In America, football is one of the most financially successful and popular sports around. Fans are continually drawn to the impact, the intense action resulting from enormous humans colliding together. Players are becoming bigger and stronger each year.
But are they healthier?
Recently, 49ers guard Thomas Herrion collapsed in the locker room after a game in Denver. The 310-pound guard was considered to be in good shape because he was a professional athlete.
And yet, recent studies are proving that football players are at much higher risk of permanent physical and mental health illness. Maybe slamming head-first into things and overeating is not the right way to develop into a professional athlete.
Football seems to promote obesity and a lack of general health and mental aptitude among its players and fans - a product of the current American dream.
Perhaps there is a way to modify the game that will benefit the health of the players, introduce new fans and keep season ticket holders at the stadium.
So here it is, four ways to improve the commercial-ridden, creativity-deprived game of football.
The first is smaller rosters. Most other sports have a starting lineup with few substitutes. Players are depended on to perform every game, knowing there are a finite number of people who can replace them.
Limiting the number of dressed football players from a legion to, say, 22, creates a scenario where players must do double duty - like every other sport - playing offense and defense. In order to do this, players will have to be more physically fit, as their time on the field will double.
Also, as it is, the average football player's lifespan is 59 years. If the rules of football would submit to smaller rosters and require more physically fit players, it would rid the sport of 2,000-pound linemen who will suffer a coronary before they are eligible for Social Security benefits. In addition, fans will enjoy the added time their favorite players are on the field.
The second is shorter time between plays. At present, there are 25 seconds between plays. If the average play lasts from three to five seconds (obviously an exhausting amount of time) does one really need 500 percent more time to recover? Instead, there should be two separate times between plays - a very short interval for running plays and a slightly longer one for passing plays. Any spectator will happily accept more action on the field for their already overpriced ticket.
The third is to limit coaching to the sideline. Professionally speaking, football and baseball are the only examples where grown men, getting paid millions of dollars a year, look to a coach for what to do next after every play. As a sports fan, it is the players' ability to manipulate the game that is exciting, not the coach.
During practice, coaches prepare their players for any situation that may occur so players can recognize situations and adapt accordingly. This is not to say that players should not have access to their coach during the game. Sideline coaching is part of all sports, and that is how it should be limited.
But ridding football of defensive/offensive coordinators will actually create mentally fit players. A football player with problem-solving capabilities will have a more successful future after his career, which on average lasts only three years.
The fourth is to get rid of helmets. The use of helmets as a precautionary measure against injury is certainly a part of many sports - baseball and hockey, for example. Yet the helmet concern in those sports has to do with small, solid objects traveling faster than supersonic jets, requiring participants to protect themselves.
Football seems to do the opposite. With helmets, one simply needs to aim, run, close their eyes and wait for the impact. Is this a skill?
The use of helmets seems to have risen from the football player's inability to protect himself while tackling. Five percent of team members acquire at least one concussion per season. Over a career, a player is bound to have one, if not multiple, concussions.
This may explain why football players suffer higher incidences of depression, divorce and suicide. Perhaps removing helmets and requiring players to use skill instead of their skull will provide players with a healthier future. Unless they decide to make the football out of concrete next season, off with the helmets.
Noah Lewkowitz is an architecture graduate student. Reach him at noah.lewkowitz@asu.edu.
