… or a more reasonable take on health care for those who get their bodies crunched every Sunday.
Stefan Fastis, of A Few Seconds of Panic: A 5-Foot-8, 170-Pound, 43-Year-Old Sportswriter Plays in the NFL, pens an opinion piece in today’s New York Times about the issue of health care and injuries in today’s NFL.
N.F.L. players often get excellent medical treatment, but the primary goal is to return them to the field as quickly as possible. Players are often complicit in playing down the extent of their injuries. Fearful of losing their jobs — there are no guaranteed contracts in the N.F.L. — they return to the huddle still hurt.
I witnessed this play-first ethos when the Denver Broncos allowed me to join the team as a place-kicker during training camp in 2006 and write a book on the experience. One player told me that, the previous year, a team trainer had dismissed his complaints of a knee injury; a few days later, he tore an anterior cruciate ligament. Another Bronco, now retired, told me the team gave him a diagnosis of a minor calf strain; an outside doctor found it was a severe muscle tear.
Fastis recommends that the new CBA include a few common-sense provisions to give NFL players more opportunities to extend their careers:
- Take away the team-employed doctors and replace them with a league-wide medical staff that focuses on the best interest of the players, rather than the team.
- Doctors report their diagnoses directly to the players first before the team.
- Require every team to report all injuries, no matter how small. Good luck getting that one approved the Jets!
Filed under: non-guaranteed contracts, other CBA provisions, New York Jets, Stefan Fantis
