Does the NFL really care about player safety?

I don't think so. The league does a good job of pretending to care while slowly ruining the game.

Here's an example of the league's rampant hypocrisy regarding the safety of players in the National Football League.

The NFL makes new rules that are meant to improve safety. The league basically eliminated the kickoff return two years ago.

In 2012, the NFL started playing their Thursday night schedule in early September. The NFL Network Thursday night games used to start in late November. Of course, the NFL Network Thursday night games are relatively new, beginning in recent years.

If the teams playing on Thursday night came off a bye week, meaning the teams had a nice long rest between games, then that would be fine.

But the teams playing on Thursday night have played on the previous Sunday. So where's the concern for player safety? By pushing the start schedule back to September last year, that meant a lot more teams and players were subjected to playing at least one game on the short, unhealthy schedule.

In olden times, the only short-week-rest games were played on Thanksgiving Day. Two of the teams, Dallas and Detroit, played on that day every year. But only four teams, two games, were exposed to the unhealthy effect of playing on a short-rest week.

But now, it's many teams exposed to the NFL's safety hypocrisy. And the NFL wants to add more games to Thursday night. The NFL wants to expose even more players to the dangers of playing when the body has not fully recovered from a Sunday game.

So keep changing the rules and pretending to care while trying to make as much money as possible at the expense of player safety.

• Oct 15, 2013 - Report: League considers adding more Thursday games

• Oct 16, 2013 - NFL is a despicable league that we should say goodbye to, but won't

Will the pansy-ass sports media rail against this move toward more Thursday night games in order to protect player safety, or will the lamestream sports media continue with the safe topic of trying to get the Washington Redskins to change their nickname? (Keep the nickname but change the logo to a potato.)

The NFL had a court settlement this summer over a lawsuit about player safety. People think it was a victory for the league. No. It's only the start of more and bigger lawsuits.

The NFL won't disappear, but one day, it will take a huge financial hit when it loses its tobacco-style lawsuit. The league should lose when it does obviously stupid things like playing on Thursdays with only three days rest for the players.

If more teams are subjected to multiple short-rest-week games per season, then it's possible that teams may tank those games by playing starters for only a half or so and not playing key players who could play if absolutely necessary, but they are a little banged up, so they could use the rest.

The teams could fight this by treating Thursday night regular season games like a preseason game and playing mostly backup players who could use the experience anyway. Coaches could use the games to test new schemes. The home crowd may not like the lower quality play, but then the fans can join the players and revolt against these unsafe short-rest-week games.

For a team, the short-rest-week games comprise only one or two games of the 16-game regular season. But the teams may decide that keeping players safe for the rest of the season is more important. Sort of like the mindset today of not playing starters in the fourth and final preseason game.

• Oct 15, 2013 - Anquan Boldin: Thursday games compromise player safety

Last year, Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis spoke out against the NFL over the Ravens early season schedule that had the Ravens playing more games than normal over a short time period. Lewis criticized the NFL for ignoring player safety when the league created the schedule.

San Francisco receiver Anquan Boldin believes the NFL’s slate of Thursday night games shows that the league’s owners are more concerned about revenue for NFL Network than they are about player safety.

Boldin told the San Jose Mercury News that he believes the league does deserve some credit for certain player safety measures, like mandating that players get cleared by independent neurologists before they can return to the field after suffering head injuries. That doesn’t mean Boldin is on board with everything the league is doing, though.

“But there are some things that just don’t make sense to me,” Boldin said.

“I mean if you’re so concerned about player safety then why do you have every team in the league playing on Thursday night when they just competed on a Sunday, knowing how difficult it is for guys to get back to being healthy after playing on Sunday? Guys really don’t feel like they’re back till probably Thursday or Friday to prepare for that next week.”

Boldin also said that some of the league’s safety measures are about “covering their butt,” and he said that he generally doesn’t think the owners care as much about players’ health as they’d like the public to believe.

“The league can say they’re doing things to protect guys, but I’m not one of the guys buying it,” Boldin said.

Worker abuse? What about workplace safety? Might be a project for a labor lawyer.

From the first link posted above:

According to Matthew Futterman and Shalini Ramachandran of the Wall Street Journal, the NFL is considering adding more Thursday night games to its current slate of 13 televised by NFL Network.

Per the report, the league could stage some Thursday night doubleheaders, with games being televised on networks other than the league-owned broadcast operation.

The NFL reportedly is disappointed that the present approach, which expanded last year to cover most Thursdays, hasn’t generated more interest. In addition to additional Thursday night games, some of the games currently televised by NFL Network could be sold to other networks.

While the first Thursday night of the season is an obvious spot for a second game, it would be hard to sell more short-week games once the season has begun. From the 13 Thursday night games on NFL Network to the three Thanksgiving games on CBS, FOX, and NBC, each of the 32 teams plays one game on a Thursday after playing on a Sunday. For competitive reasons, it could be unfair to compel some teams to play a second short-week game.

Also, the NFLPA would have to agree to more Thursday night games. With player health and safety now receiving so much attention, it could be hard to sell the players on additional Thursday night games.

Again, if it was real concern about player safety, then all of those NFL Network Thursday night games would disappear.

The Thanksgiving Day Detroit and Dallas games should be played by teams who came off a bye week, or the games go away.

The only Thursday game permitted is the first game of the season. Last decade, NBC and the NFL arranged for the start of the NFL season to begin with a key matchup on Thursday night. But the two teams playing in this league-opener ended their preseason on the previous Thursday or Friday, but most starters don't play in the final preseason game. So the players in this opening game on Thursday night had 7 to 14 days of rest.

Web poll in the story at the first link:

Are you interested in more Thursday night games?

• Actually, I'm interested in less Thursday night games. 50.08% (10,786 votes)
• No. 31.19% (6,718 votes)
• Yes. 18.73% (4,034 votes)

If the Web poll is correct, then either fans are concerned about player safety and recognize the NFL's hypocrisy, or fans want to keep it simple with the league playing mainly on Sundays. Selfishly, fans may not want their home team or fantasy team players exposed to a greater injury risk.

From the LA Times story:

As the [Frontline] show 'A League of Denial' has revealed, the NFL has long been complicit in hiding the truth about head injuries. But our love of the game keeps us from abandoning the league.

The Oct. 8 PBS show "A League of Denial" was a journalistic masterpiece. If you haven't seen it, find it. It is everywhere on the Internet. It should be.

It was two hours that can be oversimplified in one sentence:

For years, the NFL knew its players were suffering head injuries that would bring serious long-term damage, yet it denied that, stonewalled the players seeking help and spent millions to muddy the truth.

Many readers still respond to every written word about this with the predictable: "These guys knew what they were getting into. Why should we feel sorry for them?"

Uh, remember the huge tobacco lawsuit of the late 1990s? I think the key reason why the tobacco industry lost that one was because the industry was exposed for knowing the addictive qualities of nicotine. Whatever it was, the industry knew something and hid it from the public. Much like what the NFL has done. Hence the reason why the NFL will one day lose a huge lawsuit.

Warnings on the cigarette packs appeared in the late 1960s or early 1970s. The first lawsuits against the tobacco industry began in the late 1970s or early 1980s. Many or all of the initial lawsuits were tossed out of court. Remember, the cigarettes packs came with warnings. Smokers should have known what they were getting into.

That didn't matter. The lawsuits kept coming. And then, the smokers started to win.

More from the LA Times:

The PBS show was devastating to the NFL, which deserved to be devastated.

When Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Lakewood), questioning Commissioner Roger Goodell during 2009 congressional hearings, likened the NFL to Big Tobacco, we had no idea that she had hit the right keynote. After the PBS show, we know.

What a despicable label to have pinned on you.

But now, a masterpiece of documentation and reasoned journalism has joined them at the hip with … Big Tobacco. Bye-bye goodwill.

Were the owners complicit or fooled?

Cleaning-house time, a necessity now, will probably move forward slowly and quietly in the NFL. People who internally championed the public relations camouflage and "lie, deny and hope they die" strategy will be finding positions elsewhere.

People are still smoking and NFL players will still be taking shots to the head. Our country's freedom allows us the right to be stupid.

The NFL is as woven into our fabric as the singing of the national anthem before games. The NFL's biggest game, the Super Bowl, has become the equivalent of a national holiday. There is no turning back. We don't abhor the smashing heads. We celebrate them. Even those who should stand above it don't.

The pedestals are crowded with hypocrites. Often well-meaning, but still hypocrites.

ESPN, purporting to be a journalistic organization, walked away from any connection, or credit, with the program despite considerable early involvement. Forget the journalistic bump it would get. It needed to protect its business interests with the NFL.

The breast cancer charity groups whose interests prompted pink shoes and towels in games last weekend in the name of "awareness" hadn't thought things through enough to see that they were using an inappropriate messenger. Breast cancer should pause before partnering with Big Tobacco.

In the meantime, we have the glue. Peyton Manning.

Has there ever been a more dynamic, creative, entertaining player in the sport? Is he not reason enough to keep the roads open while the paving crews work? Is there anything more fascinating in football right now than watching him get the Denver Broncos to the line, start gesticulating and obfuscating while he is changing the play, and then throw a completion into the soft spot he has identified in a defense he has confused?

And isn't it interesting that a sport that systematically ruined so many human brains now has, as its greatest attraction, the best and clearest thinker in its history?

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