Three-time Super Bowl champion rips NFL’s ‘greed’ after worrisome CTE study

Whereas it is actually no secret that present and former NFL gamers are coping with/have suffered from persistent traumatic encephalopathy, generally generally known as “CTE,” it was jarring to be taught {that a} latest examine found that not less than 25% of former gamers who died from 2016-21 had CTE. 

However, Baltimore Ravens security Kyle Hamilton is amongst those that understand that it is a matter of when, not if, the league will go to a schedule format that options groups taking part in 18 regular-season video games and two preseason contests per marketing campaign. For a bit printed on Friday, Matt Verderame of Sports activities Illustrated spoke with former San Francisco 49ers offensive lineman and three-time Tremendous Bowl champion Randy Cross about issues associated to CTE and in regards to the growth of the common season that appears inevitable. 

Randy Cross: NFL cares extra about cash than about participant security

“You’ll be able to cite all the person issues, whether or not it’s the so-called assist of the Guardian helmets, or the hits and all the pieces else,” Cross defined. “However I don’t know. I feel it’s unrealistic to have every other opinion apart from it’s pure greed that you’d enhance the variety of video games. So it’s going to be greed once they go to 18 video games, and it’s going to be greed once they go to twenty. And if anyone mentions participant security, they’re a hypocrite. As a result of it ain’t about that. It’s all in regards to the cash.” 

As Cross talked about, national reporters have mentioned for years that NFL staff house owners in the end need to scrap the preseason solely and get to a 20-game regular-season format. Whereas the present collective bargaining settlement between the NFL Gamers Affiliation and the NFL prevents the league from increasing the common season with out the union’s consent, that deal expires in 2031. 

A giant change to the league’s schedule format reportedly will not occur earlier than 2028 on the earliest, however one virtually actually is coming. 

Former NFL huge receiver speaks actually about his post-football well being

Large receiver Mark Jackson performed within the NFL from 1986 via the 1994 season. He appears to have accepted how the punishment he absorbed throughout his taking part in days has impacted his long-term well being. 

“Yeah, I’ve CTE,” Jackson informed Verderame. “It’s virtually 100% constructive that I do as a result of I’ve the documented instances in Minnesota. Obtained knocked out in Seattle. And again then, being knocked out meant you couldn’t return in and carry out since you couldn’t bear in mind the place you have been. I imagine soccer is a enterprise. I didn’t perceive that. Your complete life as an athlete, you’re taught that we’re a household. We maintain one another. We glance out for one another. We sacrifice for one another. And also you assume that the NFL is excluded in that, but it surely’s not till the top of your profession that you just notice it is a enterprise. It’s not based mostly on even my expertise stage. It’s based mostly on so many different components, similar to every other enterprise. And similar to every other enterprise that, you realize, the entire aim is to broaden. … They usually’ve performed a number of issues to assist with participant security. To be sincere with you, I’m extra involved about former gamers’ longevity than I’m about present gamers’ security.”

As a lot because the NFLPA currently opposes including one other week of significant video games to the schedule, historical past reveals that staff house owners virtually all the time ultimately get what they need. At this level, it is honest to surprise if the NFLPA ought to simply rip the Band-Assist off and settle for a 20-game regular-season format for the subsequent CBA.