lives much earlier than they would have without playing football.

Last, other serious injuries. Head injuries, neck and spinal injuries, and heart injuries are probably the most common life-changing injuries, but there are plenty of other injuries from football that aren’t life-changing or are less common life-changing injuries. There can even be some serious illnesses, like heat stroke. Heat stroke defined by the Mayo Clinic “is a condition caused by your body overheating… can occur if your body temperature rises to 104 F (40 C) or higher.” Korey Stringer; an offensive lineman for the Minnesota Vikings, died from a heat stroke on August 1st, 2001 during an NFL training camp. He was only 27 years old when he lost his life. I can’t even imagine what his family had to go to. Getting excited because he made it to the NFL, then having it have to end so horribly because of that. It is just sad to think that football is just a game, yet it can affect people’s lives in horrible ways.

I just wrote about why NFL players aren’t overpaid with examples of current and former NFL players concerning injuries and mental health through my points of head injuries, neck and spinal injuries, heart injuries, and other serious injuries. Even though NFL players make a lot of money, wait to complain before considering everything that they have to go through just to do their job. We can speculate all we want, but we can’t understand what these people have to go through, every day nonstop, without being in their shoes and going through what they have to go through.