Safety in sports has been an issue for a while now, especially in football. There have been arguments on whether or not there should be more safety protocols for a while. This has been a major talk over the years with all of the injuries, and it has only increased since the Damar Hamlin incident. In my opinion, there should be some measures taken to help reduce the chances of injuries in sports.

I think that in physical sports like football, there should be measures taken to not only help keep the players safe while playing football but also to ensure that their physical safety, in the long run, will be okay. One reason why there need to be more safety precautions taken is because of CTE. CTE is a brain condition thought to be linked to repeated head injuries. Many football players develop CTE when they get older after many concussions or hits to the head. Miami Dolphins quarterback, Tua Tagovailoa, has been in concussion protocol multiple times this season. Tagovailoa took a big hit in the game against the Bengals this year, and some believe that he was brought back too soon. The Dolphins medical staff cleared him for their next game, but you could see him struggling to stay on his feet throughout the game. Someone could argue that sports are physical, and injuries are bound to happen. While injuries are going to happen and be a part of sports, there are measures that medical staff could take to make injuries less common.

There needs to be more safety measures because when players get hurt, people don’t get to watch them play. There were many players in football this year who had season-ending injuries. When the star player of a team gets injured, that team’s trajectory goes way down. An example of this that happened this year is when New York Jets star running back Breece Hall got injured and was out for the season. Hall was on the line to be the favorite for rookie of the year had he stayed healthy. When Hall was on the field the Jets’ record was 5-2. Without Hall, the Jets’ record was 2-8. Once again someone could argue that players get injured all the time, so it’s fair for a team when they lose their player. This argument doesn’t work because a lot of people come to watch the best players play, and when someone gets hurt the game isn’t as fun to watch.

Injuries are bound to happen in sports, but there are ways that they could be reduced. If medical staff would just be a little bit safer, there would be far less injuries. There should be better safety measures when it comes to physical sports.