Written by Player health and safety has always been more of an abstraction than a concrete practice in the sport of football. In an ideal world, “players play and coaches coach”, each relying on a third party (trainers, physicians, administrators, etc.) to set standards and make decisions on player health and safety. However, in reality, this is often not the way things work out. When discussing player health and safety, conflicts of interest always arise in the decision-making process. The worst part about it is that the majority of the consequences of those decisions fall on the players.
From the start of their participation in sports, the decision-making process is incredibly unfair to athletes because it trains them to think and act as if they have no agency. At the youth level, athletes are awarded little to no ownership over managing and interpreting their own well-being. Athletes are told to push themselves to their limit and are scrutinized when they speak out against it. As a youth athlete, I remember being afraid to speak up when I was tired or hurt out of fear that my teammates and coaches would think less of me. I felt the chain of command was clear, my coaches would decide for the team what was too much, and no one could challenge them. The lack of control that I felt and other youth athletes may feel over their own body only leads to further confusion at higher levels of sport when the ownness of decision-making about their health primarily belongs with them. Athletes develop a warrior mentality that tells them to prioritize performance and other external motivators over their own health and well-being. As a result, athletes are more inclined to advocate for and participate in sport even at the cost of their health because they have been conditioned to think this way. This could not have been proven to be truer than in the coronavirus controversy surrounding FBS football this past fall.
At the collegiate level, player health and safety has become a business decision for student-athletes, coaches, and administration, which is problematic. Let’s examine the most recent exemplar, the #WeWantToPlay Movement. Do not get me wrong, the #WeWantToPlay Movement was and is legitimate, shedding light on several issues in collegiate sport while protesting for the right to play. However, many of the players spearheading the protest, Justin Fields, Trevor Lawrence, and Najee Harris, are all high-profile athletes with NFL potential. The link between the respective draft stocks of these players and their ability to play college football in the middle of a pandemic is undeniable. I believe these players were making the best (business) decision for themselves and their families, prioritizing the amount of money they could generate for themselves in their first few NFL seasons over the risk of contracting the virus. What is frustrating is the limited concern for player health and safety amongst administrators and coaches. It’s one thing for players to say they will risk their health, but for administrators to abruptly decide to host seasons for all power five conferences in the fall was outrageous. By early December of 2020, FBS football reported 6,600 cases of COVID. Of course, the majority of the risk resided with the players, as institutions and conferences still generated millions of dollars from player performance while they saw no immediate benefit. The conflicting priorities between health and wealth in intercollegiate athletics could not be more apparent. Conferences and administrators are willing to bend the knee on player health and safety for the right price. This then elicits a question that begs to be answered, to the student-athlete, was this the right price for you? More than anything, the recent events in college football have surfaced an underlying philosophy amongst athletes that, to reach the next level in their athletic careers’ athletes must sacrifice their health. Athletes have acquired learned behaviors from years of mental abuse that has impressed upon them mental and physical toughness, to the detriment of their mental and physical health.
In essence, the decision-making process on player health and safety is flawed on multiple levels and plays out in the worst ways when money is involved. Athletes have been lulled into a false sense of freedom, risking their well-being for the benefit of athletic conferences, administrators, and coaches. It is imperative that athletes not only hold these parties accountable, but also place more value on their physical and mental health to protect themselves from the exploitive nature of the sports industry, administrators, coaches, and at times even themselves.