While there will be much discussion and fervent grandstanding about who’s to blame, the sport of American Football will be brought to the edge of irrelevance due to the chronic brain injuries of former players at all levels and the ambivalence in protecting those players.  The evidence, while impressive and incomplete now, will grow into an undeniable boulder from under which the NFL, NFLPA, NCAA and other major football organizations will be unable to crawl.  So then what?

Football fans that grew up loving the game because our fathers and mothers and grandparents and friends and congregations and colleagues and communities loved the game – we fans will be loathe to give up the culture in which we were raised.  The importance, the gravity of the culture in many American’s lives cannot be overstated.  So how do we handle the critical examination of something we love, knowing very well that it may be, at its core, a dangerous and life-altering choice for anyone that straps on a helmet?

That, of course, is going to be an individual and internal debate for many.  This much can be said, however: significant changes must be made to the sport, or the support of its fans and players unions will become complicit along with the football business owners in successive injuries to young men’s brains.  A comparison to the ancient Roman Colosseum seems appropriate if only for the celebrated brutality of a gladiator-driven, entertaining bloodsport.  Although many would say that a comparison to our brutal past is going too far.  They killed men, women and children – slaves.  Knowingly.  They cheered the violence.

Yet we cheer the violence.  There’s nothing like a ‘bit hit.’  But we don’t long to see them die, of course.  We don’t actually hope they become injured.  Perhaps a little, if a rival team loses a star player temporarily before they play your favorite team.  But not seriously injured.

And we’ve played the sport and loved it.  And missed it when it was no longer part of our autumn ritual to sit in the musty locker room and tape up our ankles and listen to loud, drum-driven music to get the adrenaline flowing before the first hit.  So we understand the player’s defense of something that is one of the only true thrills in so many’s lives.

And the NFL and other organizations are starting programs to make the sport safer – being pro-active and taking steps to fix the concussion 'problem.’

And as long as we don’t have to actually see the every-day life of a player’s spouse and children during the months leading up to a surprising suicide by their father, their idol – the community’s idol, we can go on watching and playing fantasy football.

Simply put – despite how heavy it may sound – this national pastime is too dangerous to allow our children to play.  The signs are there early.  And it’s simply irresponsible to wait for the NFL or anyone else to say definitively 'when’ it’s okay to play or 'how’ one player becomes more susceptible than another to CTE (the chronic brain trauma disease found in a disturbing percentage of autopsied brains of ex-players).  So it must change or it must perish or we must be okay with the knowledge that every single player that puts on shoulder pads may end up living their last days with dementia and other horrific side effects from smashing those pads against another’s head and body

So it must change.  It may change into a sport that isn’t quite football.  Perhaps basketball with pads or something similar.  Lots of scoring, much less contact.  Or technology will protect us in armored or robotic ways – bringing us closer to avatars of players making contact, rather than the bodies themselves.  Whichever direction becomes most popular, there will still be a love for the game as it was.  As it is today.  Video games may be our best chance.  

The next generation of home gaming consoles will make their way this holiday season – and with it?  A new anniversary edition of the Madden video game franchise by EA Sports.  Madden 25 will most likely look and feel closer to an actual Sunday afternoon.  Watching the video game players play against one another could become truly engaging – much like those watching the international League of Legends video game tournament just this year.  While it may not be an ideal substitute for those that still have it in their blood, it might be our only recourse if we intend to do the right thing and stop supporting the sport that we love as it exists today.