By Alex Kingsbury, editorial board member, opinion, January 18, 2019<\/p>\n
A football fan reflects on a year without Tom Brady.<\/em><\/p>\n I\u2019m pleased that the New England Patriots made it to the A.F.C. championship game again this year<\/a>. On Sunday, they\u2019ll play the Kansas City Chiefs at 6:40 p.m.<\/a>, and the winner will advance to the Super Bowl.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been a Patriots fan my entire life, long before they were good enough to loathe<\/a>. But I won\u2019t be watching football this weekend. I haven\u2019t watched a single pass or tackle all season.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t remember much about last year\u2019s A.F.C. championship game between the Patriots and the Jacksonville Jaguars. But I\u2019ll never forget the sound.<\/p>\n The Pats were down 14-3 with 1:23 left in the second quarter when the tight end Rob Gronkowski tried to catch a long, lofted pass from the quarterback, Tom Brady.<\/p>\n He almost had it.<\/p>\n But the Jags\u2019 safety, Barry Church, hit Mr. Gronkowski just as he was pulling it down.<\/p>\n Their hard plastic helmets hit each other with such force that \u2014 even through the tinny speakers on my television \u2014 it sounded like a rifle shot. You can see and hear the collision here<\/a>.<\/p>\n It still echoes in my ears.<\/p>\n As the sound of the hit faded into a commercial break, I realized with absolute certainty that I couldn\u2019t watch football anymore. There aren\u2019t enough yards to gain or Super Bowl rings to win that are worth the cost.<\/p>\n To use a euphemism from the era before we knew about brain damage, Mr. Gronkowski \u201cgot his bell rung.\u201d Shaken by the impact, he struggled to his feet, wobbled and was helped off the field with a concussion. Mr. Church was fined<\/a> $24,309 by the N.F.L. for an illegal hit.<\/p>\n \u201cI hope he\u2019s all right,\u201d Mr. Church said<\/a> after the game. \u201cIf you go low for the knees, you are considered a dirty player, and if you go high, they throw the flag at you. It\u2019s a bang-bang play, and I was just trying to play football.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s football,\u201d Mr. Gronkowski later told the press<\/a>. \u201cIt is what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n And that\u2019s the problem.<\/p>\n The first research into the link between football and traumatic brain injury was published in 2005. Since then, the science has become impossible to ignore.<\/p>\n In 2017, The Journal of the American Medical Association published the results<\/a> of the autopsies of the brains of 111 deceased former N.F.L. players, whose relatives gave their bodies up for study. The group was not a random sample, yet 110 showed<\/a> signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or C.T.E., a degenerative brain disease linked to concussions. Research published<\/a> in November estimated that a minimum of 10 percent of all professional football players would develop C.T.E. at some point in their lives.<\/p>\n Professional athletes are well compensated for their dangerous job. But the pipeline is a problem. It can take more than a decade of hard hits to make it to a college team or the pros.<\/p>\n Research published in The Journal of Pediatrics last month<\/a> found that concussion rates for youth football players were higher than previously reported. In all, some 5 percent of all youth football players receive concussions each year, a figure that may sound low, but compounds with each additional year of play. In 2017, a study<\/a> found that playing football before age 12 doubled the risk of problems with behavioral regulation, apathy and executive functioning. It tripled the risk of elevated depression.<\/p>\n It\u2019s little wonder that lawmakers last year in New York<\/a>, Illinois<\/a>, California<\/a>, Maryland<\/a> and New Jersey<\/a> introduced bills to ban or restrict youth tackle football.<\/p>\n All this isn\u2019t the snowflaking of the next generation of American men. It\u2019s physics. Technology \u2014 in the form of, say, better helmets \u2014 will not save the game. Researchers note that helmets don\u2019t prevent<\/a> all concussions and might be making the problem worse<\/a>, by giving players a false sense of invincibility.<\/p>\n The dangers of the game are clear to the insurance companies that cover youth and professional leagues. An investigation published<\/a> by ESPN\u2019s \u201cOutside the Lines\u201d this week found that the insurance market for youth football is \u201cfundamentally altering the economics of the sport, squeezing and even killing off programs faced with higher costs and a scarcity of available coverage.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPeople say football will never go away, but if we can’t get insurance, it will,\u201d Jon Butler, the executive director of the youth football program Pop Warner, is reported to have said.<\/p>\n The report said that the N.F.L. is also having problems finding companies willing to insure against head injuries.<\/p>\n With no safe way to play \u2014 short of flag<\/a> football<\/a> \u2014 it\u2019s little wonder that participation in youth football<\/a> is on the decline<\/a>. Some high schools<\/a>have dropped the sport altogether, while state legislatures are passing and updating concussion laws to ensure schools that do field teams take the issue seriously. Every state now has a concussion law<\/a> on the books.<\/p>\n Nor is it surprising that some younger N.F.L. players are calling it quits<\/a>. Mr. Gronkowski, now 29, reportedly considered retirement<\/a> after last season. Reports say he\u2019s considering doing so<\/a> after this one, too.<\/p>\n There are still Newton deniers, who contest his laws of physics, which explain how the human brain slams into the interior walls of the skull during a concussion.<\/p>\n \u201cYour body gets used to the hits,\u201d the Patriots\u2019 Tom Brady told<\/a> a sports radio show last month. \u201cThe brain understands the position that you are putting your body into, and my brain is wired for contact. I would say in some ways it has become callous to some of the hits.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Brady\u2019s former teammate, Ted Johnson, spent 10 years in the N.F.L. and told The Times<\/a> in 2007, at age 34, that he was suffering from symptoms characteristic of early Alzheimer\u2019s disease as a results of concussions. \u201cThere’s something wrong with my brain,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Mr. Johnson called<\/a> Mr. Brady\u2019s recent remarks about concussions \u201cirresponsible.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll be honest, and I love Tom, it made me throw up in my mouth a little bit,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Despite all these concerns, there\u2019s little indication that football will be dethroned as America\u2019s favorite sport<\/a>. Television ratings, which have taken some hard hits of their own over the past few years, have rebounded<\/a> this season. And the Super Bowl might be the most communal experience the country has in 2019.<\/p>\n This Sunday, I won\u2019t begrudge my father, who\u2019ll watch the game delayed on DVR, so he doesn\u2019t have to endure commercials to get to the 11 minutes of action<\/a>. Nor my cousin, who\u2019ll bet money on the game. Seeing the occasional Patriots hat or jersey on the street is a nice reminder of the tribe I\u2019ve parted ways with.<\/p>\n Because as long as I can hear the sound of Gronk getting his bell rung, I\u2019ll find something else to watch.<\/p>\n