NEW ORLEANS (AP) The Super Bowl closes a tumultuous year for the NFL.
Suicides
by former NFL players. Thousands of others filing concussion lawsuits.
New studies linking football to brain disease. Still no testing for
human growth hormone. The specter of other purported
performance-enhancing products - deer-antler spray, anyone? - being
peddled to players.
A pay-for-pain bounty scandal. A lockout of
officials resolved only after a ludicrous game-ending call. Zero
minority hires for 15 coach or general manager openings.
And yet the league is as popular as ever.
Advertisers
paid nearly $4 million per 30-second television commercial for the
right to reach the 100 million or so Americans expected to tune in to
Sunday's Super Bowl between the AFC champion Baltimore Ravens and NFC
champion San Francisco 49ers. Eleven of the 12 most-watched TV programs
during the last 2 1/2 years were NFL postseason games, according to the
league.
Uncertain, though, is what the future holds for an NFL
still coming to grips with the dangers of a brutal sport that makes it
tremendously wealthy.
"The game has changed and keeps changing.
... It is such a violent game, and such a collision game, that careers
are going to be kind of like not long at all. Because you take those
licks - you've only got so many in your body, and at some point that's
going to wear it out," said Ravens running backs coach Wilbert
Montgomery, who played that position for the Philadelphia Eagles and
Detroit Lions from 1977-85.
Montgomery said he got six
concussions in one season alone, and others along the way, including one
that knocked him out cold a few days before playing for the Eagles in
the NFC title game at the end of the 1980 season.
"I know one
thing: Back then, it didn't make any difference. They gave you smelling
salts and then, after that, you went back in," Montgomery said. "I have
headaches all the time. That's why I say my wife is always messing with
me when I have outbursts, saying, `You've been hit too many times upside
the head.'"
Montgomery laughed for a moment. Then he rubbed his
forehead and continued talking, mentioning former teammate and friend
Andre Waters and opponent Dave Duerson. Both committed suicide;
researchers studied their brain tissue and found signs of chronic
traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, a degenerative disease also found in
boxers and often linked with repeated blows to the head. Former star
linebacker Junior Seau, who shot himself in May, also was found to have
CTE. Baltimore's starting center on Sunday, Matt Birk, has pledged to
donate his brain for study when he dies.
"It's a serious thing," Montgomery said. "It's scary."
When
the President of the United States refers to fans perhaps having a
guilty conscience when watching a game and parents thinking twice before
allowing a child to play - as Barack Obama did in a recent interview
with The New Republic - it sends a strong signal about what confronts
the NFL today.
"If I was worried about my health," 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick said, "I wouldn't be playing football."
So
the league must figure out how to deal with "walking a fine line," as
49ers CEO Jed York described it: The two-sided task of making the game
safer, which Commissioner Roger Goodell acknowledges is imperative,
while not making it "too safe," thereby diminishing the popularity of an
enterprise that is violent by its very nature.
"There's no
question that that is a bit of a conundrum. But to me, we've got to
place more weight on player safety," New York Giants co-owner John Mara
said. "The rules changes that we've implemented over the past five or
six years have not made the game any less exciting. If anything, the
game is as exciting as ever, and I strongly believe that we can make
additional improvements in the rules and we're not going to lose
anything in terms of excitement on the field."
Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti is convinced the NFL will strike the proper balance.
"What
did they do for boxing when they made them go from 6-ounce, to 8-ounce
to 12-ounce gloves or whatever? Did it change boxing? Not really,"
Bisciotti said. "I believe that with every change, there will be a
correction. ... And I believe that we as a league and the (players'
union) will agree on things that don't take football out of football."
In
a series of moves that began shortly after Goodell was grilled at a
congressional hearing, the league has changed concussion return-to-play
guidelines, adjusted rules for kickoffs - and floated the idea of
eliminating them altogether - stepped up punishment of illegal hits, and
stopped arguing against the players' wish for independent neurology
specialists on the sidelines during games.
Even if there are some
players who in one breath worry about whether their health is
imperiled, and in the next say, "We're basically going to be playing
two-hand touch in a while" - Baltimore nose tackle Terrence Cody's words
this week - the head of their union points out that prudence and
popularity do not have to be mutually exclusive.
"The reality of
it is, `football as we know it' has evolved over decades. ... Our job is
to have an unqualified commitment to the health and safety of the
people who play the game, and then to make those changes where we see
necessary," NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith
said.
"I don't think there is this thing of `football as we know
it.' What we have is football that has constantly developed," Smith
said. "And even with all of the (recent) rule changes ... my guess is
this Super Bowl will be the highest-rated of all time."
Indeed,
while the concussion lawsuits mount - a U.S. District Court judge in
Philadelphia will hear oral arguments in April on the NFL's effort to
dismiss a group of cases - and questions arise about what insurers will
charge the league moving forward, the money does keep rolling in.
Revenues already topped $9 billion at the time of the last labor deal in
2011, and new TV contracts will only help increase it.
"At
$10-to-$12 billion? It ain't going nowhere," said Warren Sapp, a retired
defensive tackle elected Saturday to the Pro Football Hall of Fame and
who now works for the NFL Network, another piece of the league's
marketing machine. "We play a beautiful game. We hit each other.
(Players) have to take care of each other better. Then it will be fine."
Meantime, the NFL continues to look for new ways to increase its cash flow.
During
his state of the league address two days before the Super Bowl, Goodell
did not rule out increasing the regular season from 16 to 18 games, and
he reiterated the possibility of expanding the postseason, too. He
announced that two 2013 games in London already are sold out, and there
could be three in future seasons - down a path that, eventually, could
lead to a franchise based in Britain.
"For you to be adding games
to the season, are you looking out for player safety? Or are you trying
to generate more player revenue?" 49ers receiver Randy Moss said. "If
you're trying to look and protect the players, and keep it healthier and
better every year, I don't think it's a good idea."
Several
players in this year's Super Bowl were incredulous that the league would
even consider more games. A handful voiced concern over a disconnect
between players and owners.
The president of the NFLPA, former
Ravens cornerback Domonique Foxworth, said he wonders how truthful
Goodell and other NFL officials are being when they say - as they often
do - that players' well-being is a priority.
"The league, their
No. 1 focus - at least they say their No. 1 focus - is health and
safety. And we say our No. 1 focus is health and safety. How come we
have such a hard time moving the ball on some health and safety issues?"
Foxworth said. "I believe health and safety is on their list of top
five things, but it comes in well behind increasing the bottom line."
