This week's most popular news story has been the video tape of Ray Rice, an NFL football player, physically hitting his wife in an elevator. There has been a lot of discussion about the NFL's role in correctly punishing Ray Rice in a timely manner. The general population is rightfully furious about the gentle punishment Ray Rice initially received for knocking his wife out into unconsciousness. This type of violence cannot be tolerated in our society, and especially against women.
The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence estimates 42.4 million cases of domestic violence in the United States and 1 in 3 women will experience physical violence by an intimate partner. These are staggering numbers which need to be recognized by everyone in the community, but particularly by the NFL. Why should the NFL be recognizing this more than most other organizations or sports leagues? Because there may be some connection between on the field and off the field violence.
I did some thinking about how our minds work, and it seems very unlikely that our minds simply "shut off" once we leave the workplace. As a physician, I am around patients all day long and have the responsibility of figuring out what is wrong with them. This is a constant thought process with no breaks, even during lunch. When I'm not at work though, I watch sports religiously. I always find myself trying to diagnose an injury a player just had on the field, even when I'm not doing it intentionally. "Did he tear his ACL? I doubt it, he walked off the field, it's probably a bone bruise or he tore his meniscus." We as physicians do this all day long, whether it is physical health or mental health. Our minds never shut off. So the question is, does a football player have a switch that he immediately turns off when he leaves the field?
Football today is much faster and harder hitting than it has ever been. This can be seen in college football and also in the NFL. The game has changed so much since it started that we have gone from leather "helmets" to helmets that now try to detect physical force by computerized sensors. Clearly, the level of physicality has increased dramatically. So it makes me wonder, if these players are constantly hitting in practice, physically imposing their will in games, how do they shut off that switch of violence? This is where the NFL has a real problem. They want their players to be more physical, yet they have not done much to help them control this physicality off the field. Of course in the case of Ray Rice, it is not the NFL's fault that he brutally abused his wife. But was this a case of Ray Rice not being able to shut off the switch? What can the NFL do about this?
I think this goes back to the lack of attention paid to mental health in our country. Diseases such as depression and anxiety are somewhat taboo, and most people don't like talking about their feelings. We have no problem talking about how we fractured our arm or how our knee swells up, but talking about mental health seems to be such a touchy subject. If we, as ordinary people in society, feel so hesitant to talk about it, how does a massive NFL player talk about it? I think the NFL and college football really need to start addressing the mental health needs of their players. We can't expect them to tackle and sack players on the field and then expect them to just walk away and leave their aggression at the stadium. It's easy to say that most NFL players don't have a history of violence outside of the home, but that's not the point here. Most people also do not have cancer or pneumonia, but isn't that what we are also trying to catch before it worsens? It's about time the football organizations in this country spend time with their players and medical professionals to address violence and mental health. If they do that, we can all just sit back and enjoy the great game of football.
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