First, there was the steady drizzle of news reports and medical studies that suggested a link between concussions sustained playing football and brain damage. Initially, NFL officials denied there was a link. Then earlier this year, the NFL settled a class-action lawsuit brought on by more than 4,500 former players for $765 million. The money will be used to help offset the costs of some of the medical expenses incurred as a result of concussions suffered as players. In recent months, several former college football players have filed lawsuits against the NCAA for concussions they allege they sustained as student players.
In the wake of recent reports linking playing football to brain damage, the number of parents who say they will not let their sons play football is rising. In October, the Marist College Center for Sports Communication and HBO Real Sports released poll results that showed that 55 percent of Americans and 60 percent of football fans have heard “a good deal” about the link between football concussions and long-term brain injury. It was also revealed that 35 percent of parents with sons said they would be less likely to allow their sons to play football because of the link between concussions from football and long-term injuries. That percentage is slightly higher for parents who are college graduates.
In addition, the poll revealed that 66 percent of fans who earned more than $50,000 a year were more likely to have heard a good deal about this link compared to 47 percent of those who made less than $50,000 a year. Higher-income people tend to be better educated and, thus, are also more likely to be better informed about current events.
“Information is reaching a lot of people, but it is reaching those who have higher incomes,” says Dr. Keith Strudler, director of the Marist College Center for Sports Communication and an associate professor of sports communication.
Although the poll did not explicitly ask about race, the results raise questions about the future racial demographics of players, including at the college level. Strudler says the possibility of athletes from lower-income backgrounds, many of them racial minorities, playing the sport for the benefit of the affluent has become more likely.
“That’s what boxing has largely become in this country, where people from poor or less educated families fight and events are attended by and bet on by wealthy audiences,” Strudler says.
