As player safety concerns grow and grow in the NFL, players have become more outspoken in regard to player needs. If a player is taking headshot after headshot, everyone in the stadium knows what is taking place. That player has a concussion and needs to be removed from the game.
Richard Sherman recognizes this reality in a poignant video posted onto the Players Tribune.
Sherman lays it all out there for the world to hear, and it is important that people watch the video. He has never been a person to stand on the sidelines and do as he has been told. He goes to the beat of his own drum, and that is what makes him so unique and valuable to us as viewers. We don’t need cookie cutter players, we need players like Sherman to bring up player issues to allow us to think about the game in a different way.
Everyone watching the NFL knows it is a “bottom line business” as he describes it. Almost all of America keeps watching it and it is desensitizing people to the violence of the game. If you aren’t going to help the NFL, you are immediately going to be tossed to the side for a more marketable player.
“Sometimes the public gets confused by the league, player relationships thinking it needs to be amicable, it doesn’t.”
It is a chilling comment from Sherman and a stark reality in the game today. The growth of the game is a goal of both sides of the league, but at what cost does it come? These are people with families to support and they’ll do anything to make sure it happens.
It presents a moral dilemma for everyone involved. Sherman is kind and brave enough to speak his mind on the issue. We should listen.
