The NFL's Own Dog Fighting

“I wouldn’t bet against it.” That was part of Dr. Kevin Gibbons’ unfortunate answer when asked if his patient, Buffalo Bills tight end, Kevin Everett would ever walk again.
“There are some answers now. And many more questions remain. The patient's made significant improvement. But no one should think the functions in his legs is (sic) close to normal. Not even close. ... If you ask me, ‘Would he walk again?’ I would tell you that I wouldn't bet against it. But he has a long way to go.”
After colliding head on with the ball carrier during a kickoff return, Kevin Everett suffered a spinal injury that his surgeon described as “catastrophic” and “life threatening.” The replays, shown ad nauseum during highlight shows, pre-game shows and halftime shows, revealed a shattering collision that left Everett falling limply to the ground and lying absolutely motionless as he was hauled off the field. So, the news that he might actually walk again qualified as good news against that original bleak prognosis. But should it have happened in the first place?
Stated simply, the answer is no, it should not have happened. In any other workplace environment, a task as obviously dangerous as the kickoff return would have been banned by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. But, the NFL has gone to some effort to ensure that it remains a part of the game.
For the past few seasons, NFL teams have kicked off from their own 30-yard line. Before that, kickoffs were from the 35-yard line. And until 1985 teams kicked off from their own 40-yard line. The reason that the NFL, and for that matter, the NCAA, has kept pushing the kickoff back is because the kickoff return is one of the most exciting plays in the game. It’s entertaining. It sells tickets. It makes money.
It’s also the most dangerous play in football. On the kickoff, 22 players, 11 on a side, run toward each other at full speed. These players are unnaturally big and fast. They’re unnaturally big and fast even without performance enhancing drugs. But, their bones, ligaments and tendons are little different from yours or mine. The high-energy collisions that result from 270 pound athletes who run 40 yards in 4.5 seconds are potentially shattering. That’s why stars rarely play on special teams. They are not so expendable as, oh, let’s say, a third string tight end.
To put it in classical terms, when the choice was offered to spare the gladiator, the NFL turned to the fans and determined that the fans had signaled, thumbs down. The most dangerous play in footballs stays. And if kickers get so strong that too few kickoffs from the 30-yard line are returnable, then it will be moved back to the 25-yard line. The fans who come to watch football because they like big hits are like those fans who watch automobile racing for the wrecks. But their money spends just as well as anyone else’s.
All this points up a great irony. The NFL recently banned star quarterback Michael Vick for his involvement in dog fighting. Allegedly, under Vick’s supervision, or perhaps even his hands-on participation, dogs were fought until at least one suffered gruesome injuries. Dogs that failed to deliver a performance that satisfied the spectators and gamblers were put to death by any number of gratuitously cruel methods.
What’s the difference? Well, for one thing Michael Vick’s dog fighting did not imperil a young man’s life and leave him looking at a life of permanent disability. No grieving mother is keeping vigil over Michael Vick’s victims.
The kickoff is the NFL’s equivalent of dog fighting. While other sports, motor sports come immediately to mind, have taken steps to make their sport safer, the NFL keeps changing its rules to ensure that it remains a threat to life and limb.
The crimes of Michael Vick and his co-conspirators are ghastly and reveal a sickness of character that should make decent people gag. But is the NFL morally superior? Kevin Everett took the field Sunday with at least some understanding of the risks, but with a young man’s naive confidence in his own invulnerability. The NFL on the other hand has the statistics and the experience to comprehend the risk.
The NFL is unfit to judge Michael Vick.