What's wrong with football and the NFL?
Since I was little I have loved and enjoyed the game of football. My father played football in college and I have learned to love the game through Him. From attending many games on every level to buying Madden every other year there was one thing for certain "Football was King" not just in sports but in my life.
That was until a couple of years ago when numerous retired NFL players had complained that they weren't properly informed about "Concussions" and "C.T.E." Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. The symptoms of CTE are depression, impulse control problems, aggression, and paranoia. The subject of CTE could be brushed under the rug until there was news about the death of football legend Junior Seau who committed suicide. In an autopsy report it was discovered that Mr. Seau was diagnosed with CTE. This was eye opening to me because if Junior Seau had this how many more former players have CTE? After hearing the complaints of many former playesr the NFL settled with a money settlement to end their complaining. A couple of years ago there was a movie called "Concussion" with actor Will Smith playing the lead character who was a medical examiner who discovered how dangerous Concussions and CTE is. When he went to the NFL about it he was asked to be quiet about it. But then he began to get much attention about this which questioned how safe is the game that we all love?
Not many years later the NFL has dealt with another great opposition which is "Domestic Violence." One of the first incidents of Domestic Violence that I heard about was with Baltimore Ravens Running Back Ray Rice who had hit his wife in the elevator at a hotel. Now the word domestic violence is already hard enough to hear for me but then there was video evidence it takes it to the next level for me. TMZ had the video of Ray Rice and his wife in the elevator and they released it to the world. It showed Ray and his wife getting on the elevator, they begin talking back and forth and then his wife gets in his face. Then Ray hit his wife and as she laid unconscious on the floor Ray dragged her out of the elevator. Before the league saw the video they had originally suspended him for 2 games and after they saw the video he was suspended for the rest of the season and never played in the NFL again.
Then there was Greg Hardy who played the Carolina Panther who was taken to court for physically abusing his girlfriend. He was found guilty in court, but because of NC rules he was able to appeal and was able to settle out of court with his ex-girlfriend to end this situation. He would later play for the Dallas Cowboys but only for one season and hasn't played in the NFL ever since.
Now we have a situation in the NFL with a rising star name Ezekiel Elliot who is the Running Back for the Dallas Cowboys. Ezekiel has been accused of Domestic Violence by his ex-girlfriend while he was in college at Ohio State University. His ex-girlfriend reported the crime to the Police Dept. in Ohio and Florida and they didn't charge "Zeke" because of inconsistent evidence. Now that He is in the NFL this accusation have risen up again. But this time it seems that the NFL is coming hard at Zeke they have all the inconsistent facts but they are still coming after him because of the fact that Zeke tends to finds trouble. During a St. Patricks Day Parade in Texas he had pulled a girl's shirt down and this summer he was involved in a bar fight. So with this additional evidence they have concluded that Zeke may have physically abused his ex-girlfriend. They have currently suspended him for 6 games for the upcoming 2017 NFL season but he has appealed.
And last but certainly not least Colin Kaepernick. From the start of the 2016 NFL season Colin has taken a knee during the NFL season which caused a lot of conversation. Many said that he was disrespecting the American flag and the US soldiers but he has come out and said that he wasn't disrespecting anyone or anything. His purpose was to bring attention to the fact that there is still "Systematic Oppression" in the USA and in particular towards African-Americans. So with the attention he has received there has also been great opposition. Colin has been a free agent after the 2016 season and has barley been given an opportunity to try out for teams. Because many Owners, GMs and fan bases disagree with Colin's point that things need to change in this country for the better.
In conclusion I have seen the best and the worst of the NFL throughout the years from the Super Bowl being on of the highest rated sports events in the Country to drug users, abusers, and criminals being given second chances while Colin doesn't. And it's all because of one thing, the NFL is a business at the end of the day. They like many other businesses will take money over morals each and every day. So the question is not just what's wrong with the NFL but what's wrong with us all?
