“ABSOLUTELY ridiculous” – A controversial study claiming Black men suffer more violence while playing football receives flak from NFL fans
The Scientific American may have gone a bit too far in accusing NFL on its situation with the player injuries.
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Damar Hamlin
Damar Hamlin‘s injury sent waves throughout the NFL community, as the 24-year-old safety for the Buffalo Bills collapsed on the field. Fans and teammates were extremely concerned as he was unresponsive for a brief moment. It was later determined that he had suffered a cardiac arrest and his heart had completely stopped working. This situation did bring into the limelight of how violent a sport football is.
However, a recent paper courtesy of The Scientific American may have gone a bit too far as it makes bold claims stating that “The ‘terrifyingly ordinary’ nature of football’s violence disproportionately affects Black men.” The paper brings the element of race into football and states that “While black men are severely underrepresented in positions of power across football organizations, such as coaching and management, they are overrepresented on the gridiron. Non-white players account for 70% of the NFL’ nearly half of all Division I college football players are black.”
“Through a process called racial stacking, coaches racially segregate athletes by playing position. These demographic discrepancies place Black athletes at a higher risk during play.” The paper states that via this process of racial stacking, the number of Black players in the league is more and as a result they tend to be at a higher risk for injury.
NFL Fans vehemently disagreed with the claims made:
It also elaborates on how the NFL benefits culturally and financially from the performance of Black athletes. Since it is the most popular league in the USA and is worth a lot, it has had a track record of having exploited Black players for decades. While the NFL is not completely ‘The Knight in shining armor,’ the element of race may and the claims made in the paper were not accepted well by the NFL community who called it out on Twitter.
The magazine does raise the racial divide in the NFL but it does not show enough data to pinpoint that Black players are at more risk than their white counterparts to suffer injuries. Football is a violent sport and all athletes playing in the league know it while entering.
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Related: “F*ck the NFL,” Emily Ratajkowski cryptically lashes out at the NFL amidst Damar Hamlin’s injury
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Sumedh Joshi
(2254 Articles Published)