The blight of football

Last night, in the wake of a shocking murder-suicide by Kansas City linebacker Jovan Belcher, commentator Bob Costas went on the air to decry the ease with which people can gain access to firearms. Soon thereafter, conservative pundit Sonny Bunch penned this parody in which he suggests Costas may as well have blamed the game of football -- and himself -- for the tragedy.

Football greatly enhances our Sundays, but at what cost? The injuries suffered by our modern-day gladiators exacerbate their flaws, tempt the concussed to escalate injuries, and bait our brain-damaged behemoths to lash out at those closest to them. We have seen a rash of suicides in recent years as football players have sustained more and more brain damage. In the coming days, Jovan Belcher’s access to guns will be analyzed. Who knows what role that played? But here is what I believe. If Jovan Belcher didn’t play football, he and Kassandra Perkins would both be alive today. I would like to apologize for the role I played in causing this tragedy and hereby announce my resignation from the staff of Sunday Night Football...

This analogy is meant to demonstrate the absurdity of blaming guns for the crimes people commit with them. After all, what right-thinking person would hold a sport accountable for the behavior of the sportsmen who play it?

I can think of one.

It happened last spring, when former all-pro linebacker Junior Seau shot and killed himself. I know I'm not the only who immediately recalled the story of Dave Duerson, another former NFL standout who'd taken his own life. I know I'm not the only one who thought of Duerson, because SI's Andy Staples wrote about it -- about his decision to shoot himself in the chest so that his brain could be donated to science. About how he'd wanted doctors to study the cognitive effects of getting the snot knocked out of you for a living. Before long, doctors would confirm everyone's worse fears: Duerson, like dozens of other professional football players, suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a condition that causes dizziness... memory loss... depression... dementia... and, sometimes, suicide.

It's too soon to know whether the same was true of Belcher. We do know that a friend of his exchanged a series of emails with Deadspin in which he ascribes blame for the incident to "a combination of alcohol, concussions, and prescription drugs [that] put him in a state that he would not otherwise be in." Belcher is described as "dazed and was suffering from short term memory loss."

I love football. I live for football. I can't imagine my world without football. And I wonder very much if the price we pay is worth it.

If you know me at all, you know I'm not proposing that government intervene. The state has no place dictating to a consenting adult how he may or may not make a living. This is a place where consumers must voluntarily decide it's no longer acceptable for us to get our kicks watching kids, basically, engage in an activity that dramatically increases their chances of dying young and in great pain.

History suggests we're not likely to do that. Sports bring in billions in revenues because we members of the fan base are willing to pay $85 for nosebleed seats at pre-season games and $130 for authentic replica jerseys (not to mention hundreds every year on cable sports packages so we don't miss a minute of it). We provide the incentive for these bright-eyed prodigies of athleticism to destroy themselves. It's not our intent, but it's now a known side-effect of our obsession with football. And I very much wonder -- have been wondering for some time -- if it isn't wrong -- just wrong -- to continue to be party to it.