NFL at the apex?

Maybe it's just me and the lack of excitement over the first Eagles team in more than a decade that isn't a favorite to grab one of the top playoff seeds, but I can't help but think that this season- particularly the way this season has started - does not bode well for the NFL.

Indisputably, the league is the glamor professional sports league in the country. And yet, week 1 showed several long-term weaknesses in the game, including a couple that the league should have already addressed and suggest that the top leadership is getting sloppy (and this doesn't even include the pending lockout).

No, exhibit #1 is the Calvin Johnson touchdown catch, or non-touchdown catch. As numerous commentators pointed out, the rule is clear and the correct call was made in ruling it incomplete (and giving the Bears the game). the larger point is that most fans consider the Johnson's catch a touchdown. The fact that the NFL hasn't amended its rules to conform with fan common sense is telling.

But the bigger issue is the ever increasing violence of the game. The Eagles lost two starters for the season in the first week: Leonard Weaver to a horrific knee injury which Fox reported caused several players to become naseuous on the sideline while watching replays. And the owners want to go to an 18 game schedule ... so i can watch a full team of reserves play the games? Please.

No, the biggest issue is the concussion issue. The Eagles also lost two other starters to concussions: the starting QB Kevin Kolb and starting MLB Stewart Bradley.

Bradley's injury was particularly disturbing as he got up, staggered around and then collapsed on the field. Incredibly, no one in a position of authority saw this happen. The fact that both Bradley and Kolb were allowed to return to the game after suffering their brain injuries is inexplicable. Even more inexplicable is that apparently the Eagles followed all of the new concussion protocols put in place to show that the league took the issue of head injuries seriously. Perhaps the complaint shouldn't be against the Eagles (though how no one saw Bradley collapse is bizarre), but that the protocols are so lenient that a clearly punch drunk player can reenter the game. Clearly the league wants to give the appearance of getting tough on concussions without really having to do so. Note that both players hail from a team that came under intense scrutiny and criticism last year for their handling of Brian Westbrook's concussion and that this week's game was on national TV. Even Troy Aikman, the poster boy of concussions, was aghast that the Bradley was back in the game.

How long Bradley and Kolb will be out is the big question. And, indeed, is probably the biggest weakness of the league and their concussion crackdown (so called). I'm admittedly no medical expert, but how can Bradley play this week after his collapse on sunday? If he were a boxer, there wouldn't be a gaming commission in the country that would grant him a license a week after that spectacle. Kolb supposedly has a milder concussion and may play vs the Lions. Maybe. We'll see.

If the league is going to get serious about concussions then it needs to keep players with brain injuries out of games after they've been incurred (same for DeAngelo Hall in Washington, who appeared to be knocked out for a moment after a big hit vs. the Cowboys). What the league is obviously loathe to do is place players on the extended injury list with concussions and thereby draw more attention to the widespread incidences, long-term recuperation and lasting damage of such injuries. 

Forget the 18 game season and forget the players lost to ligament tears and separated shoulders. The greatest threat to the preeminent status of the NFL are concussions, the dirty secret they don't want the public (or players) to know about or be concerned with.