InsideSources

A major union representing professional football players discussed activism in sports Monday in response to widespread protest across the league.

The National Football League (NFL) has found itself at the center of attention with some players deciding to kneel during the National Anthem. The players and their supports argue they are using their platform to highlight racial inequality in our society. Those opposed contest that the protest is disrespecting the flag and country.

The National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) discussed the controversy during a union convention in St. Louis. The AFL-CIO, the largest federation of unions in the country, is hosting the annual convention for four days. NFLPA chapter leader Bernard Whittington argued the players have the constitutional right to protest against injustice.

“We look at it like this,” Whittington said during the convention. “We have months for breast cancer awareness. We also recognize our military. Why can’t we recognize the social injustice, the things that have happened to people of color as it related to police brutality? Why can’t we talk about that?”

Whittington is a former professional football player who was born in St. Louis. He played as a defensive end for the Indianapolis Colts and Cincinnati Bengals in a career which spanned from 1994 to 2002. He currently serves as the St. Louis chapter leader for the NFLPA.

The National Anthem protesters have insisted that their aim is not to disrespect the flag or the country. Their intent is to protest in a dramatic way to bring attention to societal problems that are often overlooked. Critics counter that the issue isn’t necessarily what they are protesting but rather the manner in which they are doing it.

Professional athletes using their platform to protest is nothing new, with examples found throughout the past century. Former San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick helped start the current wave of protest when he started kneeling last year. He was joined by a handful of players, and the protests were able to successfully attract national attention.

President Donald Trump brought renewed interest to the protest when he condemned the players Sept. 22. But his comments didn’t discourage the protests with players from across the league responding by joining in solidarity. Whittington argues Trump’s comments made the situation worse. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has stated that he will not force players to stand during the National Anthem.

The AFL-CIO convention touched upon several themes that play a critical role in the debate over racial inequality. United Steelworkers President Leo W. Gerard argued that we need to start addressing white privilege. The AFL-CIO called for criminal justice reform that ends mass incarceration while improving working conditions for corrections officers.

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My own first experience with a concussion was as a rookie in training camp in the last pre-season game. In the second quarter I got hit, knocked out. My teammates carried me to the sidelines and when I woke up, I was blind in my right eye. I started to panic. My coach came over and said, “Boyd, what’s the matter?” I was still panicking and I said, “Coach I can’t see out of my right eye.” And he said, “Well, can you see out of your left eye?” And I said, “Well, yeah,” and he said, “Get back in the game right now.”

And I had to finish the game unable to see out of my right eye. That situation was common. Until we started raising awareness about concussions maybe 10 years ago, that was just the culture of the NFL; you play injured.

I bet I had as many as 200 concussions over the course of my NFL career because they didn’t count falling on Astroturf as a concussion. The Astroturf was only a quarter-inch of green decorative plastic to cover the concrete or asphalt stadium floor, with no carpet padding, to make it look like grass. But when you fell off a play, you always fell to the ground and your neck whipped your head onto the concrete. It’s reasonable to say that the guys who played in the 1960s, and 1970s could have had hundreds of concussions.

Going into the NFL, we knew we were going to play through pain, wind up as old men with bad knees, shoulders, other body parts. It was a risk, but we made an educated calculation and decided to play professional football. If I knew then what I know now, I wouldn’t have played.

After I retired from the NFL, I had endless problematic medical symptoms, and the doctors had no idea of where they were coming from. Fatigue was the main one. Memory loss. Headaches that never stopped. They were checking every organ. I had so many MRI’s, scans and other medical tests I never even imagined. They thought I had some kind of cancer. Meanwhile I had become a single father, I was trying to raise my son and I could not hold down a job because of my medical issues.

I tried selling insurance for a while, sold restaurant supplies, got fired from both those jobs. I even became a beer salesman, I couldn’t keep that job, either. Instead of seeing accounts, I’d have to pull off the road and take a nap. I just couldn’t handle the work load, the whole time not knowing the reason.

My bosses told me I was lazy, so did my mom and dad, other loved ones; that really hurt. My family asked, “What the hell happened to you, you were so motivated and now you can’t hold down any job and you just want to sleep the whole time?” And here I was, having graduated with honors from UCLA and I was accepted to law school. I never went; the offer from the NFL was too good to pass up.

It was probably the most difficult time in my life. The doctors treated me for depression. I spent years of my life on every drug combination; none of the medications worked. It was hell going off one and on another.

One doctor finally said, “One reason these anti-depressant drugs wouldn’t work would be if you had organic brain damage. He was the first one to ask me if I ever had had a concussion.

I went to doctors at Harvard and UCLA; they did brain scans. They told me they found significant Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, but because their efforts were not FDA approved they couldn’t make a formal diagnosis that I could take to court.

Today, the NFL is not paying my full disability claim, even though two NFL doctors supported my claims of concussion-related traumatic brain injury. They sent me to a third doctor who said that my concussions were not responsible for any of my symptoms. They’re standing by that doctor’s diagnosis.

When the $1 billion NFL concussion lawsuit was finally settled last year, I’m sure many fans thought that the NFL had taken care of the players although it was the NFL’s public relations problem that really got taken care of. No one knows what the paperwork for that settlement is going to be, who is going to be making the decisions for approving or denying claims?

I don’t think you can make too many more changes to the game of football; it’s never going to be safe. The helmets keep your head from getting cracked, they keep your nose from getting broken, but danger will always be there. Because of socio-economic reasons there will always be players willing to play the game.